Powered By The Holy Spirit - Shaundra Connelly - May 24, 2026

This is the City Place Church Podcast.

Here at City Place, we build dreams, ignite faith, and establish leaders that win the lost for God's kingdom.

From wherever you're listening, we hope that you are empowered by the message.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning.

Can we give it up for those who have, uh, served in the military and just kinda like give it like a clap for those people who have served and gave their life Yeah, we appreciate you.

If you're in service or if you have a family member that, uh, has served in the military and all of that, we appreciate your service, okay? So today, I don't know why today I feel like there's, like, an extra weight this morning, but I, I do feel that this morning.

Um, but what...

Before we even jump into the message, I wanna go ahead and pray, um, so...

because I want the Lord to speak.

Uh, I want Him to speak clearly and move me out the way.

Amen.

Okay? So Father, I thank you.

I thank you for your Word.

I thank you for what you've already done.

I thank you, God, for your presence.

I thank you, Lord, for what you're going to say.

And Lord, I pray that every person under the sound of my voice, that, God, that you would begin to soften their heart so that they will be receptive to what it is that you want to say.

Say what you wanna say, do what you wanna do, move how you want to move.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen.

So we've been in the series Built To Last, and as we've been in that series, one of the things that came to my mind was this is, like, perfect timing, because how can we be built to last without the power of the Holy Spirit? Yeah.

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can do, say, be, and walk in the way in which the Lord desires for us to walk.

Yeah.

So today, we are going to be talking about the Holy Spirit.

It's Pentecost Sunday, y'all.

Yeah.

And it is an amazing and a powerful time in which we get to celebrate what it was that the Lord had promised actually came and was fulfilled.

Yeah.

So we're gonna go through a lot of scripture.

There's gonna be some writing.

I won't be up here long, I can assure you of that, 'cause I just don't do that.

But we're gonna we're, we're gonna run, run through some scripture.

So we're gonna start in Acts 2:1-13.

Acts 2:1–13

And it says this: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly, a sound like the 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 and separated and came to rest on each of them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were s- 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 all of these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?'" Parthians...

I will mess up the names, so we just gonna jump all the way to Rome Uh, visitors from Rome, Cretans, Arabs.

We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.

Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have too much wine.

They've had too much wine."

In this series of verses, you'll see that a few things are happening.

There are people, about 120 people are in a room, and they have been, uh, instructed to wait in Jerusalem.

They were waiting in Jerusalem because the Lord had instructed them to do that, because the Lord had told them that there was going to be a gift, there's gonna be a promise that you are going to receive.

So if you go back to Acts 1:4, it says it, uh, like this: "On one occasion," this is Jesus talking Not that part.

Acts 1:4

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command.

This is Jesus giving the command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about."

So 50 days after the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ, they're, they are sitting in this room and waiting on the promised gift.

Now, while they're waiting, the Bible says that there was a sound, not the actual wind, but it was the sound like the violent wind, that filled the room, and they saw tongues like fire that filled the room and then filled the people.

It filled the room, and then it filled the people.

Once it filled the people, they were enabled to speak in other languages that they were not able to speak in prior.

So at this point, these people out there, outside, begin to see and hear things that they were kind of confused about.

But before we jump into that scripture, I do wanna say a, s- like, set a little bit of the foundation.

Because we can talk about the Holy Spirit, but we may not know the whole triune, the Trinity of God.

And our pastor was just talking about it a little bit ago, but I wanna give us a little bit more context, right? So we have God the Father, and this is gonna be on your notes.

This is one God, let's be clear, one God, three persons.

One God, three persons.

So God the Father.

God the Father, they have different functions.

So God the Father, creator, plans, directs, creates, orchestrates.

In fact, if you were to go into Genesis 1, it says it like this: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.

Now the Earth was formless and empty.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

All throughout chapter 1, it will se- you will see where it says, "God said, and it was.

God said, and it was.

God said, and it was."

But if you also jump into Ephesians 1:3-6, it says this: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3–6

For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves."

He plans, He c- uh, creates, He orchestrates, He directs, He does all of these things predestined.

He planned So God the Father, one God, three persons.

Mm-hmm.

God the Son, mediator.

He took our place so that through his life, death, and resurrection, we can be saved.

Come on.

So we have God the Father.

I'm gonna repeat it 'cause I want us, I wanna make sure we all getting it.

God the Father, God the Son.

