Spirit Of God | Rachel Ann

You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today I have a word for us, hopefully to encourage

us to end well and to remember who helps us

end well.

Amen.

Amen.

I know some of us, our year may have.

Been pretty chaotic, maybe unpredictable this year. Some of us

may be discouraged. Some may be mundane, like the whole

year has just been like meh. Or some of us

may be been cruising along, floating along, but Hey, we

have another two and a half months to go before

the year ends and we're going to enter 2027. So

let's press in. Let's encourage one another to end the

year well and to really, really experience God. Really, you know,

take hold of all that He has for us this

year before we enter into the new year.

Amen?

Amen.

Okay, so today my message, if you're taking notes, is

called Spirit of God.

Then and now.

Oh, what are we going to talk about? Then and now. Today,

I'm going to get us to read quite a number

of scripture. And, you know, when we are in church, right,

it really, it is participation of everybody, right? It shouldn't be,

we are not here doing a show. So, you know,

Pastor Dan is not, it's not concert. That's why we

all participate in worship. Even when the Speaker is here preaching.

All of you are also participating in the Word. You know,

whether it's agreeing and saying yes and amen. And today,

I'm going to get you to read some verses later on. Okay,

so you better have your Bibles ready. Bibles, ready your

physical Bibles, e-Bibles. But I will, yeah, be walking around

so that you all don't just hear my voice.

I want to hear some of your voices.

Okay, so the year, the theme this year, what has

it been? What's the theme this year?

Shout it out. Yes, revival.

Okay, and these five years till 2030, you know, God

has given Pastor Kenneth this dream, right? So we have dream,

five words that we're going through. And of course, you know,

those of you who have been with us, at least

from last year, you know, we were talking a lot

about discipleship last year. This year, we've been talking about revival, right?

And it's the work of God, revival.

It's not man... We can't plan for it.

And it's not just about like one time rally, one

time event and then yeah, everybody is like on fire

and we are feeling all the goosebumps.

It's not about that. Revival is not that, right?

It is a lot of what we've been focusing on

this year is personal revival. What are we experiencing in

our hearts personally, right? In our families, in our church,

in our small groups. But personal revival starts with us.

Right?

Revival starts with us.

And we want to see revival happen in Malaysia and beyond.

Right?

It's got to start with us first as individuals. And

just falling in love with Jesus again, over and over again.

Some of us have been believers for a long, long time.

And we might lose that first love, but we want

to fall in love with Him again. We want to

come back to that first love. We want to go

deeper with the Holy Spirit. We sang just now again,

Holy Spirit, You're welcome here. You know, and we want

to catch the Father's heart.

Amen.

And I pray if we have not been experiencing that

deep awakening this year. you know, in our spirits, that

we will not miss out, even as the year draws

to the end.

Still got time, okay?

Still got time to pull in and like, you know,

I was just picturing like wrestling with God, you know,

not wanting to let go of Him, like how Jacob

wrestled with God and, you know, and said, no, I

won't let go until I get this blessing. I won't

let go until I experience this awakening in my spirit.

The year's coming to an end. You know, we don't

have much time. Like, I see all the things that's

happening in the world. I mean, Just recently what, Damansara

Utama there got mini tornadoes and cars getting lifted up.

I mean like crazy stuff is happening just in next

door and all our neighbouring towns in Malaysia, out of

all places. And I mean the haze and everything that's

happening in the world, you know that these are all

birth pangs. Those who have been believers for a while,

these are all signs, right, of the ends of age.

So You know, time is drawing near to Jesus' coming.

But yeah, but even as we enter the end of

this year, you know, let's wrestle with God and say, God,

you know, I haven't really experienced that awakening in my spirit,

that revival. Lord, I will not let you go until

you give me that experience. I don't want to enter

into 2027 like same old, same old, right? We want

to enter into the new year like, really? Okay, what's next, God?

In this year, and you all can see it in

the next letter. Next year, everyone's like, what's E? Evangelism.

Everyone is like, closed eyes, right? It's like the hardest

thing sometimes for the church to talk about. Evangelism.

You know, but we want to, it is, like I said,

it starts with going deeper with the Lord first this year.

So we don't want to miss out on that. We

want to go forwards. We want to go deeper.

We want to, You know, we're saying, Lord, revive my heart.

I want to burn for you and.

Really experience that.

Because I think as we enter into 2027, if we

really experience God afresh this year and really go deeper

with Him this year, evangelism is like a by-product.

