Wild Goose Week 1

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

We are beginning a new series called The Wild Goose, a five-part series in Acts on the untamed work of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8 14 says, For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Pastor Mark invites you to encounter or re-encounter the Spirit who leads us.

Good morning, everyone.

Glad you're here.

We can welcome everyone that's watching us online.

Marquette, Lon, Sarantanogden, across the UP, in the north, across the United States.

We're glad that you're here with us.

You're a special part of our church.

And we are starting a brand new series.

I love new series.

We spent 12 weeks in Ephesians and ended in a really powerful note in the spiritual warfare that we're all engaged in, in kind of this hostile world we live in.

Some would even say it's a beautiful, evil place, this conflict that's constantly going on around us.

I wanted to extend that a little bit in a way for about a month, about five weeks.

I wanted to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, this morning and for the next couple of weeks, because I think it's vital and very important to you.

And some of you are like, maybe this is the month I take off, but uh that's oftentimes a reaction to the Holy Spirit, because as you see, our our title of the series, The Wild Goose.

This is much like the Holy Spirit, someone who is untamable, unpredictable, person of the Trinity.

That's what the early church called him.

And so we I want to walk through this, and I want you to be with me for this month, month and a half as we dive into an oftentimes ignored person of the Trinity, an important part of your life, your spiritual walk with the Lord, and most importantly, your spiritual walk here on earth.

And I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

That's where we're gonna start today.

I'm gonna kind of jump around.

I'm actually gonna start in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And this is why, this is why it's important.

I'll start with what Paul says in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

That's the book after.

And if you need a Bible, raise your hand.

I'm sorry.

You need a Bible, raise your hand.

Uh we have a free copy for you.

We're gonna be in the book of Acts.

That's after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament, the latter part of your Bible, the book of Acts, chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And we'll just be there in one minute, but I'm gonna start in the book after in Romans.

This is what Paul says about the children of God, you, the church, those who have made a decision to be a follower of Jesus.

There's some characteristics that come with that surrendered life in Jesus.

As Jesus says, pick up your cross and follow me.

There's action to that.

We talk about it.

It's just not a one-time decision, it's a daily decision of getting up and following and being led and doing incredible things as Jesus and the Holy Spirit leads you.

For those, he says in chapter 14, for those who are led, there's action there.

For those that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

For those who are led by the Holy Spirit, they are the children of God.

Now I want you to turn to Acts chapter 18 and see a situation that oftentimes we find in the church, either because of hesitation or ignorance, but Acts chapter 19, we find that Apollos, who's one of the leaders of the church, Apollos, he's an evangelist, an incredible preacher, we find out.

Acts 18 · chapter mention Acts 19 · chapter mention

He's actually in Corinth.

And we find that he's in Corinth, he's preaching.

Paul is in Ephesians, and you need to understand that that Acts really, the the the original or the true translation of the book of Acts is really the Acts of the Apostles.

What the early church did through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's in a way a roadmap even for ourselves.

This is the kind of lives we should live.

We should be people of surrendered lives.

We should be people of action.

That's what Acts means, the Acts of the Church or the Acts of the Apostles.

And yet we're we're we're 19 chapters in, as I'm gonna show you.

The work of the Holy Spirit has been moving through the people of the early church, and it is the Christianity is spread like wildfire, and things are happening all over.

They're proclaiming who Jesus is, that he went to the cross and rose from the grave, and people's lives are being changed.

It's a powerful, powerful time.

And we're all the way 19 chapters in, almost a decade in, of the Holy Spirit being unleashed on the earth in people's lives.

And we find that while Paul was in Corinth, Paul was in Ephesians, we just left Ephesians.

There he found some disciples, some followers of Jesus, and he asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

And they answered, No, man.

We didn't even, we didn't even we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.

And I think that's oftentimes what's going on in the church.

Where people are saying, I didn't even know I should be engaged in the Holy Spirit, or like I want nothing to do with the Holy Spirit because of what they experienced in church.

You know what I mean?