1 Timothy 2, uh, verses 5 through 6, it says it like this, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

This has now been witnessed to at the proper time."

In John 14:6 it says this, "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.

John 14:6

No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

But just in case you are not clear, it says in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one."

John 10:30

Yeah.

Come on.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

One God.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Three persons.

Yeah.

The last one, God the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit? Well, he seals our salvation, and through him we are transformed and empowered.

Yeah.

So if we were to jump into Ephesians 1:13, it says it like this, "And you also who also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Ephesians 1:13

When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory."

Yeah.

He seals our salvation.

One God, three persons.

But just in case we're not clear.

Mm-hmm.

The Bible says in Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.'"

Genesis 1:26

So he- what- here's the question.

Here's a quick quiz.

Who is us? Tell me Absolutely.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

In Genesis 1:1, it says it like this: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.

Genesis 1:1

Now the Earth was formless and empty.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

Who's hovering over the waters? Spirit.

The Holy Spirit.

One God, three persons.

So if we were to...

Now that we have laid a little bit of the foundation, let's dive into who the Holy Spirit is.

Yeah.

Mkay? Yeah.

What does it mean that the Holy Spirit seals our salvation? Sometimes we can use a lot of terms, and we don't really understand what we're actually saying.

So today we're gonna break down a couple of terms- Yeah so that we can walk out of here with some understanding of what we've been saying.

Yes.

So the first thing is: What does it mean that the Holy Spirit seals our salvation? What it means is, it means that our salvation is permanent and secure.

It is permanent and secure.

The Bible says it in Ephesians 4:30, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."

Ephesians 4:30

Ephesians 1:13 says it like this: "When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."

Ephesians 1:13

So when you and I say yes to Jesus, it is made permanent and secure b- because it is sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

It is the difference between the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is the abiding presence of the Spirit.

It is a one-time event that happens when you become a Christian The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is a one-time event that happens when you become a Christian.

So the Bible says, so for example, in John 20, uh, verses 21 through 22, it says it like this, and I'll, I'll explain a little bit.

"And again, Jesus said, 'Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.'

And with that, he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"

That is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

It is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the filling of the Holy Spirit is the active control and influence of the Holy Spirit One is the dwelling and the other is the act of control.

So the difference between John 20 and Acts 2:1-3, 1-3, it tells you that they were filled with the Holy Spirit so much so that they were enabled to do something that was not natural So, in the, in the moment when they were filled, it says that in scripture that the people on the outside, they begin to question what was going on.

Acts 2:1–3

There were some people that were kind of leaning in and was like, "What does this mean?" But then you had other people that were beginning to attach story to something because they didn't understand it.

They began to say, "They must be drunk because this doesn't make sense.

There is no way these people who have not gone through, uh, what is it? Uh, Rosetta Stone- And learn a new language, that all of a sudden that they learned this new language and is declaring things in tongues in which I can understand it.

What happens when we allow the Holy Spirit to have full control is we unlock a spiritual supernatural power within us that only comes from God There is a difference between the indwelling, but there's another level when it's the filling I promise y'all I'm almost done It's crazy So what happens? What does the Holy Spirit demonstrate in us? Like, how does He demonstrate Himself in us? Well, the first thing is He draws us close But the way in which he does that is through a series of different things.

Sometimes we don't even realize what we have access to I saw-- I heard someone say it like this, going back to the indwelling and the filling.

The indwelling is similar to someone-- is similar to the Holy Spirit being a resident of your life.

But the filling is when he becomes the president of your life There's a huge difference.

He can be there, but do you access Him? So he draws us closer, but the way that he draws us close is he helps us and prays for us.

The Bible says in Romans 8:26, "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Romans 8:26

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."

So the time in which you're trying to figure certain things out and you don't even know what to pray, the moments when it's like it's just too much going on, the Holy Spirit is praying for you It's crazy.

We're trying to figure out how to put words to a thing, and the Holy Spirit is like, "I got you."

Yeah.

I'm praying for you So the Holy Spirit, he prays for us, he helps us, but he also convicts us.

He convicts us.

The Bible puts it like this.

I'm throwing a lot of scripture at you guys.

Wow.

Listen, because I could, I could come up here and just say a bunch of stuff, but let's, we gotta make sure it's rooted in scripture.

Amen.

Right? So he convicts us.

In John 16:8 through 11, he says, "When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.

John 16:8–11

About sin, because people do not believe in me.

About righteousness, because I am going to the Father," this is Jesus talking, "where you can see me no longer.

