We Are Access – We Are Spirit-Empowered

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

A few weeks ago, we had Easter weekend and it was a huge weekend here at our church.

And after that Sunday, a lot of my pastor buddies and I were in a group chat and we were just texting with each other.

And we said, let's all celebrate.

Let's celebrate what God did in your churches.

And everybody told their amazing stories, and I bragged on you because you're the greatest church in the history of the world, everybody.

I bragged on you.

Talked about our huge attendance numbers, and the biggest number that matters to me is over 100 people deciding to follow Jesus, which never gets old.

I love that so much.

And after I sent that off, one of my buddies side texted me out of the group and he goes, Man, what is happening at Access?

He goes, as a casual observer from a distance, it feels like God is blessing your church and it is growing so much and so fast.

Then he asked this question.

He said, What is the secret sauce?

Like, what is the thing that's making it grow so much?

What is the thing that's causing there to be so much of the blessing of God?

What is the secret sauce?

And so I started to write him back.

Now, I'm an iPhone user because I'm a Christian and um and you know it's true.

And um, anyways, on an iPhone, I can't speak for other phones because I'm not a Neanderthal, but I have an iPhone.

And so on an iPhone, when you start to text someone, it puts up the bubbles, you know, the dots.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like you can see that they're texting.

And so I started to text them something, and then I deleted it.

Then I started texting something again, and then I deleted it, and then I did this two or three times, and eventually he said, What are you doing?

Just answer the question.

And the reason I was I couldn't come up with the right answer.

At first I wrote something like, Well, you know, it's because the preacher is so handsome and cool, it's fine.

And uh, no, so I deleted that, obviously, and um also worked that out with my therapist this week.

And um, and so I started thinking, what is it that makes this church special?

Like, why is it that God is blessing?

Why are there so many new people all the time?

Why is it?

Then I started thinking through it, and I thought maybe it's because we have such a welcoming, kind church.

Like, I love the hospitality, the heart of hospitality in our church, for all the way from the parking lot to your seats.

It's such a kind, life-giving place.

Some months ago, we had a lady give us a one-star Google review, and she said, I came to church here and no one even said hi to me.

And I wanted to write back, liar, because you can't sneak in the church without someone loving you, high-fiving you, just saying hello and being glad that you're here.

But it's not that.

I thought that maybe was it.

I thought maybe it's the way that we love and we minister to the next gen here at Access.

It could be awesome, how awesome Access Kids is, it could be how great Access Youth is or Access Young Adult.

And they are awesome and I do love them, but it's not that.

It's not the secret sauce, but it's awesome, but it's not the secret sauce.

I thought maybe it's our incredible worship music, and our worship team is so amazing, and they're so talented and so anointed, and I love them.

In fact, I love them so much that sometimes when they sing a new song, I go find it on Spotify later, and I like the access version better than the original version.

I think that sometimes, but I don't think that's it.

I thought maybe it's our heart for outreach and serving our city, and I love that, but that's not it.

And I thought maybe it's the way that we get together in community through our access groups, and that's awesome.

It's so life-giving, but it's not that.

Maybe it's our irrational generosity.

We don't give to a church, we give through it, but it's it's not that.

And we all know, we just agreed a moment ago, it's not the preaching.

Like, what is it that makes access grow so much?

And then it hit me.

It's because we are a spirit-empowered church.

What does it mean?

It means that we don't have to make all the decisions, we have the Holy Spirit leading us.

Can I let you in on a little secret?

I'm not that good of a leader.

I'm not.

I'm self-aware enough to know that I have crazy limitations.

I'm not the smartest guy in every room.

I don't make the best decision.

Sometimes I struggle when I have two good choices to make a decision.

I'm not always the best leader.

I know I'm good at some stuff.

I love people really well.

I love our team so much.

I love our staff's kids, and I do everything I can to honor them and bless them, but I'm not the best leader.

But can I tell you what I am really good at?

Really good at being a follower.

That whatever the Holy Spirit asks us to do, we just say yes.

I think it's the secret sauce to our church.

It's the reason we've grown so much.

And here's what I want you to get today.

This is a part of the reason that you love this place.

