Understanding the Holy Spirit || Pastor Adam Mesa

I'm so excited because today is a special day, as we heard Pastor Herron

during the exhortation moment share with us, today is Pentecost Sunday. And if

you know about Pentecost Sunday, according to the Book of Acts, when Jesus

ascended into heaven, he told the church, wait for me, because the

Spirit is going to come and the Helper is going to be with you,

and he's going to fill you, and he's going to activate you to start

the church. He's going to give you the ability to move forward in your

walk and the churches walk. And so they waited in a room day and

night until the Holy Spirit showed up. And it was a normal day for

the church, the Jewish Church, which we'll talk about today, but as

we celebrate this day, this is the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon

the church. And what better way. We're in a series called You Asked

For It, which during the Easter season, we asked everyone in our church,

Hey, what are some top things you're most interested in that you'd want

us to do a message about. And so we got things like people had

asked about anxiety and depression, and we did that a couple weeks ago,

so you go to our YouTube channel if you want to hear that message.

People also asked about prayer. Pastor Diego covered that last week. The third

thing that people asked for, which was they wanted to know more about the

Holy Spirit, who the Holy Spirit is. In the month of October,

we're going to passionately pursue the works of the Holy Spirit. But this is

a message about just who the Holy Spirit is. And then the last thing

people asked about, which was a little bit more about the Book of Revelations

and in Time. So I want to invite you back to next week because

we'll do a two part series or two part message on the Book of Revelation

and in Times we'll do a thirty thousand feet overview about what the Book of

Revelations is about, who is it for and how do we apply it into

our life. So I encourage you to come back next week in the week

after if you've been curious about In Times and that last book of the Bible

called Revelations. But today it just so happens. We didn't plan it or

prepare it, that we are talking about the Holy Spirit. And on the

day of Pentecost is when we celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit descending upon

the church. So I love how God works and how he aligns things his

way. Also, today we'll be baptizing close to eight hundred people across both

campuses, and we thank God for what an incredible day that is. And

this is a public declaration of an in for inward transformation, that the Holy

Spirit has done a work in your life, whether you're in the courtyard,

you're in this room, that God has done a work and the power of

the Holy Spirit has moved and you're ready to show the world, Hey,

I am a follower of Jesus and you're going to celebrate the work of the

Cross. So we're so excited with that. And we join three hundred churches

today in the state of California called Baptized California. Fifteen thousand people will be

baptized by the end of today across those three hundred churches. So no other

state is doing this right now. We play it goes to other states by

next year, but today is the day that we do it. And when

other people have ridden California office a place where God can't move, we're seeing

that God is moving in our state and God is doing a work in the

lives of those who want to know him, and so all the way from

northern California down to the tip of San Diego, there are churches all over

baptizing people in the name of Jesus. So we're so excited to be part

of that family that's doing that today. And we're ready. If you're ready,

let's dig in to Acts chapter two. In a few moments, you

could turn to Acts chapter two. When we get started, I'm just gonna

ask today we did this first service so beautiful, everybody was here. We're

baptizing inside, we're baptizing outside. I'm just gonna ask that everybody stay in

service together. We're gonna get out of here on time with one another.

Service will not go over in any way. But I'm just gonna ask,

because at the end of our baptism, we're gonna make an appeal that if

anybody is here wants to give their life to Christ or wants to publicly proclaim

Jesus in baptism, that they come down the aisle even with their clothes on.

We are team. They have a change of clothes for you. But

here's the thing. When some of us start going, oh, the person

I came to see baptized is done, or if we go okay, i'd

want to beat the crowd to get to children's ministry. When we're walking in

and out of the aisles, while God is trying to talk to somebody,

just that little act of excuse me, can you move? Can you do

this? It just disconnects that person and then they may think I can do

it next time. I'll leave two. And so we want to just honor

God. Okay. Our services are shorter than a Pixar movie. Okay,

so if you can make it through a Pixar movie, we can make it

to the end of service together and give God all of that attention. Because

there's some people here that you'll see them, and when you see them getting

baptized in there closed, you're going to see that God and the Holy Spirit

is doing a work in their life. And we just don't want to distract

from that in any way. And so if we can all stay in service

together, that would be amazing. Let's jump to Acts chapter two, and

if you'd like to stand for the honor of reading God's word today, we

will dig in and we will just share a message about the Holy for a

few moments before we jump into baptism. Here says when the day of Pentecost

came, there were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like blowing

of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were

sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came

and rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy

Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem, god fearing Jews from every nation under

heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because

each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked,

aren't these all who are speaking Galileans? Then? How is it that each

of us hears them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites,

residents of Mesopotas amy A, Judea and Cappadocia, Ponscious and Asia of

Figrie and Pamphilia. I'm not speaking in tongues right now. These are real

states Egypt and parts of Libya near Syreen. These are all people gathered visitors