And about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."

This conviction, it is not a conviction that is coming from the world.

Come on.

It is not a conviction based on your moral values.

It is not a conviction based on the things in which you consider to be a standard.

This conviction is from the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

The Holy Spirit's conviction is how he persuades us about what is right and holy to God What is right and holy.

And now I was thinking, I was like, I could just leave that right there, but do we even understand what the word holy means? Do we understand what the word holy means? We understand, we can put a definition to right, but what is right and holy? Holy is set apart, pure, and perfect according to God.

So if we were to change this entire sentence, it would be, "He persuades us about what is right and pure and set apart and perfect according to God."

He convicts us, and he c-- he also helps us, and he prays for us.

The Holy Spirit also sanctifies us He sanctifies us.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:2, "Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God and Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood."

1 Peter 1:2

Question becomes, what is sanctification? Because we use that all the time too.

We can use a lot of, you know, Christianese and spiritual words, but we don't even know what we talking about sometimes.

Sanctification.

It is the process or the result of being made holy.

And what is holy? What is set apart, what is perfect, and what is pure according to God.

Not according to me, not according to you, but is according to God.

It is the constant work of being made to be more like Jesus That is the process of sanctification.

So will we ever meet, be able to say that I have actually reached the pinnacle of that? Nope, you won't.

Sanctification is a continuous process.

Right.

It is a continuous process.

We will never reach the moment or the, the stage of where we can say, "I am perfect.

I'm totally pure."

Yeah.

It is a process.

He is constantly sanctifying us The Holy Spirit encourages us and strengthens us.

The Bible says in Acts 9:31, "Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened.

Acts 9:31

Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers."

The Holy Spirit will encourage you when you feel discouraged And I could, I could go on and on about some of the things that the Holy Spirit will do within us.

But just as a, a couple of things.

The Holy Spirit will assist us when we're weak.

Yeah.

The Holy Spirit will guide us when we feel lost.

Yeah.

The Holy Spirit will counsel us when we need navig- when we need to navigate through certain things.

The Holy Spirit helps us when we feel helpless.

The Holy Spirit is right there ready to assist and to guide and to direct and to speak through and to give us boldness and to do all those different things.

The thing is, we have to access it We have to invite the Holy Spirit But the Holy Spirit, as much as He's doing things in us, He's also doing things through us.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

When we go back, looking back at Acts 2, they didn't just receive the Holy Spirit and sit back down They received, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they moved.

Yeah.

They received the Holy Spirit, and then they did whatever the Holy Spirit was guiding them and, and, and, uh, empowering them and filling them to do, and they just moved.

Yeah.

So when the Holy Spirit fills, there is something attached to that.

It's not just about us So the Holy Spirit will demonstrate himself In two different ways through us, in fruit and in gifts In fruit and in gifts.

The fruit of the Spirit are the characteristics of God produced in us through the Holy Spirit that should be evident in every Christian The fruit are not a gift The fruit is characteristics that should be demonstrated in us.

The gift is something different.

So the fruit are things in, in Galatians 5:22, it says it like this: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, it is joy, it's peace, it's forbearance, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's faithfulness, it's gentleness, and it's self-control.

Galatians 5:22

Against such things there is no law."

Here's where, here's where we sometimes get it twisted.

It is not love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness how I define it It is not love, joy, peace, kindness, how culture defines it.

Yeah.

All of these things are how the Lord define it.

So we have to then go back to the Father and say, "Lord, how would you like for me to demonstrate love here?" Because the love that we give is not to the l- to the standard in which maybe the Lord has set.

Yeah.

The kindness when people are rude.

When you in the Walmart line.

Come on.

And people are, you know, that can happen, or traffic is the thing for me.

I'm telling you, it is the place where my patience is tried the most.

I am always like, "Lord, fill me, Holy Spirit But the time in which you may be tested the most, and you think that what you have just demonstrated is like, "Listen, I gave the kindness.

That's about as kind as I'm gonna get right now."

But maybe it's, "Lord, fill me, Holy Spirit."

Yeah.

And help me demonstrate the kindness in which you desire for me to demonstrate that kindness.

It doesn't always feel good So the fruit of the Spirit are, are characteristics of the Father The gifts are specific things distributed to each person It is th-- neither one of the gifts are more significant than another.

They're all important.

The Bible puts it like this, and this is not an exhaustive list, but this is one scripture where it says in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, it says, "To one there is given through the Spirit a mes- a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit," the Holy Spirit, "to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous power, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking different t- kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues."