Where you're like, Pastor Mark, is this where we have to wear more makeup or less makeup?

Kind of situation.

I grew up in the whole Pentecostal charismatic movement, so I understand a lot of the misrepresentation of the acts of the Holy Spirit, can I say it that way?

And the delegitimizing of who he is as the Spirit of God.

And I understand really clearly the defining divorce that is happening within the church for thousands of years, where we're at the place where there is churches of the Spirit and churches of the Word.

And in any divorce, and I think you understand that, that when you are experience divorce, children always choose the mother or they choose the father, and that's kind of what's happened within the church.

People have have chosen teams like the Holy Spirit's not at work, or the Holy Spirit's at work in everything, and there's kind of a great schism that has happened for centuries within the church where everyone is kind of on a team, and I can't be about this team or that team because of the boundaries that have been pushed on either end.

And I I've I've experienced that kind of tension.

Maybe you have too.

Where I've had people say, you know, Pastor Mark, you don't we don't worship and dance and yell loud enough.

And then I have people on the other end of my church who say, Pastor Mark, there are just too many people raising their hands.

I had a long conversation with my neighbor who we have these Holy Ghost street revivals, as I call them, in the middle of my street, where we have we we we have long theological um discussions, and uh I love my neighbors, and um one of the things is one of the things that he brought up to me one time was Pastor Mark, I just don't know if I like all that expression at your church.

Because he's been he's been here a couple times.

He's like, I don't know why y'all are jumping up and down and raising your hands and singing really loud.

That's just weird, man.

It's weird, Pastor Mark.

You're weird.

And I say, my response is dude, you don't know what we've been released from.

We're just celebrating the victory of I'm not a I'm no longer a slave.

But I I get it, I understand.

I see you understand, do you understand the the tension between churches of the word and churches of the spirit?

I I've I've heard people smarter than me, scholars who say, and I believe this to be true, like there's a shift coming within the church.

There's a shift coming where there will be, they they relate it oftentimes to Abraham, who had two sons, if you know anything about God's word.

The first son, Ishmael, that he has, is not the promised son.

But but Isaac is, and Isaac comes later, and and what they're saying now, and what we're experiencing with kind of the divorce between the word churches and the spirit churches, is kind of we're in the middle of the Ishmael kind of atmosphere, but Isaac is coming, where churches will be unified in word and deed and spirit.

And when you have that, there is revival.

That's always been my my heartbeat, is not just experiencing the Holy Spirit, but experiencing the word of God, and there being a unification.

And when there's a unification of those things, there's revival, and the world gets turned upside down.

And I I can see, I can see the Isaac coming of that.

Where people aren't in camps anymore, they're experiencing both the power of the word and the power of the spirit.

And ultimately, I want you to experience the same thing.

It's my job not only to be your protector, but also your shepherd.

And listen, everyone, a shepherd opens gates for you.

Hey everyone, you you sheep, some of you goats.

Let's go this way.

This is where the good water is.

This water is mid over here.

This is good water.

That's I just want that for you.

And I think you can feel some of that.

Some of you feel that.

Like I'm just I love God's word, it's powerful, but I I I know there's something different here, and something's going on that I need to tap into.

And I and I want that for you.

I want a breath of fresh air.

Now, oftentimes the Holy Spirit is misrepresented.

And I want to talk a little bit about that this morning, give you a little bit of theology and understanding why we have some misunderstandings about the Holy Spirit a little bit.

And then I want you to just come along with me as we talk about the importance and how God represents this third person of the Trinity that oftentimes we ignore, we don't want to talk about too much.

And again, he's been represented in many ways as the Holy Ghost or a ghost or the Spirit of God or the breath of God.

Like I said, I named this series the wild goose because the the Celtic early church painted him that way.

They didn't paint him as a dove, as we find in Jesus' baptism, as the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in the form of a dove.

But they're like, man, no, we've experienced the Holy Ghost.

He's more like a goose that we can't catch.

He's wild, he's untamable.

The Hebrew word for the Spirit of God or the breath of God is runak.