This is the reason you come in, you're like, I don't know what it is, but there's just something so alive in this place.

That's not me, that's not good music, it's not great people serving.

It is the Holy Spirit alive and active in this place.

And here's what I want you to get.

If it's true for our church, it's also true for you.

If it's true for us, it means that you can live such a spirit-empowered life that every room you walk into, people are like, I don't know what it is about him or her, but I love that and I want that for me.

Like, it is possible for you to live that kind of life.

So here's what we're gonna do we're gonna go all up and down the Bible today.

If you are a Bible person, you are gonna love this message, tons of verses.

Let's talk about what it looks like for a church and then for you to live a spirit-empowered life.

Acts chapter one, here's what's happening Jesus has come to the earth, he's lived, he's died on the cross, risen again from the dead, and he gathers all of his followers and he says, Guys, I'm about to leave, but I want you to know I'm not leaving you alone.

Just days before Jesus had been crucified, and when he was crucified, all of those closest followers of him, they ran and they hid.

Out of fear or shame or whatever, they they hid in the obscurity of the shadows and they watched as their hero's head fell in death.

And now he was alive again.

They had to feel unstoppable in this moment, and Jesus gathers them and he's like, guys, look, I love you, but I'm leaving, but I'm not leaving you alone.

Now I think it's important for you to understand who he was talking to.

These were his disciples, these were his followers.

This is a group of people, and he says to these people who were what we would call Galileans.

Now, that may not mean much to you, but in that ancient world that Jesus lived in, Galileans were looked down upon.

They were seen as uneducated, they were seen as like not having much worth.

They had really thick Galilean accents that gave them away.

They were seen as kind of nobodies.

And the people that Jesus chose to be his disciples were kind of nobodies, rather insignificant people.

They were fishermen and tax collectors, and not the brightest, not the best, not the smartest.

But when they were with Jesus, they felt so empowered.

Jesus says, guys, I'm leaving you, but I want you to get this.

I'm not leaving you alone.

Acts chapter 1, verse 4.

Acts 1:4

It says, on one occasion, while he was eating with them, shout out to the Bible talking about food a lot.

It says that he gave them this command.

He says, I want you to stay here.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the, and here's the key word.

What is this word?

Come on, wait for the gift, my father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

He says, For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

This is the gift that Jesus promised.

And he said, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

And here's the result of the power.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, their city, Judea and Samaria, their country, and to the ends of the earth, really to the whole world.

He says this, he says, I want you to do this.

Stay here in Jerusalem, and God's gonna send a gift.

And I want you to understand that word gift is important because we're gonna come back to it in just a moment.

It's the person of the Holy Spirit.

And when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're gonna be filled with a new kind of power.

Now, the word that he uses, it's the ancient Greek word for power.

It's the word dunamis.

I love this word because this word dunamis is the word that we would transliterate from Greek into English as dynamite.

Like the explosive power of dynamite that can literally blow a hole through a mountain large enough so we can put a road through it.

That same kind of power can live inside of you.

Think about the verse, I think it's in Romans 8 or 8 or 9, where Paul says, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive inside of you.

Like there is a power that is available to followers of Jesus so that we don't have to live another day in our own strength, that we don't have to make another decision in our own wisdom, that we don't have to live another day trying to make it in our own abilities, but we can rest in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, how powerful is this?

I want you to see what happens in the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, wait here in Jerusalem.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 2 comes, and there's a demonstrative outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and there's all these new believers that are now filled with the power of God's Holy Spirit, and they literally changed the world.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 8 and 9 says a great persecution broke out, and all of these believers scattered around the known world, and everywhere they went, the power of God was there and with them.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Now, this is so important.

We get to Acts chapter 17, and it's interesting.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

These are some people giving commentary as these new believers come to their city.

They say, These who have turned the world upside down, they've come here too.

How amazing would it be if everyone said about you.

Those people, that family, that group from Access Church, those who have turned the world upside down, they're here as well.

Like I think that should be what our lives look like.

So, what I want to do in our next few minutes together is I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit.