We don't need to like, everybody, let's go evangelize. No,

it's not that. I think we'll all just be so

stirred up. God, you're so good to me. I can't help. Yeah,

but share.

I can't keep this to myself. I need everyone around

me to know how good this God is. And so

it will be a natural progression so that we don't

need to like every year, you know, come on, let's

do this. Let's do this. This is the great commission.

This is what God has called us as believers to do.

This is our very purpose. And if our lives, we

don't live doing this, that's when we feel like, what's

my purpose?

A bit lost. A bit lost. Right, so.

Yes, how can we not share the goodness of God

with people that we love at the very least? Starting

with the people we love, then after that, can start

with strangers or people we don't really know. And you've

heard this analogy before, right? When you eat at a

really good restaurant maybe or stay in a really good hotel.

I mean, do you keep it to yourself? you should

tell your, at least, your good friends. Maybe you won't

tell a stranger, but you tell at least your good friends,

your family, like, hey, next time let's go here together.

Right?

We will share it.

It's something that is natural in us to want to

share with people that we love. Okay, so I pray

that that's the same for us when we talk about

our lives and what we experience with God.

Amen. Okay.

So, I was mentioning the, I know the word can

be daunting.

And outside our comfort zones.

Because as we end the year, we're going to be

preparing to enter into 2027, talking about evangelism. And we

sometimes get into a place where it's only for the

elect few. The pastors, the elders, the leaders, the missionaries.

Those with the gift of evangelism. All those who are

called to it. It's for them. The rest of us

will just come to church and Serve in church and

chukup lah, chukup. No, if you study the scripture, we

know right, God has called all of us, all of

us to share, this is not my word today by

the way, it's just intro, all of us to share

the good news of Christ and make disciples. Right, we

all know that word from Matthew. And the thing is right,

the only thing that will get us from here to there,

to really evangelism in 2027, who do you think is

going to prepare us and empower us?

Holy Spirit, we'll be singing about him. Welcome here. He's

the only one because naturally, we all know we don't

want to share. Very awkward. Very out of our comfort zone.

So weird lah. People are going to look at me funny.

And there's a fear that sometimes we can't even explain

why we have this fear. What's so bad about? What

can go wrong? Like, how bad can it be when

we share with someone? But it is a fear that

sometimes we can't explain why because it's spiritual.

I really believe it's spiritual. The enemy will try all

he can to stop us. from sharing.

He'll try all he can to keep us silent.

Right?

And that's why he also pulls us down, discourages us

so we are so caught up in our own lives.

We don't even have time to share with others. But

that's not his will for us.

Right?

He wants us to live an abundant life. And so,

I know we're going to talk about evangelism a lot

next year. So you will hear about that a lot.

I'm not going to talk about it today. But I

did want to talk about the person who will prepare us. Okay,

the person who prepares for the coming year. Our God,

those who are maybe new in the faith, you know

our God is three in one. Okay, it's Godhead three

in one. We have the Father, the Son and the

Holy Spirit from the beginning till eternity. All three of

them working together. And I think some months back, I

went through that together, right? We talked about the Father, Son,

Holy Spirit, how their roles are different, how they work together,

how they're united. But today I want to focus on

the Holy Spirit.

Okay, the Spirit of God. Interchangeable, Holy Spirit. Spirit of God.

And I remember actually my very first sermon in XKK.

When did I start speaking? Last year. I still can't remember.

Not that long. lah. I think last year. Earlier last year.

And I remember I spoke about power. Like what is

power for, right? And we looked at Acts chapter 1

Acts 1:8

verse 8. You all know what it was? Who knows

that verse can say, can read it out. Acts chapter

Acts 1:8

1 verse 8. But you shall receive... Power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be

my witnesses.

Where?

In Jerusalem first and then Judea, Samaria and then to

the ends of the earth. And evangelism is part of witnessing.

God says you will be my witnesses. I'll give you

power to be my witnesses. And the only way we're

going to see the vision that God has.

Given Acts, right?

Which is actually for every church also, the Great Commission, right?

Making more disciples, bringing people into the light. That's what

every church mission should be. The only person that can

help us get there and help us accomplish that vision

is the Holy Spirit. There's no other way. By our

own strength, no way. By tons of training also, no way.

how much we preach also.

No way. It's only the Holy Spirit that can give

us that power.

Amen.

Alright. So let's start reading Scripture.

Okay, everyone got your Bibles? Let's look at the work

of the Holy Spirit throughout the Scriptures. These are only

a few. There's so many more but I just pick

out some examples.

Okay. Let's start with Genesis.

