Pentecost And Learning To Wait

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And here we are, Pentecost Sunday. Thanks for having me. Excited for this. Pentecost Sunday, exciting and wonderful to celebrate. It has been celebrated by the church for 2,000 years as this time when God poured out his spirit. And so I want to dive in. If you've got a Bible, you can open up to Acts chapter two, which we'll reference. And Acts is telling this powerful story that the disciples of Jesus are they're waiting as Jesus told them to. And it just strikes me how the church begins with not with working, but with waiting. There's waiting on God to move by his spirit. And it is he's the one that makes it happen and does the work. And we are joining in with his work. And so the importance of us being attentive to the leading of the spirit. And then as the video spoke to, there's lots that's fulfilled and connected to the earlier biblical story when it comes to Pentecost, but the church is empowered because Jesus is alive and rose from the dead. Resurrection life is real. The Holy Spirit fills us with the power of the resurrection. So we get to experience life to the full, the victory of God, the love of the Father. And God wants to fill us with this fullness through his spirit. And now, as the video reference, we become temples of God's personal presence dwelling in us by his spirit. And we get to go and we get to join Jesus and what he is doing in our world. Amazing. So I don't know if you ever feel like your passion plateaus or maybe stuck in how do I join Jesus. Maybe at times limited by a sense of your where your competency is at or where your capacity is at. I have experienced all of those things. And the story of the church speaks of powerful transformation. And we are reminded today that God has more for us. He has more for us. And I know that as we talk about the Holy Spirit, some of us can feel nervous talking about the Holy Spirit. We maybe would rather focus on the explanation of Scripture than on experience with God's Spirit. And I grew up in a pretty conservative church tradition where I was a bit uncomfortable going to different environments as I grew up and became a teenager where there was different things happening. And I was, I was going, I'm not sure that I feel comfortable with how this is all working out. And maybe that, maybe you can relate to that. A sense of there's certain types of churches or church groups that are open to the spirit and the things that could happen with those groups going, I don't, I don't know that I feel at home in that space. And I believe that God has in God has more for us. And we get to be a people of both word and spirit. And for me, it's been helpful. My commitment to the scripture has helped me to want to grow in my openness to the spirit of God through my life. Where I can think about what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14, to eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit. And so, as a person of the Word, there's been times where I've said that I've been challenged to go, am I obedient to God's word? Am I actually eagerly desiring and open to the gifts of the Spirit? Because that is what God is inviting me to and asking of me through his word. Or Paul writes in Ephesians 5, be filled with the Spirit and continuing to be filled with the Spirit. Am I asking, God, would you fill me with more of your spirit? And so I'm growing in this dependency and surrender to God's spirit. So we love Jesus. I know you do. Jesus is alive, and Jesus wants us to walk in the fullness of the spirit. We were just having a dinner and discussion group with some people in our backyard. We've been doing walking through the story of God on Monday nights with a few people that are seeking Jesus and a few part of the church team, which has been great. And someone was just saying, I think it'd be way different for me if Jesus was, like if I was alive when Jesus was here, then it'd be a different experience. But for me now, just reading these stories, I don't know. And we had this little conversation, very interesting, how Jesus actually says it's to our advantage if he leaves. Because then he will give us his spirit. And so as we dive in today, just to hold that before us on this Pentecost Sunday, that Jesus says it is to our advantage that he goes and ascends so that we can receive the Spirit. And I want to pray for us as I pray for myself that I would lean into, that we would lean into and be open to all that that means. Are we living like it is our advantage to have the Holy Spirit versus walking with Jesus in the flesh beside us? Can we pray? Lord, as we come before you today, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you've done in history through your people. Thank you for what you're doing here with West Village and across Greater Victoria. And we want to open our hearts to you, Lord. Come and move. Come and move in our hearts. Come and fill us with your spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Word And Spirit Without Extremes