from Rome, both Jewish and converts to Judaism, Cretians and Arabs. They

said, we hear them declaring wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed

and perplexed, they ask one another what does this mean? Somehowever, made

fun of them and said they have had too much wine to drink. You

may be seated, praise God. So here in this moment we see a

moment that in the Old Testament, any time God wanted to get a message

across anytime God wanted to speak to humanity, he spoke through individuals that we

called prophets. And what prophets mean, specifically in the Greek is to profess

a message, profess fits. So prophets would come and they would profess a

message of God. And generally those prophets were people that the Spirit would speak

to on a regular basis, and the prophet would come to Israel, or

to a king, or to a person, and they would say, thus,

saith the Lord. The reason why God could not speak to any individual

in humanity is because sin was corrupted, and prophets lived a certain separate type

of lifestyle that gave the ability to be able to hear from God. But

God had a plan where he said, I don't want to for all of

history want to just speak through a prophet or a king. I want to

speak directly to my people like I did in the days of Adam and Eve.

And so God has established a plan that there would be a day where

Jesus, his son, would die on the cross and resurrect, so that

anyone that would confess him Lord and save you and allow their sins to be

placed on the cross. God would now have the ability, not because of

anything you did, but have the ability, by the power of the Holy

Spirit, to talk to you and through you, because of Jesus's righteousness.

It's God's desire. It's God's desire that he can talk to you. It's

God's desire that he can whisper to you. It's God's desire that he can

speak to you. But if he does it without the work of Jesus,

you will be completely compelled to see your own sin, and you will go

crazy over your own sin. So you need the washing, the purification of

Jesus's work. So now the Holy Spirit says, okay, Now the work

of Jesus has been applied to you. Now we can get to business.

Let's start working on your life. Let's start leading you to a new place.

Let's start giving you profound purpose for your life. God's way and not

man's way. And so here's what the Holy Spirit means in the Bible.

The word spirit is giving us two types. Old Testament, New Testament.

Old Testament's written in Hebrew. New Testament is written in Greek. Jesus language

that he spoke every single day was Aramaic and early Arabic. But Jesus's religious

language that he spoke when it came to following God was Hebrew. And so

the words that we see in the Bible is the New Testament. The word

for spirit that we know and that we see is numa, and the word

in Hebrew is ruah. Both mean the same thing. Okay, So I

want a little bit of homework outside and inside. Want you guys to say

numa. That's a really easy one. Greek is easy because it's close to

English and sounds similar to what we can pronounce. But then there's ruach.

I want you guys to say ruach. I hear some of you add this

fit in your throat. Okay, good job. Might have some Arabic people

in here or something rua and both numa both mean wind or in other words,

God hagios, which means Holy God's hagios ruah or hagios numa. What

it is is God's wind and breath, which means you and I need God's

breath in order to fully live in wholeness the way that God has intended.

We translated to spirit because we don't have an understanding of wind or breath.

But here's how you do have an understanding of wind or breath, and you'll

know this very quickly. Has anyone ever got caught under a wave in the

ocean before? You ever been caught under a wave of ocean? I know

I have. I've been out in the beach, a wave tumbled me one

time, a boogie board went over my head. And so therefore you've had

that moment in the ocean before. If you've ever swam, you thought today's

the day that I die. Where you feel, or you've maybe wrestled someone

in the pool before and they were holding you under too long and you're thinking

yourself, this is a rap. I'm done. I've been in that ocean

before, and I've been under that boogiey board and I'm and then you just

start negotiating with God. God, if you just let me out of this

wave, I give it all to you. I'll commit it all to you.

I follow you for the rest of my life. And next thing,

you know, the boogie board or the wave, it subsides and then you

swim to the top and you go. You appreciate that breath of air like

you never have before in your life. Or if you've ever almost gotten a

car accident or you've gotten a car ancer, that moment you hold your breath

and then you clinch and you open your eyes. You go, thank you

God. You are breathing in that moment, God's ruach his breath because you're

appreciating God's life more than you ever have before. Now, the spirit of

God wants to give you that expression that feeling every single moment of every single

day. God doesn't want you to appreciate your breath just when your life is

in jeopardy. He wants you to appreciate your breath as you take a breath

every single moment, and when you are believer and you follow Jesus every moment

of the day, that you take a breath God is with you. That's

why it's called holy wind and holy breath, because in every breath that you

take there's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with you. So here's

some verses. I'm gonna read really fast for those of you that maybe like

doing weekly reading or homework. I'm just gonna let the scriptures speak for themselves,

so you can write them down if you like, and you can revisit

them this week. But I just think the Bible doesn't take too much explanation.