Runak, a wind, a breath, uh, a violent.

I was gonna say it.

Thank you, AJ Philzetti.

It's called breathing.

A blast of breath.

I won't be able to say that next service now.

You've messed it up in my mind.

It is a it's God speaking out.

It's a breath.

We know that God formed the universe this way.

He breathed out the universe.

That's what kind of power that he has.

We find that when he created Adam, that he formed that Adam and then he breathed upon him.

We know that in the New Testament, when Jesus, after his resurrection, uh, he comes into a meeting of the disciples, they're freaked out because Jesus kind of just appears to them and he says, Peace be unto you, and I want, I want you to come together.

And he shows them the marks on his hand, and he's like, I'm resurrected, I'm real, touch and see and feel me.

And then he comes to them and he said, he breathes on them and says, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Now we don't understand all of that, but it is the breath, it is the the spirit of God, it's runak.

We see this.

Now the earth was formless and empty and dark, and the spirit of God, the runak, that that that holy breath was hovering over the waters.

Now, you need to understand that in the translation, in the 1611 uh translation, the King James Version, where we get the word Holy Ghost, like the Holy Spirit is not a Holy Ghost.

You understand?

I'm not a big fan of ghosts.

I don't know any of you, but this is really maybe a little bit of a disservice to can you see the problem when they they they look at this word breath?

It's matter of fact, uh the other the other form of this we find in the Old Testament is is is a form of giving up the ghost or giving your last breath.

It was it was Gavah.

And and and so they related these two together, and so they came up with this this term that you're not gonna find anywhere really else in God.

You don't find the word ghost, is my point, uh in the Old Testament.

And so they they in a way have, in my opinion, misserved the church and creating this word.

It is the holy breath of God.

That's what the Holy Spirit is, the breath of God, not not the holy ghost of God, the the holy breath of God.

In the New Testament, it's the word pneuma, which are is closely related to runak, a current, a breath, a blast of breath, a strong breeze.

And you need to understand that even the word that we find for ghosts, that we do find a couple times in the New Testament, is directly linked as Jesus walks on the water.

If you remember that, the the Hebrew, uh, the disciples in the boats thought Jesus was a a, it's called uh phasma.

That's what the word is, the Greek word for ghost.

We find that a couple times, but it really just means actually that a a fearful uh uh expression.

That that that is not what's related here.

God's third person of the Trinity is a breath of fresh, fresh air.

Can I say it that way?

He is the breath of God.

Both the Hebrew term runach and the Greek term pneuma are rightly translated as spirit, not ghosts.

Do you see the problem with that?

I think it's a part of the fear that people have with the Holy Spirit, is they're taught this way.

It's spirit, not ghost.

It is the breath of God, and really it's centered on life, not death and fear, everyone.

It's important for us to understand.

Now, uh, again, there's a couple of places where the word ghost is used, and this is the Greek word for that, but it it really ultimately means actually ghost, where people are are are feared.

It's not related to the Holy Spirit.

This is what John 6, 30, uh, 30, 36, chapter 6, verse 63 says the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and their life.

You've heard me say this.

When I preach God's word, I'm actually speaking words of life to you.

And when you receive those, you're receiving life in your life.

That's important for you to understand.

When you read God's word, you're reading life into your spirit.

It's all about life, it's not about death in any way.

And I want to kind of walk through maybe some characteristics of the Holy Spirit that are really related to wind.

And let me let's just hit this first one, which is the the wind is unseen.

The wind is unseen, but it's powerful, everyone.

The problem with the wind being unseen is oftentimes we want to touch and feel everything.

We we feel the wind, but we can't see it.

I love when a storm comes into the UP.

Have you ever gone out to like Marquette on Presc Aisle, or maybe there's some places in in Lant and Antonogden?

Like the storms in Antonogden, man, I've never experienced the wind like I've experienced in Antonagden.

It's powerful, but you go out to Black Rocks and the wind's coming in, and you can just barely stand out there because it's so powerful and the waves like it's it's unseen, and yet there's a there's a power to that.