SPEAKER_01 5:27

God has more for us. So I want to touch on uh what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How are we filled with the Spirit? And why does it matter that we're filled with the Spirit? So as I referenced, I grew up in a conservative church community, a very Bible. There was a there was a stint of King James only in there. But as I became a teenager, my parents' best friends were a part of a more charismatic church. And so one of my best friends was going to different camps and conventions that were not what I was used to. And started to go there. And I remember at 13 years old was my first, where I went to this camp and I grew up, my parents became Christians in this church community. Um, and I think through my childhood, I learned a lot of the Bible and a lot of morality and a lot of commitment to God and doing the right thing. And I don't have memories of experiencing the power of God or the presence of God, where that was transformative or move me in a way emotionally. I have no memory or recollection of that. I show up at this camp experience and they're doing this thing called altar calls. Every single service, altar calls. And I realized, oh, people go up to the front, like I'm go up to the front and they pray and they do this every single service. And I thought, these people must be really messed up to want to go up to the front to pray. Like, definitely I'm not going up there. Uh, and then there's people like passionately singing, passionately praying. And then you had sort of other things going on. People started praying in tongues and people started like falling over in corners. And I was like, Well, I'm definitely not going up to give prayer now. Falling and uh I was like, I'm not sure what's going on here. But in this moment, this is where I would say at 13 years old, I became a Christian. But the power of God and the presence of God moved me in such a way, and finally, God was like wearing me down in his grace, the last service of this camp experience where God was saying, I want to, I want to invite you to go and respond to me at the front. And I remember I actually gripped onto the pew and I said, I do not need to go up to the front. God, like I'm I'm a I'm a good Christian. I know the Bible. I I go to church. I do not need to go up to the front. If I go up to the front, people are gonna think that I messed up. And it was like I had no concept actually of the grace and love of God and what the gospel is actually about. And God's presence was in his grace so strong on me that for the first time in my life, I had this moment where I was like, God is real. And I stood up, got to the front, actually went on my knees, and I had this moment where suddenly I went from arguing with God about how I was good enough to crying on my face in front of people, saying, God, forgive me. Uh, forgive me for not being good enough. Would you cleanse me? And I stood up and I think I it's like I just met God. And this opened up a thing throughout my teen years of going to these experiences at camps and conventions where I would have these moments where I go, I've encountered God and felt the invitation of God going, I have more for you. I have more for you. I believe God has more for us. I don't want to go just through religious or Christian routines. I want to know God in his fullness. I want to see God move. I want to know his love, and I want to say people in our city encounter the love of God in a way that moves and changes them. And he does this by his spirit. I believe God has more for us. You know, Billy Graham, the late famous evangelist, traveled around quite extensively, and he said the church in North America is often unfulfilled and I believe desiring for more in life. But he said, But I what I believe the Church of North America needs is actually a filling of the Holy Spirit. God wants to fill us with more.

A Hug And A Laugh

SPEAKER_01 9:10

I was gonna uh invite my volunteers up to the stage here, Andrew and his daughter, just to give us a brief um illustration to help to help us this morning.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Thank you for this. Now, Andrew, what's your name?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Emmy Emmy? Great, thank you. So just two parts to this illustration, be very quick. So one, we're just gonna ask you like back up a couple feet, and if you could just walk across the stage together.

unknown 9:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Yeah, you're gonna start start start like together. Start back up. Yeah, start together. Start together. Both of you together. Yeah, you're good. You're doing amazing. Okay, we're just part one. You're gonna walk across, and then when you get over here, yeah. All right, now could you uh just could you give a hug? A loving hug? Oh, great. That's good. Now can we give a round of applause to them? Emmy, Andrew, amazing. Thank you. We're just circle back to that. Um, man, that and that that was a nice warm hug. Um, I don't know, I'm a recovering awkward hugger. I don't know if anyone else can relate to this. Uh, but you know, out out in the regular world, usually it's professional and handshake, or everyone hugs. You go to someone's house for dinner and it's just hugs. But when you go into church circles, it's not just a simple hug, right? Only if you've experienced this. There's like the uh you go in to give a hug and it's like the side hug, and you realize, oh, okay, we're doing side, you know, you gotta be you gotta react quick because you're like, okay, side hug it is. That's what we're doing. All right. Other times it's no hug. You're like, we're pretty friendly, but it was like, nope, uh handshake, okay, got that. There's a lean-in hug. If you like it's like grade sixes at a dance, it's like we're hugging, but we're it's the most distance that we can physically have, right? But then you got the dude hugs where they're like arm in front, hug. And then but it's like like we're we're close, but we're strong in brotherhood, but then a little bit of affection, usually three taps, right? But we're not getting close enough because we have the arm between us, right? There's that hug. Then there's the bear hugs, and uh sometimes you're like, wow, I feel really loved. And other times you're like, that was a lot. I was that was a lot. I was not expecting that. Uh, and so I don't know. I could I'm like out of COVID, I made a commitment to myself. Like, I'm I'm gonna new era, new breath. I'm gonna, I'm gonna grow as a hugger. But uh, I tell you, so it's it's not easy for me. Uh so that was great. That was great. Um, Andrew, Emmy, thank you. And we'll circle back to that.