The Bible will explain the work of the Holy Spirit pretty much on its

own. Here's some verses. John fourteen twenty five to twenty six. These

things I've spoken to you. This is Jesus while I'm still with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my

name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembments all that

I have said to you. So don't ever discount the fact that you and

I need the Holy Spirit to bring about our remembrance of things. And so

we can rely on the Holy Spirit when it comes to daily things in life.

And I will give you a new heart. Ezekiel thirty six twenty six

to twenty eight. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone.

What's the heart of stone? That brokenness, that unforgiveness, that hatred,

that resentment, that addiction, that all those things. God says,

I can take that stone, that heart of stone, and I can give

you the heart of flesh, and it will be a gift of the Holy

Spirit. So the only one that can transform our heart is the Holy Spirit.

So not only pray for salvation in people's lives, but pray that God

would take someone's heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, because

it is a work of the Holy Spirit. In the next verse, Ezekiel,

and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in

my statue and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the

land that I give your fathers, and you shall be my people, and

I will be your God. You see, the Holy Spirit helps us to

follow God's word. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the

Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So it's in the Holy

Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings freedom, The Holy Spirit brings deliverance. The

Holy Spirit brings healing. It is the Holy Spirit that can bring these things.

And we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of God, are being

transformed in the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For

this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. There it is again

one Corinthians six, nineteen to twenty. Or do you not know that your

body is is one of the most famous ones. We know a temple of

the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not

your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in

your body. In other words, when you and I say yes to Jesus

and the Holy Spirit feels us, we now become the dwelling place. Every

breath, every movement. God is with you every step of the way,

every step of the way. And that's not meant to scare you. That's

meant to excite you. Oh. So God sees everything. He saw everything

with and without the Holy Spirit bringfilled you. He saw it when you was

in the club, He saw you when you were in the alley, He

saw you when you was in college. He saw all those things. The

only difference with you now having the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit says,

Oh, they're made for so much more, and they know it, and

they know they're made for so much more. That's the difference. God saw

it all those situations. But this time the God, the Holy Spirit goes

if man, if they would just rely on me, they don't have to

chase those things no more. It's a realization that God can be your vehicle

to your life. That's what the Holy Spirit does Romans eight twenty six to

twenty seven. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. I don't

know if you've ever felt weak before, but I feel weak every single day,

for we do not know what to pray for as we ought to.

But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. There

will be times in your life where you do not know the answer, where

you do not know what direction to turn. You don't have an answer for

your children, you don't have an answer for your spouse. You don't know

what your purpose is. But guess what when you don't know, the Holy

Spirit does, and the Holy Spirit will groan, will minister to you,

will speak to you and try to lead us in a way. If we

are willing to say, God, my life is yours. Lead me and

guide me. That is a work of the spirit. Here's the last one

in uh. We'll go to the next one, Ephesians one. More Phiesians

give me Ephesians four. There we go, and do not grieve the Holy

Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. We'll

talk a little bit about the day of redemption next week with revelation, but

that's also the day that you and I should Jesus return or s we pass

away and we see God face to face. There is a day of redemption

where every person will stand before God. So what does the Holy Spirit enable

us to do for that day? Well, the Bible says, do not

grieve the Holy Spirit. And if you study all of Ephesians four, you'll

see what things grieve the Holy Spirit. It's our attitudes, it's our actions,

it's our attributes that are contrary to God. It's our habits, it's

our addictions, it's our unforgiveness. All of these things can grieve the Holy

Spirit, who's with us every single day. And yet there's a promise in

Ephesians chapter four, verse thirty that says that these things can grieve the Spirit

of God, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.

What does that mean? Well, back in the day, many of you

guys probably know this. What happens is is you can take a letter and

a message that you want to send to someone. And so let's just say

our Pastor Diego up here in the front. And so let's just say I

want to write a letter to Pastor Diego, and here's his name on it.

It's addressed to him. So let's just say I went to one of

you guys and I said, hey, can you get this note that's meant

to before Pastor Diego opened by Pastor Diego? Could you get this note to

him by the end of the day. And then one of you guys say,

yeah, absolutely, I can do that, no problem. And then

as you're walking you kind of see this flapping like this, and some of

you all little sneaky snakes. If you see this flapping, you're gonna say,

what's Pastor Adam trying to tell Pastor Diego? And you might open it

up, try to get a little peak of what's inside. But here's the

difference. Back in the day, what would happen if someone royal or a

king or someone they had an insignia, a seal with their family crest on

it or their name on it, and they would melt wax and they would

take their ring, and then they would place it and they would seal the

letter with it to say, this is a letter written by me and can

only be open by the person that it's addressed to. The contents cannot be

accepted or examined unless it goes to the person who it's written to. So

here's what happens in salvation. You say yes to Jesus, and so God

has a scroll, and so this scroll is called the Lamb's Book of Life.