Genesis 1 chapter 2.

Who's there? Who's there?

All don't dare to say because I'll come to you. Okay,

let's start with Rochelle. She's the one responding to me

and encouraging me. Okay, Genesis chapter 1 verse 2. Genesis

Genesis 1:2 Genesis 1:2

chapter 1 verse 2. The earth was without form and

void and darkness was on the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face

of the waters.

Amen.

Who was hovering over the face of the waters? The

Holy Spirit, right? We see, that's why we see and

we know that the whole Trinity was working together from

the beginning. It's not like at the beginning, there was

only the Father and then when Jesus came to earth,

then only got Jesus. And then after Jesus went back

to heaven, then only got Holy Spirit. No, they were

always working together. So we see the Holy Spirit right

from the beginning at the creation of the world.

Amen.

Then we're going to read Exodus chapter 31, verse 1

Exodus 31:1–5

to 5.

This one a bit longer. Who got enough voice? Who

want to read for me?

Exodus 31, 1 to 5.

Gabriel, thank.

You.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, See, I have

called by name Bezazel, the son of Uri, the son

of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have

filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding,

in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship to design

artistic works to work in gold, in silver, in bronze,

in cutting jewels, for setting, in carving wood and to

work in all manner of workmanship.

Wow, anyone here makes jewellery or carpentry, any artsy people, craftsmanship?

Don't have ah? All very humble, don't want to lift

up a hand.

Wow, but we see here, the Spirit of God fills Bezalel, right?

Bezalel.

It grants him wisdom, understanding, knowledge and workmanship skills.

Right? To do the work.

And you know that then he builds, he helps to

build the tabernacle. But the Spirit of God came upon him,

granted him all these skills.

Yes.

Okay, then we move on. Okay, we just go through

the Old Testament.

Numbers 27, verse 18. Let's see who's my next helper. Yeah,

Numbers 27:18

I know it's there on screen. Actually, XTV, don't need

to be so kind. Let them flip to the Bible first.

Regina, you want to read for me?

Can, huh?

Numbers 27, verse 18. So the Lord said to Moses,

Numbers 27:18

Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom

is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Amen.

Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom

is the Spirit.

Right?

So the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God was already

in him, upon him.

And you all know Joshua.

You all know Joshua, right? After Moses, he led the

Israelites away. So Spirit of God came upon Joshua, was

already in Joshua, to lead the Israelites. Y'all wondering where

am I getting at? Okay, we're going to read a

few more. Judges 3, verse 10. Read verse 10 first.

Judges 3:10

I start coming up the upstairs already. Y'all think I'm

too lazy to go up?

No lah. Eh, who's there? 3, 10. Katrina there already ah?

The Spirit of the Lord came upon him so that

he became Israel's judge and went to war. The Lord

gave Cushan Rishad, king of Aram, into the hands of Othniel,

who overpowered him.

Amen.

So here you see the Spirit of God The Spirit

of the Lord came over him.

Who is him? It's Othniel, okay? His name there. Yeah.

And then he overpowered the king of Mesopotamia.

Okay, what was the other verse I put? Sorry. And

still in Judges....

Yeah, and those who know the book of Judges, you know, different,

different Judges, and the Spirit of God came upon them.

In this case, Othniel, he judged Israel.

So we move on to Judges 14, verse 6.

Judges 14:6

Yeah, come this side. There it is.

And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,

and he tore the lion apart, as one would have

torn apart a young goat. though he had nothing in

his hand. But he did not tell his father or

his mother what he had done.

Who is this? Samson!

We all love this favourite Sunday school or ex-kid story.

Samson!

Everyone draws him with muscles and all. But maybe he

didn't look like that.

Who knows?

Maybe he's actually very thin, slender, slender. But the Spirit

of God will come upon him in power and then...

He can tear a lion apart with his bare hands.

Bare hands, no knife, no nothing. Just bare hands. But

Spirit of God came upon him. And then he, I mean,

he killed lion, he killed other, like, lots of people. Okay,

but it was God's Spirit upon him that gave him

that strength. Okay, two more scriptures we read.

1 Samuel 16, verse 13. Okay, I go higher up

1 Samuel 16:13

a little bit for Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16.

13.

Can I go high, high up here? Can tuck there?

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him

in the midst of his brothers.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from

that day forward.

So Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Yeah, so Samuel...

anointed who?

David. We all love the stories of David as well.

Shepherd boy David became King David and Samuel anointed him.

Right? And what does it say?

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from

that day forward.

Amen.