What Being Filled Really Means

SPEAKER_01 11:41

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? How are we filled with the Spirit? Why does it matter? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Acts 2, verse 4. It says, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they began to speak in other tongues. So there's this filling of the Spirit that it occurs. What exactly is this? No, at salvation, we are born again by the Spirit. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, he says, we're all baptized into one body, we're all made to drink of one spirit. So we enter the body at salvation. When we place our trust in Jesus, who is alive and we become a new creation, we are born again by the spirit, we are adopted into the family of God, we're transferred into God's kingdom, now we're now part of his body, we have the Holy Spirit. And this is distinct from what Paul or from what Luke is talking about here in Acts two, where various languages used through the book of Acts, but the disciples are already Christians. Jesus has breathed the spirit upon them. But here, Jesus in Acts 1 says you'll be baptized with the Spirit. But then in Acts 2, it says they were filled with the Spirit. Later, Peter talks about the Spirit being poured out upon the church. And then you read through the book of Acts, and there's these different moments, and they were Acts 4. They were filled with the Spirit, and they began to prophesy and they went out with boldness. So it wasn't just a one moment, but there's these occurrences, and it seems like it's obvious. Like everybody knows when you're they were filled with the spirit. They're at a prayer meeting filled with the spirit. So it was, they they knew that something that happened there, they said they were filled with the spirit again. Now the baptism, so the when we talk about the baptism of the spirit or what's happening here in the book of Acts, it would seem to me this is not just talking about a salvation moment, we're born again by the spirit, but there's there's a conscious and subjective experience of God where people can go, I was filled with God's Spirit. I encountered God, and this continues through our journey with Jesus. If becoming a Christian and being born again by the Spirit is objective and even unconscious, like this has happened to me, but and I could look like I'm standing here normally, but my spiritual reality has changed. That is true. This baptism in the spirit is it's conscious and subjective. I've experienced the reality of this. And this could happen one second, one week, one year after conversion. It could keep on happening numerous times through my life, maybe in quiet ways or larger ways, more transformative ways, but God wants to keep on filling us with his spirit. And when we are filled with God's Spirit, when we experience Him, we know. Just like through the book of Acts, they can point and say they were filled with the Spirit of God. Now, if we just circle back to the hug illustration here, when Emmy and Andrew walk across the stage, daughter, father, and then they hug. Is Emmy more Andrew's daughter when they hug? No. The objective reality of who they are in relation to each other does not change. But the subjective experience of that reality does. And you could so to use that illustration, there's no perfect illustration, but to use that, being filled with God's spirit is the metaphorical hug of us experiencing the love of God, experiencing the power of God in a conscious and subjective way that is already true. But I'm tasting it and experiencing it. Are you with me in this? That God has more for us. Martin Lloyd Jones, he says, this a definite a definition, therefore, that I would put to your consideration is something like this the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the initial experience of glory and the reality of the love of the Father and of the Son. Yes, you may have many further experiences of that, but the first experience I would suggest is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's a different language used, filled, poured out, baptized. Martin Lloyd Jones, famous preacher, is saying, What you could just say is the baptism of the Spirit is your first experience. God has more for us. He wants to fill us with his spirit. There's a lot more you could say, but let's move