There's a power to that.

And just because something is unseen doesn't mean that you shouldn't experience that thing.

And I think we all do, and we man, we say, Man, this is good.

This can be used for good when you when you're in a 120-degree car because your windows were rolled up, and you get in there and you're like, I gotta get this thing moving because my air conditioner hasn't worked for a year and a half, because you live in the UP and you only need it for one month in August.

You just ignore that light, you crank down the windows, and you drive as fast as you can, and that wind hits you.

It's just refreshing, isn't it?

You're like, this is good.

I don't understand it, I I don't see it, but I I feel the benefits of this.

It's good.

Jesus talks this way as he's presenting the Holy Spirit.

We find in John chapter 14, 15, and 16, I'll walk through some of that.

John 14 · chapter mention

Jesus extensively, before he goes to the cross, he's hanging out with his disciples, he's preparing them.

Hey guys, listen, I'm leaving.

I'm leaving, I'm going to the cross, I'm gonna be resurrected, I'm gonna be here for a while, and then I'm gonna be with God the Father.

And because I'm leaving, I need to send someone to help you in this process.

Uh, the book of Acts that's about to come into their lives.

I want the I want the Holy Spirit to be with you, and I want him to guide you.

I'm going to bring them into your life as I leave, he's gonna show up, and he begins to say that I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, a helper to help you, a guide to be with you forever.

He's the spirit of truth, he's here to guide and to help you on this journey.

You need this guy in your life, he's not a ghost, he's a person.

He's a person, he's the CEO of the church, and he's here to advance you and your life so that you can change this world.

Now, the world you understand is not gonna know him because they don't see him, they can't comprehend him, comprehend him.

You need to know that that that the Holy Spirit is exclusive.

The world cannot accept him because neither they see him nor they know him, but you know him.

For he lives with you and will be in you, he's unseen, and the world's not going to understand that you have this supernatural being with you.

You just don't need the natural world to survive.

Listen, everyone, you need a supernatural world.

You need the supernatural world.

The wind is also unpredictable.

It's unpredictable.

And again, we see this in a multitude of ways.

Jesus even says the wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

He's unpredictable, and yet people want a predictable God.

They want a predictable God, and you need to understand that God, that God's word is predictable.

That's why we have God's word.

That's why we don't go on feelings, everyone.

Now you hear me say that all the time because a lot of you have some problems with your feelings.

And you need to get a handle of them and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in those feelings.

But so many times I have people come up and thus saith the Lord to me.

And you just had a bad pizza night.

You need to be very careful about your feelings, and that's why I don't run on my feelings, I run on God's word.

I test everything with God's word.

And yet, even within God's word, we find that the Holy Spirit moves in different ways.

We find Jesus doing things in different ways.

Because here's the thing that I find that as humans, and I've experienced this in a hundred different ways, what we tend to do is always want to worship something other than Jesus.

And so we experience this powerful supernatural force in our lives, and we experience even something physical, we tend to turn that thing into a God, and we worship that holy experience instead of worshiping Jesus.

Man, my life is riddled with that.

Riddled with that.

Can you imagine when Moses experiences the burning bush?

And God speaks to Moses through a bush.

Can you imagine the power of that?

But what if someone else later came on and said, Well, God spoke to me this way, and Moses said, No, no, no, no, no, no.

Listen, did God speak to you through a rose bush?

Because if he didn't speak through a cactus or a bush or some kind of vegetation, then it's not from God.

Or we even find that Jesus would change up the ways that he healed people because he knew people.

So Jesus would go and lay his hands on a blind man, and that blind man would be healed, and people were watching Jesus, and they okay, oh that, oh, oh, that's the thing, that's the thing.

He touches people and they're healed.

And so we find in Mark that that some friends bring a blind person to Jesus and they said, Jesus, do your thing.

You know that thing where you do that thing, touch them, Jesus.

And Jesus doesn't, he spits in his eyes.

And you know why he's doing that.

Because he doesn't want, and the man is healed.