And you know King David reigned in Israel, led the people.

Amen.

And he was a man after God's own heart. Okay,

and one more.

2 Chronicles 15. 2 Chronicles 15 verses 1 to 2. XTV,

2 Chronicles 15:1–2

you can just leave my slide up so they can

see the verses and then they can read from their Bibles.

2 Chronicles 15 verse 1 to 2.

2 Chronicles 15:1–2

Okay, last one. This side. Amen. And you read throughout,

you know, Kings, Chronicles, the Spirit of God came upon

different men Amen.

And you read throughout, you know, Kings, Chronicles, the Spirit

of God came upon different men, right, different prophets to

release a word, to speak to God's people.

In this case, to speak to King Asa, to encourage him.

And, you know, if you read on, it's very interesting

when you read Chronicles, read on, then he defeats Asa.

the people, His enemies and things like that. But later on,

I mentioned what happens after that.

So why am I bringing us through these verses? Just

for us to see that the.

Spirit of God, whom we frequently call the Holy Spirit today,

He was very active. He was active, right, in the

Old Testament. But did you notice something? The experience of

the Holy Spirit was selective.

Selective.

It wasn't that they called upon him and he came

and empowered them.

No. He chose.

Specific people for specific tasks and then he came upon them.

So it was selective. He came upon specific people to

be craftsmen, some were.

Judges, some were kings, like King David, judges like O'Neill, Samson,

then there were prophets. Like this one, Azariah and many,

many more. So He chose, He selected.

But in the New Testament, what changes? And that's the

good news for us, right? What changes in the New Testament?

The Holy Spirit's interaction with mankind is no longer selective, correct?

He's been given to all men and women and children.

He's been given to all of us. In Joel 2,

Joel 2:28

verse 28, What does it say? You can go to

my next slide. This is the prophetic promise, right, that

Joel says. And it shall come to pass afterward that

I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your

sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall

dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. This is

the prophecy from Joel. And you hear Peter preach it

again in his, you know, his first sermon.

He mentions this.

But wow.

From the Spirit of God being selective, He only chose

certain men. Now the privilege that we have is, is

now universal.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, He's poured out His Spirit on all men, all flesh.

And God is saying, I will, you know, not I may,

not should, I will pour out my Spirit on who?

Pastors?

Elders?

Leaders? Missionaries?

Yes.

Full-time workers only? Teachers?

No.

All.

All flesh. You all got flesh? Touch the person beside you.

You are flesh. You are flesh. And bones.

Turn to your other neighbours. Say, so the Spirit of

God is upon you. Come on, say it with conviction.

Spirit of God is upon you.

Okay, that's you.

That's me.

Amen.

Amen.

And, you know, after Jesus had been crucified, buried, resurrected,

He appeared to His disciples for 40 days and He

spoke about the kingdom. He continued speaking to the disciples

about the kingdom of God and then what does He

command them? Don't depart from Jerusalem. He says, don't depart

from Jerusalem, but wait here. Wait for the promise of

the Father. Who's that promise?

Come on.

Anyone knows it? Who was the promise? The Holy Spirit

was the promise of the Father. He said, wait in Jerusalem. Terry,

wait here. Don't go anywhere.

And so we read the next verse in Acts 1,

Acts 1:4–5

verse 4 to 5. And being assembled together with them,

He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to

wait for the promise of the Father, which He said,

You have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water,

but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not

many days from now. Wow, so all the disciples are

like wondering, what is this?

What's going to happen?

Wait in Jerusalem? Okay, so Joel has prophesied. Now Jesus

has said it. And here comes the fulfillment. We see

the beginning of the fulfillment in Acts chapter 2. The

Acts 2 · chapter mention

whole core values we've been reading, Acts chapter 2, right?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This also happened in Acts chapter 2. So verse 1

Acts 2 · chapter mention

to 4, what does it say? Next slide, yeah. When

the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all

with one accord in one place and suddenly there came

a sound from heaven as a rushing wind and it

filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there

appeared to them divided tongues of fire and one sat

upon each of them and they were some of them. All,

they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them Amen.

There were 120 of them there in the upper room.

How many of us here? If everyone feel then, 120, right?

This space fits about.

Yeah, in the upper room.

So I just give you a bit of, maybe those

who don't know what Pentecost is. So Pentecost, the word

Pentecost comes from the Greek word Pentecoste.

I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but it

means 50th. Okay, 50th.

And the Jews used to celebrate and it's an agricultural

and religious festival at that time called Shavuot.