How Prayer Opens Us To More

SPEAKER_01 16:13

on. How are we filled with the Spirit? Well, in Acts, as was read, they're together, and it says in chapter one that they're together devoting themselves to prayer. And then in chapter two, here they are together, and that they're filled with the spirit. So there's something for us to recognize that how do we, how do we come before God and say, God, would you fill me again with your spirit? Fill me. I want, I want to, I want to know that I know. Uh, we pray. And we pray in community. We pray for each other, just like they were doing. They were together in prayer. Later in Acts 19, 5 and 5 to 7, on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then verse 6 here, it's I'll read it out. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There's about 12 men in all. So, in this experience, there's these later disciples of Jesus, and they are filled with the Spirit as Paul prays and puts his hands on them, praying, Would you fill them with the Spirit? In Ephesians 3, verses 16 to 19, Paul says, I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, to then verse 19, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. How are we filled with the Spirit? Paul is saying, I pray, I pray for you that you'll be filled with the Spirit, that you will know what you can't even know and be filled with the fullness of God, strengthened in the inside of your inner being by the Spirit. So, how are we filled with the Spirit? We pray in community. I came across this story. There was a famous preacher in the 1800s, his name was D. L. Moody, and he has this account. He talks about how he was going to, he was doing these preaching meetings, and he's looking back, and these he said these two holy women would come to his meetings, and he loved it when they were there because by their facial expression while he preached, he could tell, these ladies are praying for me. They're praying for this meeting. And uh, so he said, I love that. But at the close of this one service, he said, they came up to him and they said, We've been we've been praying for you. And he says, Oh, praying for me. Well, why don't you pray for why don't you pray for the people? And these two ladies say, No, no, we're praying for you because you need power. You need power. And D.L. Moody goes, Power? I thought I I thought I had power. We're preaching, we're I was preaching the Bible, people are responding like and then I'll read what he said. There's a quote. He said, They poured out their hearts that I might receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost. And there came a great hunger into my soul. I knew not what it was. I began to cry as never before. The hunger increased. I really felt that I did not want to live any longer if I could not have this power for service. I kept on crying all the time that God would fill me with his spirit. Well, one day in the city of New York, oh what a day, I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke to fourteen years. I can only say, God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went out preaching again. The sermons were no different, and I did not present any new truths, yet hundreds were converted. I would not be placed back where I was before that blessed experience. What happened to D.L. Moody? He said, I became open for more of God and the filling of his spirit, but it was these ladies praying for him in community that he would be filled. God has more for us. We pray for each other. This is how we can be filled afresh with God. God has so much to give us. If prayer is the practice, we also have to surrender. If prayer is the practice of being filled with the spirit, surrender is the posture of our heart. Dying to self is the doorway to life in the spirit. It's me surrendering myself and saying it's not about me and myself of comfort or control, but God, I'm opening myself to you. I'm dying to my desires, I'm submitting to your will. Would you come and move in me and fill me? One author said this: only death is usable in a new creation. Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to raise the living. It is only when we go all the way into death, past living, past dying, that we can experience his power. We pray, we surrender, and it's not just a one and done experience. Acts 5.18 says, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. And the implication here is that you keep we keep on being filled with the Spirit. We can drink to be filled, and in the end still be thirsty and not be quenched. Quenches the deepest longings for life and fullness that you have. And this is in the Spirit of Jesus. Be filled with him. How are we filled with the Spirit? As they were here on this Pentecost, where the Spirit came and was poured out, or they were baptized in the Spirit as Jesus promised. You pray in community. We surrender our hearts, and we keep on coming to God, trusting that He is more.

Why The Filling Matters

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So, what is being filled with the Spirit?