Or you find later on that Jesus spits in some mud and rubs it on someone's eyes.

He changes it up because he knows we'll we'll will worship the system, not Jesus.

We'll worship the experience and not the Holy Spirit.

He's unpredictable, he's untamable, he's powerful.

And in that, though, we have people who take advantage of that and are looking for a system.

We love systems.

The diet world is built on systems, the self-help world is built.

You guys like to call it you young people.

I have a life hack.

And you have that life hack for about 10 minutes because you're inconsistent.

You're in the place you are because you don't know how to do life.

And I mean, if you're 90 or 19, it's the same, isn't it?

And we're always looking for systems, we're looking for things to worship other than Jesus.

But the holiness is not the experience, the holiness is Jesus, it just is.

It's important to have that.

You have to be careful about tucking your God into something that only your brain understands.

The wind is also powerful, it's powerful.

Again, Acts says 1-8 that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

That power is something that is activated in your life with the total immersion of the Holy Spirit in your life.

And if there's power, I want it.

Like some of you are are facing things in the spiritual and things in the natural that you can't fix, and the only thing that's going to fix that thing is the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

I need, I need the supernatural to come in and to lead me.

I need the power of God.

That's what separates us from, as the children of God, from the slaves of sin and the slaves and the sons and daughters of Satan, ultimately.

There's a difference.

There's a difference.

And you need that power in your life.

The same wind that sails a ship can destroy a city.

There's power in that.

And you need to receive that in your life.

Some of you are going through things that you haven't tapped into that power because you're hesitant.

It requires something of you, it requires a surrender in your life.

And you're unwilling to simply take a step towards that.

I want you to experience that healing in your life.

The wind is also, it's refreshing everyone.

It's a good thing.

It's a good thing.

Jen and I went to look at the fall colors because our yard is not good enough.

And so we spent 36 hours yesterday driving throughout the whole UP.

We were in Lamps.

I mean, we were everywhere just looking for that perfect tree we've been looking at for the last uh two weeks.

Anyway, we went to Brockaway Mountain, as did everyone else in the UP yesterday.

And we got to the top, and um it was the wind was so warm and so powerful up there that we stood up there and looked out at the beautiful landscape for 35 seconds.

And then we're like, we can't even stand up here.

This wind is so powerful.

But guys, it was so warm.

It was like August wind, you know what I mean?

It was so warm, and and everyone was having trouble, even standing out there and looking at God's creation.

So we went back to the car.

We could barely get our car.

I thought I was gonna have to go over and push Jen's car door.

That's how strong, strong the wind is.

When you experience that kind of power and goodness, it's just a beautiful thing, everyone.

You can experience the goodness of God, the goodness of God.

First Corinthians says this no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can see what God has prepared for you who love him.

And how does that happen?

By his spirit.

That he wants you to consume and have a part of your life.

So with all that, and I know you all come from different places, historically and religiously, economically.

We have a whole gamut here at North Island.

I want you to take a big breath with me, if you will.

Relax and allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life.

Now, we didn't touch this verse in Ephesians, but I want to touch it real quickly, chapter four, verse 30.

Don't grieve God, don't break his heart.

His Holy Spirit is moving and breathing in you.

It can be the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself.

Don't take such a gift for granted.

So, how do we do that?

Number one, I think you need to open up your mind, your heart, and your spirit and and just allow the fears and misconceptions to go away in your life.

You need him in your life.

I I can't imagine not having the Holy Spirit active in my life, everyone.

And maybe someone ruined that for you.

Maybe you sat next to a crazy woman at church when you were ten.

Or someone came and I had someone the other day, not the other day, in the past, come and pray for me and they breathed really heavy on me.

And the only thing I received was bad breath.

Sorry.

It's true, it's true, but I want you to experience something powerful in your life because you need it like I need it, because I'm your shepherd and I love every one of you.

I want you to experience that.

And ultimately, in Proverbs says you need to trust God in this from the bottom of your heart.

Don't try to figure out everything on your own.