Some years ago I was preaching just a normal Sunday morning, and this this couple, they looked at me as like really weird throughout the message, and as soon as I was done, they walked up and they said, We gotta talk to you.

It's like, okay, what?

I said, We need to we need to meet with you.

I'm like, well, I'm right here.

Let's talk now.

And they go, no, no, we can't talk now, let's talk later.

I was like, this could have been an email.

And so we we get together that week and we meet at a Starbucks, and I sit down, and there's no pleasantries.

There's no greeting, there's no, how's your wife?

How's the kids?

There's none of that stuff.

They literally said, Okay, what is it?

They said, What is it?

Let's change the slide.

They said, What is it?

And I said, What is what?

They said, it, what is it?

And I was like, what?

Like the birds and the bees?

Have you not had that talk?

No, no, no, no.

Like, what is what is it?

I said, What is what?

They said, the Holy Spirit.

I said, Why do you ask?

And they said, Well, look, we're from a Baptist church.

We've only been at Access for a few weeks.

And we've been reading the Bible for ourselves for the first time, which is something dangerous that all of us should do.

And they said, we got to the book of Acts and we read about the Holy Spirit, but we don't know what it is.

What is the Holy Spirit?

They said, we went to our pastor of our little Baptist church and he said, Oh, don't worry about that.

You don't need the Holy Spirit.

That seer that season is over.

I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's not right at all.

In fact, thank you for coming to me.

Let me teach all of you a theological term.

You ready to get a little education?

There's a term in theology called cessationism.

Cessationism says that when Jesus left and all the disciples eventually died, all the gifts of God that we would see from the Holy Spirit died out with those people who died.

It was over when they died.

And I can get behind that idea.

Except it's not in the Bible.

Not at all.

Like, I really believe that all the gifts of God, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are alive and they're active and they're available to all of us.

Here's the funny thing: there's a lot of Christians who would say, I believe in the Holy Spirit.

I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but no part of their life reflects the power of the Holy Spirit at work in them.

They are what I would call practical cessationists.

Practical cessationists are people whose life just doesn't match the fact that they believe that the Holy Spirit is still active and at work.

So why is it that we say we believe this, but we don't really receive it for ourselves?

Why is it that some of us, we're like, I don't know anything about this?

And so what we tend to do is we stiff arm the Holy Spirit.

I think the reason is we reject what we don't understand.

We reject the things we don't understand, and I want to say this this is a really dangerous way to live your life with God.

Why?

Because as smart as you are, as high as your IQ might be, there is a limit to human intellect and understanding.

But the things of God are so much bigger, more profound, more beautiful than anything we could wrap our minds around.

If this is true, then we need to we need to say, God, I just want your best for me.

A few months ago, a tragedy happened in my household.

My kids watched a movie called Napoleon Dynamite for the first time.

Have you seen this movie?

And the movie's great.

Vote for Pedro.

We get it.

Okay, fine.

And so uh there's one scene in the movie that when I think about the Holy Spirit, this is my hope for you.

There's that scene in the movie, and I don't even know her name, but there's this girl, and she's sitting at a table, and she's getting a sales pitch from a guy who's trying to sell her a ship that's enclosed in a glass bottle.

Do you remember the scene?

And she looks at it and she leans over to the guy she's with and she says, I want that.

Do you remember this?

This is the picture I have for you today.

I want every person who hears about the Holy Spirit to leave today and say, I want that for me.

Like I want God's best for me.

That's my hope.

I'm telling you up front, my hope is that everyone leaves today and say, I want whatever that is.

Let's get going.

Here's the point for today.

If the Holy Spirit is a gift from God, then I want you to understand some things about him and about the gift.

Here's the first thing.

This is not in your notes.

I want you to understand that he, the Holy Spirit, is not an it.

Now, why does this matter?

Because I think many of us tend to relegate the person of the Holy Spirit to being nothing more than an object or a force in our life.

And I want you to understand it's a person, not an it.

Why does this matter?

Because you can't have a personal relationship with an object or a force, and God wants you to have a relationship with him.

He.

Jesus often refers to the Holy Spirit as he, it's a person.

Let me try to explain it to you like this.