Shavuot. Okay, or called the Feast of Weeks or Feast

of Harvest.

So the 50th day, it is actually celebrated on the

50th day after the second day of Passover.

I know a lot of festivals. Jews have a lot

of festivals. But Passover, you know, right?

They celebrate because when Moses, when God sent the plagues, right?

God saved them from the final plague, which is the

birth of the firstborn. So Passover is when they put

the blood of the Lamb on the doors and God

spared the Israelites from that final plague in Egypt and

liberated them from slavery.

Okay, so now Pentecost, when we.

Celebrate it, we celebrate it on the.

50 days after Easter.

After Jesus resurrected. Okay, Resurrection Sunday. That's what Pentecost is.

Because I used to hang, what's that, what's that? Okay,

so 120 of them, disciples, were recorded, named. They were

gathered in the upper room and they were, 115 of

them got filled.

No.

All, the Bible says all, means all 120 of them named,

all were filled with.

The Holy Spirit because that was the promise of the Father.

And that is why Jesus said in John 16 verse 7, right?

John 16:7

It is to your advantage that I go away.

Disciples are like, what? No way, man, Jesus. You want

to stay here forever with us? How can it be

a good thing that you're going away? Why are you going?

Where are you going? You can imagine, right? I mean,

I think if we are there, the disciples would be like, what? No,

don't go. Don't ever go. We need you here.

You are the one who gives us the words of life.

You give us the words of truth. Where would we

go without you? But Jesus says, it is to your

advantage that I go away. Because, why? If I do

not go away, then the helper will not come to you.

But if I depart, I will send him to you. Okay,

I don't know how many of you ask, why cannot

they just both stay on earth together? Okay, that one

can be a whole other sermon. Why couldn't Jesus just

stay on and then Holy Spirit also come? Then more lah,

the more the merrier. Okay, got a lot of reasons lah,

but yeah, save that for another day. Unless you can

go and study it yourself. Because I was curious, I

asked that question. Yeah, go study it yourself.

But I won't talk about that today.

So now, the Spirit of God is not given selectively

but universally.

Amen.

Amen.

He interacts with everyone who believes, everywhere, worldwide. How amazing

is that? It's so amazing. It's so cool.

Okay, and.

Maybe you're thinking to yourself, but that was His disciples

back then, those who were walking with Him.

You know, so Holy Spirit came upon all of them.

No.

See, this is what Peter says in Acts 2, verse 38.

Acts 2:38

And Peter said to them, Repent. Right, this is after

they were all speaking in tongues and then people came

around like, oh, they're all drunk or what.

And then Peter.

speaks his first sermon and he says, repent and let

every one of you be baptised in the name of

Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall

receive the gift of.

The Holy Spirit. It's a promise.

Everyone, he was telling all the Israelites, the Jews at

that time, you, you repent, you get baptised for the

forgiveness of your sins and then you will receive the

Holy Spirit. It's as simple as like step one, two, three, right?

You will and it's not like second guessing. Will I,

will I not?

No.

That is the promise Holy Spirit has given to us.

Amen.

Can I hear an amen? Okay, now we all have

that privilege and it's no longer selective. Now, number two,

the other thing that we see in the Old Testament

is that the Holy Spirit came upon selected people for

a season. and for a specific task. Right, so in

1 Samuel chapter 10, just.

1 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

Now we, no, we didn't read that chapter. Okay, we

read it now.

1 Samuel chapter 10 verse 6. I think I have

1 Samuel 10:6

it there. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come

upon you and you will prophesy with them and be

turned into another man. This is Samuel telling Saul, okay,

before Saul became king of Israel. And Samuel, very interestingly,

Samuel is his prophet, his priest, he's also judge. He's

one of the, I think he's the only, I'm not sure,

only one that carries all three roles. He was prophet,

priest and judge in Israel. He anoints Saul and he says,

And then if you read on to verse 10, Right,

Saul listens to all that Samuel says and he goes,

he does this and that. And when they came there

to the hill, there was a group of prophets to

meet him. Then the Spirit of God came upon him

and he prophesied among them. Right, so Prophet Samuel, he

gives instructions for Saul to go to the terebinth tree

and then to the hill of God and then to

the city and then he'll meet a group of prophets

and they'll be worshipping, they'll be prophesying And then the

Spirit of God comes upon Saul and he also starts prophesying.

The people all are like, is he also one of

the prophets? So the Spirit of God was upon Saul

to reign, to rule, to lead the Israelites.

Right?

But most of you know what happens after that. Sadly.