Sometimes, in the as the Holy Spirit works in your life, and I hate to even say it this way, but sometimes you just kind of have to shut your brain down and open up your spirit.

You got two things going on, everyone.

One's spiritual and one's one's mental.

Sometimes you just gotta trust God.

I love how how how Jesus represents what the Holy Spirit has for you.

We find this in Mark, uh, sorry, Matthew.

Uh we'll just run through these real quickly.

If you, if you then, though you are evil, how much you give good grips gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven, who's a righteous man, a good man, give good gifts to those who ask him.

You have to ask for the Holy Spirit.

Father, I want whatever you have for me.

I want good gifts from you.

You promised them to me because you loved me.

Or James chapter one says, Every good and perfect gifts is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.

He consisted.

He only gives good gifts to his children.

Or Psalm says this for the Lord God is a son and a shield.

The Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good things does he hold from those who walk, is blameless.

So you need to be all in.

The Holy Spirit is a person of action, he's not a person of experience.

You're not pursuing the Holy Spirit because you want to experience experience something.

He has something for you to do, and you need his power to accomplish that thing that he's called you to do.

So you need to be all in.

And time and time and time again, I see people who kind of have this halfway religious experience.

And I I've heard it said this way, and it's said so many times to me, I don't know who said it, but Christianity is a horrible hobby, everyone.

It's a horrible side gig.

Some of the most miserable people I know are people who are are halfway.

Halfway.

You need to be all the way in to experience what the Holy Spirit has for you.

We kind of have a funny thing at North Iron that we do our Royal Ranger program is is based on raising up young young men to be uh leaders, and we do uh a lot of skill training.

We want our boys to be uh fully equipped spiritually, physically, mentally, socially, all those things.

And we sit we work really hard at that.

It's actually a merit-based program where we teach them and we award them a merit, a patch.

And so they progress through through the years.

We actually have, and merits are because they've done a good thing, but we actually have something called a demerit.

We slap on people if you don't do the right thing.

It's not public, I just have personal demerits I hand out to people.

I think shaming's a great thing.

So um, we need more shaming in the world, everyone.

No more trophies, make shaming great again.

We've gone astray.

And we're paying for it.

Listen, let me tell you, we're paying for it in society.

I'm I'm handing out demerits everywhere.

Anyway, I'm I'm messing with you.

I I am and I'm not.

We actually have these patches.

Uh we have a patch that's called um halfway herb.

And it's related to Pastor Herb Helsell.

And no one really knows this.

I think Herb does.

There's there was a it's it's it's kind of a legendary story in our church where we were going on a missions trip and we're going out to Arizona and we're working in the Navajo Reservation.

I want to say it was not the first the first missions trip I did when I was here at North Iron.

We've had years of missions trips, but we we took a team out to work in the Navajo Reservation at a church, and it was way out in the middle of nowhere, out in the desert.

But what you need to know about the desert that people are confused about is the desert is a really cold place.

It can be it can be really hot in the daytime.

And I I I don't know why, but I just a lot of my life I spent in the desert.

It can get very, very cold at nighttime, and people uh don't understand that.

And it's really tied to the elevation.

This church happened to be uh above, I believe, 5,000 feet, and so um we were we were in this church, we were working, we had ladies with us, and it was very cold at night, very, very cold.

And we'd been working all day, we'd just have arrived, we had some some food, we had some ladies with us, so they they had an old wooden stove in the church.

We were staying in the church, we were working in the church, and so we said, ladies, it was in the room, ladies, you can have you can be closest to the to the wood stove.

And so they they they slept next to the wood stove.

All the men, we slept out in an outer room, and I'm telling you, it was really cold in that room, and I don't think we were really prepared, like some of us were not prepared like we should have been prepared, even with sleeping bags.

Pastor Herb, who's a very big guy, big muscular guy in personality and physically, he's just you're always gonna know when Pastor Herb's in the room.

And um, so everyone's getting out their bedding, they're getting out their sleeping bags, and Pastor Herb grabs his sleeping bag, and we're we're all cold, and we want to get in these sleeping bags and get warmed up.