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Baptism poured out, being filled. You could say the baptism of the Spirit is our first time being filled. It's conscious, it's objective, it is sealing, it's this metaphorical hug of the reality that of what is true is I've placed my faith in Christ and He is made me a new creation. I know I've met God. I know that He is, that He loves me. I know I've experienced it. How are we filled? We pray and we receive prayer from others, we surrender and we keep on longing.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Why? Why does this matter? In Acts 2, and you read it earlier in verse 41.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

We hear and we can see of this result. It says, Those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. That when the disciples were filled with God's Spirit, there was an empowerment that went beyond their capacity and abilities. This was a supernatural move of God, where God, just like D.L. Moody talked about as well, where God was moving and doing something that only God can do. Why does this matter? Because Jesus says in Acts 1:8, you'll receive power to be my witnesses. If I want to witness of Jesus and join Jesus and see lives transformed by Jesus and be transformed by Jesus, I need the empowerment and the filling of his spirit. I remember when we planted our church in Burnaby, you know, it starts, it can start out pretty exciting. There's all these things happening. And then at one point it felt less exciting. And uh, we lived in a high rise, and I was in the 17th floor, and I'm looking out, and I can see all these high rises, and I'm looking over the city and the distance I can see, another part of the city with more high rises. And I just felt overwhelmed. And I remember praying, God, I can't do this. Like I am seeing so many people are represented from what I can see right here. A few hundred thousand probably represented, just in my eyesight alone. And I don't know how to engage with the people on my floor.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Never mind in this one tower. I don't know. I don't know what, I don't know. And all of a sudden I felt like God spoke, and this thought came into my mind you're right. You cannot do it. That is why I'm moving by my spirit.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

And I had this moment of recognizing, oh, I am drifting into thinking about what I can do in my competency and skills or training versus recognizing that God wants to do something, and what we're actually wanting him to do is something that he can only do. And we we are needing his power. Why does this matter? For power. It also matters because God wants to fill us with his love. We read it earlier, but can I read it again? Ephesians 3. I pray out of the his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. So with power by his spirit on the inside of us, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, to know what is actually you cannot know, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now I can know. I can know that Jesus loves me. I can know that I'm walking in his kingdom. I can know intellectually, there's a there's an objective reality of uh of walking here. I know. But there's moments where I can meet God. And the hug, uh this metaphorical hug occurs where I experience something, and it's suddenly like now, it's not just that I know, but in my being, I I know. I know. It's not just a knowing. Uh, when I was 18, I went to Thailand, and there was this movie back in the day with Leonardo DiCaprio, this really fancy beach and this island in the middle of nowhere. And we went there and we like hired this person to take us in this little wooden boat, and we went to this little island and got to snorkel, and it was it was amazing. And it was like the the color of the water, but also like the sand. It was cool, and it was like walking on like a million marshmallows, and it was like white and cliffs on either side, and you're swimming and so now you you know about co-P, the beach. But you don't know about Co PP, the beach, and the feeling and the experience of what it was like.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I don't want to just know about or be like, yeah, I know God loves me.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

I want to feel. I want to feel the sand beneath my feet. I want to see and see the clarity of the water of that experience. I want, like a hug, to know it, to feel it. And God wants that for us. This is what Paul is praying for the Ephesians. This is what happens in the baptism of the Spirit and the Spirit being filled in the church, that in your inner being, you would know what you cannot know, what surpasses knowing, the fullness of God. And God has so God has more for us. Because I know I'm not experiencing the fullness of who God is. I'm still continuing to be to mature and to surrender and ongoing. And God does grace, we'll keep on knowing and knowing and knowing until one day we are there face to face. But I don't want to become stale or apathetic or stuck or limit what God is doing or close off my heart to what he wants to do because of my comfort or my need for control or whatever it may be. God has more for us. God wants to do more on the island. He wants to do more in our lives, he's got power for us, he's got love for us, he's got power and love, and he wants to do this in us and through us. And this is the work of his spirit. It's the affirmation that he wants to provide, it's the empowerment that we need, it's transformation. And the disciples we see, if we read on from this experience and the experiences that follow, they live generous, sacrificial lives, not just trying really hard to do the right thing or to go be missional, with this overflow of love and power that pours out from an experience at the core of who they are.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

They know that they are loved by God and they have felt his power. God wants that for us.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

So

Chocolate Milk And A Life Stirred

SPEAKER_01 29:41

if this is us, this milk, track with me here. This will be one of my final things this morning. No perfect illustration. And we go, I'm going to open, I'm gonna open my heart to God and put my faith in Jesus. I'm gonna open my heart to God and put my faith in Jesus. When I do so, when I open my heart and put my faith in Jesus, his spirit, I receive his spirit.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