It's like in the next few chapters, it's basically about

two years. Two years after Saul started reigning, what happened?

He starts sinning. Starts sinning before God. He doesn't obey.

He does his own thing. What he thinks is right.

Sounds familiar.

A lot of us like to do what we think

is right.

So Saul thought it's right.

It's right.

Okay, what? Okay, what? I can sacrifice. It's a good thing, what?

Sacrifice unto the Lord. You get the verse, right? Obedience

is better than sacrifice. Obey God.

It's not just saying, God, I sacrifice so much. I

didn't ask you to sacrifice that. So Saul started sinning

and by chapter 16, right? Chapter 10, he's anointed, his

spirit of God is upon him. Chapter 16, so said,

what did it say in verse 14?

But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

Gone already, bye bye. And a distressing spirit from the

Lord troubled him. So it was only a temporary, it

was temporary. Few years, spirit of God was upon him.

He started sinning, wasn't walking with the Lord. Spirit of

God left him. And many of you know the rest

of the story. God then chooses a new king, right?

Who is that? King David to take his place. But

he was only, Spirit of God was only upon him

for a while.

Now in another book of the Bible, interestingly, also a

chapter 16. Just now Saul was chapter 16 in the

book of Samuel. And then in Judges chapter 16, Verse 20,

Judges 16:20

we read about another person.

And she said, you all know who's the she, right? Delilah.

The Philistines are upon you, Samson. He awoke from his

sleep and said, I will go out as before at

other times and shake myself free. But he did not

know that the Lord had departed from him again. Another

sad story. Spirit of God leaves another person, this time Samson.

He was also one of the judges appointed by God

to deliver Israel from her enemies. And the Spirit of

God repeatedly came upon him in power.

That was his anointing, his strength.

But that was a secret, right? For him to remain

in God's power, in his spirit.

What was it? His hair.

He had to make an oath, right? A covenant with

the Lord never to shave his head. But what happened?

He let a woman seduce him and get him to

tell her the secrets to his strength, right? So the

moment he breaks that covenant, his covenant with God about

never shaving his head, which, you know, it shows his

dedication to God broken already.

What happened?

God's Spirit leaves him, which also meant his strength left him.

And again, sad ending, although in the end, again, God

is gracious, right? He still came upon Samson one final time.

Yeah.

And he killed even more Philistines at that time than

when he was alive.

Of course, he died also. That's sad.

But God still came upon him one last time. But

we still see it's temporary, right? But what is the

good news in New Testament? We are living the New Testament!

1 John 14 verse 16 to 17 says, And I

will pray the Father, and He will give you another

Helper that.

Come on, read that red verse with me together.

He may abide with you forever.

Forever.

The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because

it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him,

for He dwells with you and will be with you.

He will abide in us forever.

Amen.

Amen. Can I hear an amen?

And it's no longer just for a season or a task.

He doesn't just come upon you to do something great.

Just one task. No. He abides in us forever.

And what.

I think what the Old Testament heroes would have given

to have this. Can you imagine?

What a privilege. I'm sure they.

Now, of course, they are in heaven this year. It's like, wow,

all these believers have it easy, man. Anytime can just

have Holy Spirit power in you. At that time, they

cannot even choose when. God decides when He will come

upon them in power. So what a privilege, what an honour,

you know, that He never leaves us.

Even in Psalms 51 verse 11, this is King David.

Psalms 51:11

I didn't put it on screen. King David, He's a

man after God's own heart. But even he prays this,

you know, do not cast me away from your presence

and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. I

think we don't even need to pray that now because

we know that his promise is already with us. But

even King David had to, oh, please, God, don't take

your Spirit from me.

Right?

And here we have Jesus assuring us that the Holy

Spirit will abide with us forever.

How amazing, how powerful. That is, really, it's what a

privilege to be living in this time. I know a

lot of times we're like, it would be so cool

if we lived during Jesus' time.

But actually now, we have even more power, you know.

Of course, there would have been something else to be

living at Jesus' time. But I think it would have

been even more difficult really breaking out of all the

mindsets and traditions and religions and nothing Jesus said made sense.

At that time, I mean, now we read it so

many times, we're like, oh yeah, yeah.

Now it makes sense to us, right? But at that time, wow, mind-blowing.

But we are living in an amazing time where the

Holy Spirit has already been poured out on all men,

all women, all children.

Amen.

I'm going to my third point. Okay, not least. No

need to move to the slide first. Just listen to me.

In the Old Testament.

You observe, right?