And so Pastor Herb's undoing the sleeping bag, and he's like, Oh no! Man, he's he's kind of starting to yell and I'm like, Herb, what what what is going on?

He said I accidentally grabbed my daughter's strawberry shortcake sleeping bag.

You know what I'm talking about?

The kind you get at Walmart, right?

And it's really tiny.

It came, no joke, it came up to Herb's navel.

And so Herb's like freezing, right?

And we're like, yeah, good herbs, see it in the morning.

Like, there's no Walmart.

We're way out in the desert.

There's no way, you're not going anywhere, man.

And so in the morning, you know, he's just grumbling and he's grabbing everything.

In the morning, I get up and I'm all toast and warm.

And Herb, I look over there and he's just shaking.

He's just cold, hey, and he gets up and he's just he's not in a good spirit, everyone.

And he looks over and he has every towel, every piece of clothing wrapped on.

He looked like Mary Mother of God that morning.

So we have a patch to give to anyone that doesn't bring the right equipment to a camp out.

It's called Halfway Herb.

She has a goofy legend.

Herb's awesome.

Good story.

But I don't want that for you.

I want you to be fully surrendered, fully prepared.

Love what Jeremiah says.

If you seek him and find him, uh you will you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.

All of your heart.

Because lastly, you need to understand that you can develop an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Let me show you how that that works in a way.

I mentioned this um in our last series, how the the Trinity works in your life.

And it's really encompassed in this one scripture in 2 Corinthians, the amazing grace of Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit.

You need all three.

And remember when I when I told you that all three are active in your salvation and your walk with the Lord, that God the Father loves you, He drew you in, He went after you, He pursued you.

That's important for you to know.

And some of you have a struggle with the image of God being a father that loves you because you didn't have a good father.

And you need to have healing from that.

And his love is perfect for you, and he's come after you and made you a child of God.

Now he's done that, he's done that, and can I say it this way?

That some of you you wrestle with God's love in a way where you're questioning it.

There's just no way that God can love me.

My parents didn't love me, my friends don't love me, my husband didn't love me, my wife doesn't love me.

And you you struggle with that imperfect love or that insecurity in your life.

I heard an author say it this way God's not mad at you, and if he had a refrigerator, he would have a photo of you on his refrigerator.

He loves you.

But you gotta accept that love.

Also, God's son saved you, he was active in saving you.

That's the that's why you know you're valuable, everyone.

You you can tell a value by what someone's willing to give up for it.

And he gave up his son for you.

You should never question the love of God.

And Jesus was active in redeeming you, that God so loved you that he sent his son to pay the penalty, he gave up his son for you, and Jesus was active in reconnecting you to God the Father.

And you need to understand that once you surrender your life to that love and that redemption and that forgiveness, that the Holy Spirit is active in guiding you, leading you to a powerful existence.

Here on earth.

And he never leaves you.

He never leaves you.

You need a guide.

Some of you have come in lost.

Some of you have come in to the doldrums.

Do you know what the doldrums are?

It's a stretch of sea.

In the Atlantic, the Indian, the Pacific, around the equator where there is no wind.

And before mortarized ships were a thing, ships would actually accidentally fall into the doldrums where there is no.

It's actually where the southern trade winds and the northern trade winds come together.

And actually there's more more energy coming out of the earth there because of the heat around the equator.

It's a dead still.

There's no movement.

There's no life.

Sailors have died there because their ship just won't move.

It's the doldrums.

Some of you are coming into the doldrums.

Pastor Mark, I just don't I just don't feel anything.

And again, feelings are important.

You need them.

God moves through your feelings.

Don't let your feelings rule your life, but he uses them.

It's a correct statement.

I don't feel alive.

Pastor Mark, I feel depressed.

And you're in a doldrums.

And the spirit of God is a spirit of life.

You need a guide to get you out of the doldromes.

Some of you are, I'll speak to goopers.

Some of you are in a 10-mile swamp.