As Christians, we believe that we serve one God in three unique persons.

We call this the Trinity.

It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God the Father makes sense to us because we understand what it means to have a Father.

Maybe you had a good one or a bad one, but we we at least get the idea of a Father.

God the Son, Jesus, we get it because we understand sons.

We are a son, we have a son, we know a son, like we get that.

But it's the language around the person of the Holy Spirit that's weird to us.

Like, what is the spirits?

Some people call them the Holy Ghost.

Those are spirit and ghost are Halloween terms.

Like, how do we reconcile this?

Let me try to explain it to you in really simple terms, okay?

I believe that God the Father is God who is for us.

God the Son, Jesus, is God with us.

We celebrate at Christmas that He is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

But the Holy Spirit is God in us.

You serve a God who wants to live in you.

So that in every interaction, every moment, every decision, every wandering of your heart, every moment of your life can be a moment where you're not alone in it, but you have God with you in it.

He's in it with you.

So here's what I want you to understand.

He's not in it, he's a person.

And let me help to kind of give you some different language around it.

It's it's not some spooky, weird spirit or ghost.

In fact, the Bible is written in two predominant languages.

The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, the New Testament is written in Greek.

The words are really important because the words that these people use, that the translators use to get it from Greek and Hebrew to English, doesn't perfectly translate.

Let me show it to you.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for spirit is the word ruach, which is a fun word, especially in allergy season.

You can just hack up something if you want.

Ruach literally means a wind, a breath, a violent exhalation, a blast of breath.

The Holy Spirit is seen all the way through the Bible from the beginning to the end.

Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

This is the first verse in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit, the rua of God, was hovering over the waters.

From the very beginning, he's there.

That's the Old Testament Hebrew.

New Testament for the word spirit is the word pneuma.

Pneuma is interesting because it shares common etymology.

It's a current of air, a blast of breath, a strong breeze.

Listen to all of these words and think about the word pneuma.

It's deeply tied to our breathing, pneumatology.

I can't even think of the word right now.

What is it when you get really sick, you've got pneumonia?

That's it.

Thanks for being along for that journey.

All of these words are connected to breath and to breathing.

Think about this for a moment.

You ever gotten away from a very busy hectic season and you went on vacation somewhere, up in the mountains or at the beach, and you wake up in the morning and you come out and all the stress of the world melts off and you go.

Don't you love that?

It's like a breath of fresh air.

That's a picture of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know if you've ever been on a sailboat, but when you catch the wind and it propels you forward, this is the picture of the Holy Spirit.

It is the breath of God that gives you life and it pushes you into your future.

We said earlier the Holy Spirit's not in it.

Here's another thing about the Holy Spirit.

He's not weird.

Now let me caveat that with this.

People are weird.

You might be sitting next to a super weirdo, but you need to understand the Holy Spirit is not weird.

People do weird things with the Holy Spirit, but don't put on the Holy Spirit what you've seen that's goofy and weird from other people.

Let me tell you who the Holy Spirit is, and I want to give you four quick things.

And all of these are the gifts that Scripture refers to.

Number one, the Holy Spirit is my inner voice.

I want you to hear this.

You serve a speaking God.

Prayer was never intended to be a monologue from me to God.

Prayer is a dialogue where God speaks to us.

What does this look like?

It looks like lots of things.

Let me show you one of my favorite.

The book of John, John chapter 16, Jesus said, When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

John 16 · chapter mention

Pause here for just a moment.

Nobody likes the word conviction.

That feels like a negative word.

And as Christians, we need to differentiate and delineate two different words, conviction and condemnation.

Let me explain the difference.

Condemnation is a work of the enemy.

It is full of judgment, it is full of shame and guilt.

Condemnation comes from the enemy.

It says that you'll never measure up, you'll never be able to get God's forgiveness, you'll never do enough to get God to love you.

Condemnation is from the enemy, but conviction is a gift from the Holy Spirit.

What is the difference?

Conviction always leads you to Jesus.

In fact, one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is that it leads us.

He will always lead us to Jesus.

I could explain it like this.

At the end of every service, I give people an opportunity.