Just now we said the Holy Spirit came upon a

selected few. He came upon them in a season and.

For specific tasks. And what did He give them? He

gave them an external empowerment.

Right?

It was like, oh, skill for workmanship. It was strength

like Samson to defeat the enemies.

It was wisdom.

It was anointing to you know, prophesy to share God's

word with kings or with the Israelites. So it's always

that external empowerment. Like, yeah, Saul, he had that empowerment

for a while to lead Israel. Samson to deliver Israel.

And throughout the book of Kings and Chronicles, I've been

reading through Chronicles. And we read, right, about king after

king after king after king from David onwards.

A lot of it is very discouraging. Quite disheartening.

Because we read, there's only a few that are pointed

out that were good kings, meaning they walked with God,

they followed His commandments. Most of the rest were evil kings.

Okay.

And you see from father-son, father-son, I don't know why

it's like, good father and then the son will be evil.

And then maybe have one good one and then evil.

You know, and Even the good ones. Even the good ones.

And I read through like, oh yes, one good king.

And then towards the end there, oh no. They don't

seem to end well. At some point, they will stray

or forsake God. And you can go on and read

about it yourself, you know, in Book of Chronicles if

you haven't yet. But I really feel God's heart breaking.

These are His chosen people. The people that He called

by name. He said, you are my people. And then

these are the ones that are breaking His heart each time.

I mean, they are the ones who started to say,

I want a king. I want a king like all

the other nations, right? So God gave the king. The

first king is Saul. And then, you know, it goes on.

David was the only one that lasted. He also had sin,

but he always came back.

To God.

Many of his other, you know, downline, at the end

of their lives, stray.

Say wrong already, say wrong.

And, this like, not even talking about the nations of,

the other nations in the world who, lagi lah, they

were into idolatry, all kinds of abominations. I mean, you

read about it, sacrificing their children in the fire, things

like that. And, some of the kings of Israel also

did that. followed what the rest of the nations were doing.

And I'm reading that and I'm thinking to myself, how?

How did they even get to that point? But then

studying His Word and reading through this, how the Holy

Spirit worked then and now, I tell you what the

beautiful thing now is. Is that it's no longer just

external empowerment that the Holy Spirit gives.

What is it? It's internal transformation. Internal transformation.

We see King Saul in 1 Samuel 10.

He's anointed, he can prophesy and all that. But what happened?

His heart still turns away. It's still a turn.

Same thing with Samson. He has that strength.

From the time he's born, he's already anointed, prophesied over.

But again, heart still turns away. What is different today

with us? I have so many stories of so many kings.

Let me just point out one. If we think about

Noah also, Noah's time. I was thinking about Noah because

last week, sight and sound theatres, I don't know how

many of you have some.

Whatever, watch. You like, huh? I still like. Like theatre.

So sight and sound theatres were screening Noah for free

for three days because of their 30th anniversary or something

like that over the weekend.

So my kids watched it three times. Once a day,

I think. For that whole weekend.

And I love how they emphasise on the fact towards

the end that even though God wiped out the entire earth,

all the evil, He only saved one family who was righteous.

Noah and his family.

How many of them? Eight of them.

He wanted all the evil in the entire earth. But

what still remained? Sin is still there. After all the

evil has been wiped out in the play, no one says,

but sin is still in us.

It's still in me. It's still in my sons. Was

this all for nothing?

Is it going to happen all over again? You know,

when we populate the earth again, it's just going to

be as evil as before.

Yes.

Yes, we know that that happened. Evil still existed. But

the promise and the beautiful thing is that, you know,

Noah is like a foreshadow, right, of what to come.

What's to come, the ark. All those who would enter

into the door of the ark would be saved from

the flood at that time. But what is the parallel?

Jesus is the door to salvation. All who would enter

through him goes to the father and he's saved. But

there's only a time. You know, the.

Thing that, you know, my.

Kids were really like, so scary that part was when

God shut the door of the ark. I still didn't

remember that part but God was the one who shut

the door, sealed the door and everyone's like screaming outside

because it's starting to rain, right, and.

Flood and everyone's like, want to get in?

And then, what they made it so that some are

family members of them or, you know, yeah, family of

those in the ark or the sister or brother, and

they're screaming, but.

It's too late. Time's up.

God gave a specific time frame for them to enter

into the ark, you know, to want to follow Jehovah

at that time, but it was too late when God

shut the door.

Time's up already. Judgment.

Time for judgment. And we think about it, it's the

same for us. There'll be a time frame for us

to get as many people through the door. That's why

next year, evangelism, we need to get as many people

through the door before it's too late. That time cannot be.

