SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome to Freedom Church.
SPEAKER_00: If I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name's Jason.
SPEAKER_00: I get the privilege of being pastor here.
SPEAKER_00: We're especially glad that you're here if it's your first time.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for you, grateful that you would carve out some time on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Visiting a new place, a new church of all things, is uh we think that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're we're glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, can we just put our hands together and welcome everybody who's here for the first time this morning?
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: We've been we've been in this series for the last several weeks uh on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We've been we've titled it Rediscovering the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And um uh, you know, we the way we started this series is we said this is that first of all, you if you're gonna talk about the Spirit and the Holy Spirit, you have to you got to talk about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in fact, it all starts with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The whole the whole ministry of the Holy Spirit is pointing us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's where we started.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, week one, we said, we said the the aim is not to be better.
SPEAKER_00: It's not better, it's new.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what that's what God is in the business of doing with with us.
SPEAKER_00: He makes us new, and and that begins with with Jesus, the ministry of of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's how you know that you're hearing the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you know you're hearing, you're hearing the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you didn't even know that that's possible.
SPEAKER_00: We said that through this series.
SPEAKER_00: You can actually hear God's voice, you can actually be led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That seems kind of crazy, but the Bible is really clear.
SPEAKER_00: You you can know God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's there's parts of of God that we will never know.
SPEAKER_00: There's God, we're we're created, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: And just by that very fact, there are things about God we're incapable of knowing.
SPEAKER_00: There's a depth to God we will never be able to comprehend.
SPEAKER_00: But there are things that we can know, and we can know his will, and we can hear his voice, and we can be led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you didn't know that, you should go back and listen to that because you that that's possible.
SPEAKER_00: You can actually know God's will for your life.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing we said is that the Holy Spirit is in the business of changing us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he he's in the business of actually making us new.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, this is this is a big part of, I mean, we give a lot of attention to a lot of different people out there on platforms and and different things.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to be better, we want to change, we want to be new, we want to, we don't want to be like we were, we want to be something that we're supposed to be, we want to step into what we're supposed to be like, all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And and so we find all of our ways, our winning formulas to become the kind of people we think we're called to be.
SPEAKER_00: And believe it or not, it's actually the Holy Spirit who changes you.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a partnership with it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a partnership with that, though.
SPEAKER_00: All right, they it it isn't just us and then and then you know, we just hope one day the Holy Spirit shows up and changes us.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how that works.
SPEAKER_00: There's a partnership.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's gonna be a key word for today.
SPEAKER_00: Is I want to talk to you about this word partnership.
SPEAKER_00: Partnership.
SPEAKER_00: This idea, you're not actually intended to go through life by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's not.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way it works.
SPEAKER_00: I was I was thinking I uh about I like to go to the mountains every year, at least once a year.
SPEAKER_00: If I can go more, that would be great, right?
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but I at least once a year I have a trip plan to go to the mountains and usually try to take guys, other guys with me, and we go climb a mountain, and and they're they're big mountains, usually like Colorado or something.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're at they're at elevation.
SPEAKER_00: And and that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've been at, you know, you go to elevation, you climb a big mountain, you're like, you feel like you can be in good shape, and yet you still feel like you're dying on the way up.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's like, and it's like it humbles you, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It's what's really humbling is when you're climbing a big mountain, and then some local who lives there, some elderly lady in her early 70s is jogging up the same mountain, and you're just like, I I feel small.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's what I thought I was really accomplishing something.
SPEAKER_00: Nah, she's not impressed, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember a few years ago, I was climbing this mountain and got some guys, some of whom are in this room right now with me, and they're we stop, we make one of our first stops, and everybody's out of breath.
SPEAKER_00: You just you that's just what you do when you go to the mountain, you just don't go, you just don't have oxygen for several days.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was like, you're just dying, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And and then we sat down, and one of the guys like opens his bag up and he pulls out a can of oxygen in oxygen tank.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I never I didn't even know this was a thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't know you could backpack up oxygen in your bags.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I was like, what are you what are you doing right now?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was so confused, like, oh yeah, it's uh it's some O2.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're like I was just like, oh my god, and I'll be really honest.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the I didn't see I don't think I don't think I let my face say this, but I've been told I wear that on my sleeve a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: So what was in my head, I was like, that's the stupidest thing I ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's the dumbest thing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you want some?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, okay, I'm a man, I'm climbing the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just like oxygen, my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We went we went a little farther.
SPEAKER_00: We were about an hour, hour and a half into the climb, and we're sitting there, and then another break or die.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, they go, are they pulling out their oxygen again?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you you want one?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_00: Give me that oxygen.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Yeah, that sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take some.
SPEAKER_00: I still think it's stupid for the record, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: I think I think that's sorry because I think that's how we think of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, I'm I'm going through life, life's hard.
SPEAKER_00: And and I and I don't think it does anybody any good, or you yourself included, to try to pretend like life isn't hard.
SPEAKER_00: Some seasons are easier than others, some seasons are more difficult than others.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is that life is not simple and life is not easy, but it could be worse.
SPEAKER_00: I hear that a lot, and you know what?
SPEAKER_00: That's probably a helpful motto from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: I get that, but who can't say that?