I say something like, If you've never made the decision to follow Jesus, or maybe you just feel like you've walked away and today you want to restart a relationship with Jesus, if this is you.

And I've had people say to me, like, when you said it, it was like there was no one else in the room.

It was as if God himself was tapping on my heart.

That's not me.

That's not a gifted communicator.

That's the Holy Spirit drawing you to Jesus.

That is the conviction of Jesus.

Paul says this in 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

He says, No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

You need to understand that it's a big deal.

He speaks to us, he's my inner voice.

The second thing you need to understand about the Holy Spirit is that he is my teacher.

Now, look, I'm all about education.

I love education.

I went all the way through school, kindergarten, all the way through my doctorate.

Got a doctorate a couple years ago, and that means one thing.

It means I will never go back to school ever again, ever.

Like I'm done with school.

And as much as I love education, studying, as much as I love books and research and all those things, there's just some stuff that you you can't know on your own.

There's some stuff that you need someone to come alongside and show you.

What does the Holy Spirit teach us?

Jesus himself said this, John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

It says, But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I said to you.

What does Jesus teach us?

I mean, what does the Holy Spirit teach us?

He teaches us about God, but also about us.

He teaches us more about who God is.

He reveals the heart, the character, the nature of God, and he reminds us of who we are.

I love this.

This is some books later in the Bible.

This is 1 John, several books later.

He says this.

He says, But you have received the Holy Spirit and he lives within you, so you don't need anyone to teach you what is true.

For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know.

Can I explain it to you like this?

Some years ago, I was doing premarital counseling for a couple.

Real sweet couple, really great.

And I got to that part of premarital counseling where I said, What is your plan as a married couple to grow in your relationship with God?

How will you grow spiritually?

And they looked at each other and they looked at me and they said, We'll just do whatever you tell us to do.

And I said, That is a really bad idea.

I got all kinds of issues.

You don't want to listen to me as the voice of truth exclusively.

What does it mean?

It means that you need to have a relationship with God where you go to God's word on your own because it is the ultimate authority, and where you hear the voice of God because he'll reveal stuff to you that no great teacher or preacher could ever do for you.

You need to hear his voice on your own.

He's my inner voice.

He's my teacher.

Number three, he is my guide.

I want you to get this.

Um, I said it a moment ago, I've got all kinds of issues.

Here's one of my biggest ones.

I get lost in a parking lot.

I have no sense of direction whatsoever.

I can't find my way to any place.

Sometimes when I ask people for the directions, they're like four miles south and then go west for two miles.

And I'm like, okay, Lewis and Clark.

I'm not Christopher Columbus.

Like, tell me left at Taco Bell.

You know, like make it easy.

Make it easy for me.

And I'll never forget how powerful I felt.

This is many years ago.

I was a new driver when GPSs first came out.

And for those of you who are young, who have always had a phone in your pocket with a GPS, there was a point in the time when we had to print maps off like cavemen.

Anyone remember this?

And so when I got a GPS in my car, it was called a TomTom.

And I had a love, love for TomTom.

I loved that thing.

I did.

And it just told me where to go, when to turn.

It knew how to get me places.

I felt like a superhero in this moment.

Did you know that spiritually you have a GPS for your soul?

He'll lead you, he'll guide you into all truth.

Jesus himself said, John chapter 16, this is at the Last Supper.

John 16 · chapter mention

Jesus says, But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own.

He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

The Holy Spirit is my guide.

Some 750 years before Jesus lived, the prophet Isaiah said this.

He said, Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way.

Now here's your part, so walk in it.

God wants to guide us by his Holy Spirit into all truth.

Ready for the last one, number four.

The Holy Spirit is my friend.

I would even add, parenthetically, he's my best friend.

You are heroes because you have lived through a pandemic.

But can I tell you something sad?

I think you live through a pandemic and you're living in the middle of an endemic.

The endemic is loneliness.

We live in an isolated, lonely world.

It's funny because we have all the markings of connection.

We have phones and social media.

You might know what's happening in the lives of people around you, but you still feel so alone.

One of the interesting markings of a culture is that you can be literally in a room surrounded by hundreds of people.