No point begging whatsoever. When judgment comes, it's time for judgment.

Why was I talking about Noah? Yes, because evil still existed.

Even after God wiped out all the evil in the world,

it still existed.

In the hearts.

And that's why God had to come through a different way,

which is to send Jesus. That's the only way.

Send Jesus.

And you know the rest of the story. Of course,

he took our sin. But he went back to the Father.

And now he sends us the Holy Spirit. And it's

only the Holy Spirit that can bring that internal transformation.

That can help us remove sin from our life, you know.

There's no other way. No other way.

Amen.

So this is the beautiful part, friends, of our lives

now and the times that we're living in. It's that

Jesus has gone back to be the Father. He's sitting

at His right hand and He intercedes for us. He

justifies us before the Father. He's justified. He's righteous because

I took His sin and He believed in me.

Yeah?

Amen?

And that's why I end with this point about internal transformation.

Now the Holy Spirit is within us. Within us, He

fills us and it's not just for empowerment, for something,

for certain tasks. Although yes, that does happen sometimes, right?

But more importantly, and I hope we catch that, it

is for that internal transformation.

Praise the Lord. Amen. And so the Holy Spirit has

given us, has.

Been given to us freely. If you read Ezekiel, next slide,

Ezekiel 36, verse 26 to 27, it says, I will

Ezekiel 36:26–27

give you a new heart.

Amen, and put a new spirit within you.

I will take the heart of stone out of your

flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I

will put my spirit within you and cause you to

walk in my statutes. And you will keep my judgments

and do them. We no longer need to strive and

struggle on our own like how men did in the

Old Testament. Imagine how hard it was then to live

by the law, you know. The laws of Moses, I

need to get everything right.

So hard.

But now we can keep His commandments. And in fact,

His commandments now are at a higher level already. No

longer just don't murder, right? Don't even hate your brother.

But Ezekiel says we will. Again, not maybe, you will.

You will keep God's judgments, God's commandments and do them

only because God's Spirit is in us.

Can I hear an amen?

Amen.

And what kind of transformation do we go through?

We can read in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 to 23.

Galatians 5:22–23

I'm drawing to a close.

But the fruit of the Spirit is, come on, you

all memorize this or not?

All the kids memorize.

Love, joy, peace, patience or long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self-control. Against such there is no law. So Galatians

really lists this out, right?

What?

We transform from hate to love, from sadness into joy,

from anxiety and worry to peace, from restlessness and short-temperedness

to patience and long-suffering, from cruelty to kindness, from evil

to goodness, from harshness to gentleness, from self-indulgence to self-control.

Amen.

And Final verse for you. I think it's final. No,

not second final. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. So all

2 Corinthians 3:18

of us who have had their veil removed can see

and reflect the glory of the Lord and the Lord

who is the Spirit makes us.

More and more like Him. Amen. So as we are

changed into His glorious image.

Wow.

Wow.

The Lord, who is Spirit, makes us more and more

like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.

And so I end today's message. Just a recap slide, right?

How the Holy Spirit interacts with us. Yeah, we're living

in the New Testament days, man. Old Testament, He's selective, temporary.

And there's external empowerment. But today, He's universal.

All of us have Him. He's permanent. He's with us forever.

And there's internal transformation.

Amen.

Amen. Hallelujah.

And this is, yes, the last verse before I close.

Extreme can get ready. I close with this verse.

Luke.

Luke 11:11–13

11, verses 11 to 13. You fathers, if your children

ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?

If they ask for an egg, do you give them

a scorpion?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people, as us, know how to

give good gifts to your children, how much more will

your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who

ask Him?

Amen.

For those who are wondering how do I be filled

like that, filled with the Holy Spirit to experience all

that has been talked about in its fullness, you know, ask.

Simply ask the Father. Ask in the name of Jesus.

Those who are yet to experience a personal revival in

our hearts this year, ask.

Those who are looking at next year's theme and going,

oh no, evangelism. Or really shaking in our boots, our shoes.

Let's walk.

Walk with the Holy Spirit. And it will become natural.

It will become part of our lives. Let's walk closer

with Him. Allow Him to transform us. We read the

verse before. Transform us more and more into the image

of Christ. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. He transforms us

2 Corinthians 3:18

to the image of Christ. And before you know it,

you'll be sharing about Christ naturally.

In all that you do, the way you live, the

things you say, how you say things. It's just be

part of who you are. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

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is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.