1 Corinthians 12:8–10

There is so much more.

These are just a small list of, of gifts.

There are so many other gifts, but they come from one Spirit.

Yeah.

The Holy Spirit But the purpose of each of the gifts is to build up and strengthen the church The Bible says in Ephesians 4:11-12, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

Ephesians 4:11–12

What is the purpose? To build us up spiritually mature.

That was very juicy.

Spiritually mature.

It is to build up the church.

It is not about you to shine.

Yeah.

It is, there is a purpose behind the entire thing.

If we were to think about it, the disciples and all of those that went out, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they went out and they began to s- to speak to the people, and they began to preach the gospel.

What happened was, the Bible says that as you continue to read through Acts, it says, "They grew in numbers and in stature."

Yeah.

They grew spiritually and they grew in amount of people.

Because of the fact that these people made a decision that I am not going to just sit here and be filled with the Holy Spirit and do nothing with it.

Yeah.

It was because of what they did that launched the early church.

Yeah.

If they had not done what they did- Yeah where would we be today? So if we were to sum all of this up The Holy Spirit, he draws, he seals, and he unlocks The Holy Spirit draws us to Christ, the Holy Spirit seals our salvation, and the Holy Spirit unlocks the characteristics of Christ and the spiritual gifts that build the church My question for you, and how about I'm done? But my question for you is, what would happen if every last one of us in here made a decision and said, "Lord, fill me and empower me to do whatever it is that you've called me to do"? There's a difference between the Holy Spirit being on the passenger side and being in the driver's seat.

Some of us have been driving along with the Holy Spirit right there, and He's just waiting for His turn.

And we have made the decision that I am going to steer this in the direction in which I choose to go when the, when the Holy Spirit is telling you to go left, and you're like, "But I'm feeling right."

What would happen? What would happen if we as a church said, "Okay, fill me, Holy Spirit, but not for me alone, but so that whatever it is, lives will be changed, communities will be changed, people will come back, will come to Christ, people will surrender their lives and make changes, and then it would continue."

Yeah.

But if we sit here and say, "You know what?" I'm good.

I like having full control It's really a matter of choice And maybe for some of you, the Holy Spirit may not even be in the car And he's like, "Man, if they only knew what I wanted to unlock within them We may be putting a cap on things when the Holy Spirit is trying to move and move us because there are people that need it So what I wanna do, I don't know where you are in your walk.

Maybe you haven't even invited Jesus into your life, meaning that the Holy Spirit's not even in the car Maybe it's an opportunity for you to surrender yourself, your life, your heart to Christ.

And then at that moment, your salvation becomes sealed and He is a resident of your life.

But then there's also another level.

For some of you, maybe you have made that decision and you said, "I did surrender my life, but He has been on the passenger seat and I'm ready to pull over so that He can drive."

If that is you, I wanna pray for you too.

Because here's the thing, there's so much more in store for you, and there's so much more, and it's not really even about us.

There's so much more that the Lord wants to do, and I refuse to be the reason for stopping the movement I refuse.

I refuse So I'm gonna ask everybody to bow their heads We're gonna pray If you are part of the first group You are ready to make the Lord Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.

It is the beginning of all of this.

We can't take leaps and bounds to the other thing without...

and skip this step.

This is the most important step.

Maybe you've been trying to navigate things and figure things out all by yourself.

Maybe you feel like maybe what- whatever you did yesterday or this morning or last week, it kinda, it keeps you from being able to have that moment.

No, no, no, He died for you.

He died for you.

It's the whole reason So if that is you, and you are ready to make the Lord Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, the Bible says, "If we confess with our mouth and believe with our heart, you are saved."

So if that is you, and this is the time that you wanna make that decision, that declaration for you, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hands.

One, two, three such an act of bravery, you can lower your hands.

Everybody in the, in the building is gonna pray this prayer with you because we've all been at the place where we have needed the Lord and needed the Holy Spirit.

So let's do what Sean has given us such great insight and instruction into, and we pray this prayer because the Bible says that when we, uh, believe in our heart, we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, that that is the act of salvation.

So everyone under the sound of my voice, pray this.

Say, Jesus, I declare you as Savior, you as Lord.

Holy Spirit, guide me.

I receive your sealing And I make you president.

Teach me how to live like you and be like you, in Jesus' name.

Thanks for joining us.

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I.