According to the Book of Revelation, God has a scroll. And guess

what gets put in the scroll when you say yes to Jesus your name,

and when your name is written on that scroll. Guess who seals the envelope?

The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit says, I was there that day

when that person gave their life to Jesus Christ, because they could not do

it without the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit seals the moment your life

gets put into the contents of God's hand. And guess what. There is

a day in which you and I will stand before God, and God will

see the seal of the Holy Spirit on your life, and God will open

it and He will redeem the contents which is you, into Heaven. Which

means no one can touch this letter. No one can open this letter.

No one has the authority to alter this letter. And that is a statement

that God would make to Satan and sin that no one can touch your life.

No one can inhibit your walk, no one can deter your faith because

the Holy Spirit has sealed you, and you are God's promise. You are

God's anointed, and you are God's chosen. That is fully a work of

the Holy Spirit. You and I need the Holy Spirit. You can't be

a Christian without the Holy Spirit. It's not possible to be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Apart from the gifts of the Spirit, which we'll talk about

in some months, but apart from that. Salvation. The Holy Spirit is

a required in salvation. It's like a boat with beautiful sails with no wind.

That's a person's life. They live their life, their whole life,

and they could have very impressive things in their boat. They could have very

pretty things in their boat. Their masks can look really nice, and their

sALS can look really nice, but if you don't have the wind of the

Holy Spirit in your life, you can't go anywhere. There's nowhere to go.

And there's a reason why so many people they feel like they're falling flat

and they go, but look at my boat. My boat is beautiful.

I got nice things in my boat. I got a retirement in my boat.

I got cars in my boat. I got a beautiful family in my

boat. But you don't have no wind, you don't have no numa,

you don't have no rua. We need the spirit of God to put wind

in your sails, to take you from glory to glory, as the Bible

just says. So I encourage you today as that step is to follow Jesus,

to confess to say God, Jesus is the only one that can pin

salvation over my heart. And the Holy Spirit is the only one that conceal

that work. And the Father is the only one who can redeem that work.

That's the goodness of God, and that's the mercy of God. And

so today is we're about to partake in baptism. It's that second step to

salvation. You say God, I follow you, I believe in you.

The Bible says that then we outwardly get baptized to show the world this is

significant to me because I'm not who I want once was. It's a change.

It's a change. Sometimes people ask, is there's something special in the

water. No other than water and chlorine. There is nothing special in the

water. But want to know what is special and what needs to be special?

Is this heart? That's what's special. The fact that God has taken

that heart of stone and He's given you a heart of flesh, and the

fact that today you're gonna show the world that as we get baptized and we

submerge under the water, it represents the days, the three day tombed experience

that Jesus experienced. Then when you come out of the water, it represents

the resurrection, which is the victory that Jesus has. And our pastors they'll

ask every single person inside and outside, do you confess Jesus Christ as your

personal Lord and Savior, in which you'll respond yes, And then at that

moment will baptize you in the name of the Father's Son and Holy Spirit,

as the Bible tells us, because this work today is not a work of

man, It's not a work of Patriot Church. It's not a work of

baptized California Today. Baptism is a work of God, solely a work of

God, and God is the only one who gets the credit for today.

It's only a work of the spirits. So as we celebrate God's goodness and

mercy today, I just ask that as we do it, we worship together,

and we sing together, and we celebrate God's goodness together. Because you

never leave a delivery room early. As people are being delivered into the kingdom

and celebrating God's goodness and mercy. We celebrate that work today. And as

we all prepare in some moments, we'll all leave together and we'll have plenty

of time together. I encourage you that if towards the end, either myself

or pastor diego, we'll ask you. If you're here today you never been

water baptized today, or you've never made Jesus your Lord and savior, we

have some clothes for you, So don't let that be an excuse as to

not to follow Jesus or not to proclaim Jesus as Lord and savior. I'm

gonna pray today and we'll jump into baptisms and worship together. Lord, we

thank you for your goodness. God. We thank you for your spirit today,

God that has activated every person's life and heart who has said yes to

Jesus. God. We all are part of the family of God. When

we call upon Jesus as Lord and Savior. Only you, God, according

to Romans eight, bring us into adoption of children of God. And it's

only by the power of the Holy Spirit that has taken the works of flesh,

that has taken our sin, and you've put it under your foot.

God. So we thank you, Lord, that your spirit is alive today,

not only in this church, but in the world today.