You can be so close to people you can reach out and touch a dozen people with just without even moving.

And you can still feel isolated and alone.

When you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, you never have to spend one waking moment feeling lonely.

You can wake up every single morning and start your day with good morning, Holy Spirit.

You can just say hello.

I love this Jesus Himself.

Again, John chapter 14, verse 16.

John 14:16

He says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever.

If you go to different translations of the Bible, this word counselor is translated different ways.

Some say counselor, some say advocate, some say helper, some say friend.

And I love this because the Greek word for counselor is an interesting word.

It's the word parakletos.

This word para means width, and kletos means like to come alongside.

The picture is this.

Imagine I had a long box that had a handle on both ends, and it was too big for me to handle myself, so I grabbed the handle on one end and I lift it up, the bottom is still dragging on the floor.

Could I muscle that and carry it by myself?

Maybe for a while.

But how amazing would it be if another person came alongside me and grabbed the other side of the box and carried it with me?

This is the picture of the Holy Spirit that Jesus talks about in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

You never have to shoulder the burdens of this life alone.

You never have to carry the weight of this world on your shoulders alone.

But the Holy Spirit is your friend who comes alongside and is with you all the time.

You always have a friend who's with you and helping you in the Holy Spirit.

End of 2 Corinthians.

Paul says this.

He's doing what's called a benediction.

It's kind of like the wrap-up of a prayer.

And he says this.

This is from Eugene Peterson's translation or paraphrase called the message.

He said, The amazing grace of the Master Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

I love this because he talks about the Trinity and all that they offer.

The amazing grace of Jesus.

What is the amazing grace of Jesus?

It is his love poured out for us on Calvary when he gave his life for us.

A gift so beautiful that we are so unworthy of that the only adjective that feels adequate is amazing.

His grace amazing.

The extravagant love of God.

I love the word extravagant.

Last week we told the story of the prodigal son.

The word prodigal literally means wastefully extravagant.

I love that story because we think of the son as the prodigal, but really it's the father who is the prodigal.

He's the one who lavishes love on his son who's unworthy of it, and that's the picture of God.

But I want you to see of the Holy Spirit is the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit.

That He is with you, He is for you, He is everywhere you are, He is in you, He is God in us.

So here's how I want to end today.

I want to end with this question.

What do we do with the Holy Spirit?

Like what changes?

So what?

Like why does this matter?

I want you to look at this verse in the book of Ephesians, chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

The apostle Paul says, Don't grieve God, don't break his heart.

His Holy Spirit is moving and breathing in you.

It's the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself.

Then I want you to catch this last line.

Don't you dare take that gift for granted.

We started with Jesus saying that the Holy Spirit is a gift that God would send.

And I want to end with this idea that he is a gift that we should never take for granted.

So today I want to end with three prayers.

Each one is four words.

Not that much, really simple.

But here's my challenge to you.

I'm going to challenge you to pray some dangerous prayers this week.

And I want you to invite the Holy Spirit in.

Here's the prayers.

Write this down.

Prayer number one.

Holy Spirit, show me.

Show me.

What do we want Him to show us?

First of all, who God is.

But really, maybe more importantly, show me who I am.

In the book of Ezekiel, this is just a few hundred years before Jesus lived.

There's this prophet Ezekiel, and he prophesies this picture, and I love it.

It's a picture of a heart transplant.

Here's what he says: Ezekiel chapter 36.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

God says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

I will remove you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

He says, and I will put my spirit, my ruach in you, and move you to follow my decrees and to be careful to keep my laws.

Let's pause here for just a moment.

Ezekiel says, God wants to do a transplant in your heart.

And here's what it looks like.

He said, if you're not careful, you will develop a heart of stone.

It's hard towards God.

But God wants to replace it with the heart of flesh.

And in this heart transplant, here's what happens: your heart starts beating for the things of God.

Your heart starts caring about and loving and wanting the things of God.

And I love this because he says, and you'll do this so that you can be careful to keep my laws.

Laws are the things that most people are like, ugh.

I want nothing to do with the laws of God.

I feel like I can't measure up and keep up on my own.

Can I teach you something about laws?