I'm born again by the spirit.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

I'm a new creation. There's a spiritual reality that's changed. I'm a part of his family, I'm in his kingdom. This is true. It's objectively true. It could be unconscious even, but it is true. I there's a there's something new in me. I am new. This is what Paul talks about. 1 Corinthians 12, being born again. What Luke records on Pentecost, and what is accounted through the book of Acts at different points. And what Paul is praying for here in Ephesians 3, that you would be filled and strengthened in your inner being, the fullness of God is to be stirred. And the color changes visually for you in the back with the lighting, I should put more chocolate in, eh? So it'd be more of a dynamic illustration.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

But the objective reality is there.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

The experience and the visible subjective observation experience is has changed. The experience of the of the of what's going on, it's evident. We know, we know now that this is chocolate milk. I know that I've met God. I know his love. I know that he loves me. I know he's healing me. I know he's freeing me. I know he's changing me. I've felt his power and his presence. This is what he wants to give. A stirring for us. Back to D.L. Moody as we close. There's a story in one particular town, they wanted to have these revival meetings, and this church was talking about who should we get to come to our revival meetings? And there's all these people are saying, DL Moody, we need D.L. Moody. DL Moody's gonna come. Give, can we afford DL Moody? Can we get DL Moody? Who's got a schedule? DL Moody. This one guy stands up and says, Friends, we don't need to get DL Moody. Does DL Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit? And everyone's quiet thinking about this. Oh, interesting point. And then this older, wiser gentleman in the back says, Son, you're absolutely right. DL Moody does not have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on D.L.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Moody. And that is why we want to get him.

Invitation To Come For Prayer

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Does the Holy Spirit have a monopoly on your life?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Are you surrendered and submitted to Jesus in a way that your heart is open to God filling you and empowering you beyond your sense of control and comfort, even?

SPEAKER_00 33:36

We can ask ourselves, have I been stirred lately?

SPEAKER_01 33:47

The band's gonna come, and we're gonna close with singing a few songs. I want to thank you so much for having me here today and for us to lean in in faith together. But as we sing, I'd like to extend an invitation to us that I think is fitting as we think of this Pentecost Sunday. What is the filling of the Spirit? It's God coming, stirring us. How? It's by us praying together, just like they did through the book of Acts. It's us surrendering in our hearts, and it's us continuing to long and trust that God in his love and grace has more for us. And why does this matter? Because we need his love and power, and because he wants to give it so that others can know his love and his power. And so as we sing these songs, here would be the invitation. We're gonna have a few people available to pray on the corner down here, and the corner down here, and up on the sides. Um, but I wanna invite us, if there's a stirring in your heart, that you would say, in my heart, I am stirred to want more of God. I do want to know his fullness more. I do want more of God today. Maybe a part of that is I've I've not been open to the fullness of his gifts, if he wants to give me a gift of his spirit. But I'll choose in faith to be open today. Then I'm gonna invite you to physically act in light of what is in your heart and to stand and come. I'm gonna pray for us in a moment and then open this. But there's something about stepping out of our comfort and our control to say, what is in my heart is being physically lived out now in faith, God. Come and fill me. And so I'd invite you, maybe you want to come and stand along the front or off to the side, just to move out of your chair to say, God, this is me moving out in surrender. Come and fill me. Maybe you want to be prayed for. Man, it's so good to pray for each other. This is what we want. If you're comfortable, maybe you could even open your hands now as I just pray for us to say, God, would you like I'm open to you? Would you fill me? If that resonates with you, you're comfortable with that, to express that to God. Father, thank you for today.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

We do ask that you would fill us with your love and power.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Fill us with a sense of your presence, fill us with your spirit. Father, we want to be people that say yes to you. We recognize our need of you this morning. So come and fill us afresh.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

And as we respond in faith, I pray that your perfect love would wash away and cast out fear. Thank you, Lord. Come and fill us.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Let's raise our voices and sing. And you're invited to come and receive prayer. Step out of your chair before the Lord and invite him to fill you today. Amen.