You don't know how you got in, you don't know how you're getting out.

You're in the wilderness, you're in the Outback, and you need a guide.

Can you imagine if there was a guide service that would just show up in your life and they said, hey, we got these guides for you that are going to lead you through life.

You're about a thousand miles from home, and these guys, all four of these guys, know the way.

And so they bring out, they bring out your first guide that you can choose from.

Hey, let me bring you this guy out, and it brings out, and it's Justin Bieber.

And you're like, man, I know he's lit a lot of fires in people's hearts, but I don't think he's ever lit a real fire.

So I'm gonna pass on Justin Bieber.

Then they bring out Aaron Rogers.

This is gonna be hard for this is gonna be hard for some of you.

And you're like, oh baby, Aaron Rodgers is here.

He can be my guide.

But ultimately, you know, he just throws a little ball around, and he has no skills.

You're like, I need to see, and then they bring out Jordan Peterson, and you're like, oh, this guy's super, super smart! Jordan Peterson, he knows the way, but then you think he's Canadian.

If you're Canadian out there, God bless you.

Bless your heart.

But then they bring out Crocodile Crocodile Dundee, everyone.

Woo! This guy knows the way.

He lives in the Outback and he has a Bowie knife.

Some of you young people don't know who that is.

Go watch a movie this afternoon from the 80s.

You need someone, and you choose crocodile Dundee because he knows the way.

And you need you need to have the Holy Spirit in your life.

His job is here on earth.

Think about that.

His job is here on earth to love you, to lead you, to correct you, to comfort when things get rough.

And he brings so many incredible attributes in your life.

So ask, as scripture says, for the Holy Spirit in your life.

Again, what Jesus says, if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, but we're evil people, and yet we still love to give good things to our children.

Can you imagine someone who's righteous or holy like God, what kind of beautiful gifts He can give you?

That's what Jesus is saying.

So your Father in heaven gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

So will you do this with me?

Will you this week in your your prayer life?

And listen, I want to take this kind of idea away that you have to, you saw a movie somewhere where you have to have a dedicated room, you know, you have a candle in there, God's word, and you pray for hours in there.

I want to take that idea away from you a little bit.

That's great if you do that.

I'm not trying to dumb that down.

I'm just saying a lot of us don't live these kind of lives.

It would be better to be constantly in prayer.

When I'm driving, I'm praying.

When I'm in the shower, I'm praying.

You see what I'm talking about?

Or I'm saying, Father, I just need to connect with you today.

I tell you again that oftentimes when I get up in the morning, my first conscious flips before my day gets going.

As I pray a little prayer, Lord, I just need you to walk with me and show you, show me who you want me to connect with today.

Who do you want to change their life?

Like set them up.

It's gonna be an interruption, but I'm gonna make margin for that.

Sometimes I don't even get my list done in the day because God just keeps on bringing people into my life.

And it happens through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, Lord, I want to experience something from you.

Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to be evident in my life as I walk with you.

I need Him to love me and guide me, empower me to do your work here as you've called me to.

So will you stand with me?

Will you go with me on this journey, Father?

Lord, we want to be with you.

And Father, even now you're actively listening to our prayers and accomplishing things through us, Lord, through the power of your Holy Spirit, who is with us.

He's our helper, he's our counselor, he leads us, he takes care of us, he empowers us.

So, Lord, I just ask as we open our hearts, we're in love, or untogden, or inish coming, we open our hearts, we open our spirits.

Lord, we drop our fears and misconceptions.

And Lord, we we want to experience and we trust you.

So, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would come into our lives.

You made this possible because of God's love for us, because of what you accomplished on the cross, and in the resurrection of the grave, Father, and now in the empowerment of your Holy Spirit that moves throughout the earth.

Father, I ask this upon your people.

Every situation, every circumstance, Father, we lift up to you, Jesus, that you would be made known in a powerful, loving way.

And we ask all of this as we come forward for prayer this morning and just spend a few minutes to worship you at the end of the service, Father.

We ask this in your son's holy and mighty name, amen.

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