Laws are only effective in the context of relationship.

If I were to give rules and laws to your children, it wouldn't mean anything at all.

In fact, laws without relationship ultimately leads to rebellion.

But in relationship, we understand that the laws and rules are there because of love and therefore protection for future joy and pleasure.

This is the point of every rule and every law.

And here's what God's saying.

It's like when you have my heart, you'll start to care about what I care about, and my laws, you'll understand them because they're for your good.

So here's what David prays.

Psalm chapter 139.

Psalms 139 · chapter mention

David prays this dangerous prayer.

He says, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me.

And here's what I want you to do.

You take charge and lead me in the way everlasting.

When you pray, Holy Spirit, show me.

You're saying, show me what's wrong, what's off, what's not for you in my heart.

Second prayer is this Holy Spirit, now that I know, I want you to change me.

Awareness without change is wasted energy.

Awareness without the ability to make a difference and change it is just wasting your heart.

But I want you to see what Paul says.

2 Corinthians chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

He says, For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Freedom from your past, freedom from your shame, freedom from your issues.

And the Lord, who is the spirit, makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

We become more and more like God when we say, Holy Spirit, show me what's wrong, and then show me how to change it because ultimately I want to just be more and more like Jesus.

Holy Spirit, show me.

Holy Spirit, change me.

Number three, Holy Spirit, fill me.

And every single day I want you to pray this prayer.

See, here's the thing we tend to fill our hearts with all kinds of stuff.

And it's not even bad stuff.

Like I'm not here to condemn you and be like, thou shalt not enjoy your life.

God wants you to enjoy your life.

Just don't fill it with everything else instead of Him.

Nothing wrong with liking golf and football, nothing wrong with enjoying the mountains or hiking, nothing wrong with swimming, and nothing wrong with the beach, nothing wrong with going on a date with your wife, nothing wrong with loving, playing with your kids.

Love all those things.

I love all of them too.

It's great.

Just don't let them take the preeminent place of God in your heart.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul says this.

But instead be filled with the Spirit.

This isn't a have an encounter with God at youth camp and then never do it again.

I want you to see what it says about the disciples in the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

And the disciples were continually filled.

They were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

So what do we pray every single day?

Listen to me.

I want you to pray this prayer.

Holy Spirit, show me.

Holy Spirit, change me.

Holy Spirit, fill me.

What happens?

You're filled with the power of God's Holy Spirit.

You no longer have to live in your own strength.

If you feel like a leader who's kind of a reluctant leader at best, you never have to make decisions in your own ability, wisdom, and intellect.

You get to be on mission with the Holy Spirit.

You get to follow his lead and you get to experience all the gifts and all the blessings that he's close, that he's a friend, that he's a guide, that he teaches, that he speaks as an inner voice.

You get all the gifts of God and you get to let go of all the stress and all the pressure.

Remember earlier when I said, here's my goal?

I want you to say, I want that.

Who wouldn't want that?

Who would want to live a life stressed out, overworked, feeling like you can't ever get ahead?

When you could be filled with the power of God's Holy Spirit and walk in his strength and not your own.

Who wouldn't want that?

Would you bow your head and close your eyes all across this place?

Let's pray those prayers that we prayed just a moment ago.

Let's start with the first one.

Holy Spirit, show me.

Holy Spirit, we invite you to show us the areas in our life where we are not living the way God would have us to live.

Reveal sin, reveal brokenness, reveal the places where we need to hear from you.

Would you do that?

Then, Holy Spirit, prayer number two, we ask you to change us.

May we not be content to know where we're coming up short, but instead, may we have the courage to change.

We just want to become more and more like you, Jesus.

So would you help us to change?

Give us the strength we need to change.

And then, Holy Spirit, here's our prayer.

Would you fill us over and over and over?

May we be so full of your power, so full of your strength, so full of you that there's not room for anything else to compete for first place in our hearts.

We love you, we thank you for it.

Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, we honor you in this place.

We'll never stop.

This is a spirit empowered church.

And my prayers as a result of this that every single person will leave today.

It's a spirit led, spirit empowered follower of you.

We thank you, God.