SPEAKER_00: Literally, everybody can say that it could be worse.
SPEAKER_00: I get it, but I think we have to stop for a minute and just go, life's difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Life throws you curveballs that you never saw coming.
SPEAKER_00: And and and then that's it, that's part of life.
SPEAKER_00: And my point is that you weren't intended to do life on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And see, most of us, we think of the Holy Spirit like some oxygen tank that you put in your backpack while you climb the mountain of life.
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, it's just like, oh, it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pull out the little, I'll pull out the little thing I need, and it's like, oh, I'm ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like we think of this Holy Spirit business as just sort of like this ornament to our life, this addition, this little thing that hopefully we'll tag along.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We just got to climb the mountain, just us versus the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just telling you that from the beginning pages of the Bible, that God planted humankind, mankind in a garden, the place he was walking and talking with them, the place he was.
SPEAKER_00: He created covenant partners, like not just us in a garden, and God would show up with the clipboard and checking off, did you do your chores this week?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He's less like the oxygen tank and your backpack, and he's more like the person who climbs the mountain with you.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's the one with you, going with you.
SPEAKER_00: So I think we need to we need to reorient our understanding a little bit of who the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I like to always think of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I I've I've we've said this for a few years.
SPEAKER_00: He's like the unfair advantage.
SPEAKER_00: He's an unfair advantage.
SPEAKER_00: What does the Holy Spirit do?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Jesus was really clear.
SPEAKER_00: He he convicts us, he changes us, he teaches us things, he even says that he will show us things that are yet to come.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that doesn't that's not even fair.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not that's just not fair.
SPEAKER_00: That's an unfair advantage.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is?
SPEAKER_00: That's a partnership.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's God wanting to partner with you.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to Acts chapter 8 here in just a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna give you some context and kind of lay the groundwork before we jump into that, because um, one of the things that we see in Acts is we see is we see the Holy Spirit at work.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the ways that the book of Acts is often uh referred to is like is they call it the Acts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people, though, now will actually acknowledge it's more accurately dubbed the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so you get you have the book of Luke and the book of Acts were actually the same book.
SPEAKER_00: They were one book, and then they were split, split up in our Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So you have the book of Luke, and then you have the book, which is a and then Acts, a continuation of the book of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And you get you get this picture of Jesus through his Holy Spirit doing this work of using ordinary people, common people, to do incredible things and establish his church.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a couple different ways that you can read your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the things I want you to, I want you to actually come away from any weekend here.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to, I want you to be able to understand how to read your Bible better just in general.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a couple of different ways.
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways to understand your Bible is that most of the Bible is written in a literary form called narrative.
SPEAKER_00: It's a narrative form, meaning this.
SPEAKER_00: It means it's not just, you know, most of us are looking for the rules, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or like, because the Bible's hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: We can admit that.
SPEAKER_00: And so most of us are just going, okay, where's the list of things where it's like, do these things to win at life, right?
SPEAKER_00: I need that list.
SPEAKER_00: Show somebody show me that list.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're we're looking for, and it's not quite that simple, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and narrative means that the Bible is written in a way where not only what's being said is important, but the way it's being said is important, where it's placed is important, the amount of times it's repeated is important, its placement in the Bible is important, like all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a narrative way of reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It means that all the little details are significant for you to fully grasp what's being communicated to you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the other form, right?
SPEAKER_00: When we're looking for the list of just tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's called a didactic way of reading your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That that's not wrong.
SPEAKER_00: The letters that Paul writes to the Corinthians, to the Philippians, to the Ephesians, when he's writing these letters, those are didactic, meaning this.
SPEAKER_00: When you read them, he says stuff like, Stop doing that, start doing this.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's really clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's like directives.
SPEAKER_00: He's going, This is this is stupid, this is better.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is chaos, this is order.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can read it and we can go, oh, he's writing a letter to like Freedom Church, and he's going, you need to do it this way, not that way, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can read it that way.
SPEAKER_00: That's a didactic way of reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Acts is meant to be read in narrative.
SPEAKER_00: Narrative.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that we can read it and we get a bigger glimpse of what God does, the things that he does in his church.
SPEAKER_00: What it doesn't mean is that we read it and we go, it's always this way.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: It's like if if we were to go down here and I and uh Highway 85 Bridge going across the Missouri River collapses, but you got a job you got to get to in Watford.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're going, I got you're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You come over there with a stick and you're like, I believe in God's gonna part the Missouri River for me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like I don't, I don't think that that was the point of him parting the Red Sea in that story.
SPEAKER_00: Was like, he's gonna get you to your job site in Watford City.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't, I think we're missing something here, right?
SPEAKER_00: It does mean God's a miracle-working God, and he will do things you never saw coming, he will make a way for you, and you didn't think there was one.
SPEAKER_00: And when you think your balls, your back is against the wall and you're doomed, he goes, think again when I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the story you can pull out of that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: That's a narrative way of reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And see, we can do the same thing here with the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's Almond Democracy.
SPEAKER_00: Acts, Acts chapter 1, because we're gonna go to Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you some context from Acts chapter 1, leading up to Acts 8.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has ascended, he rose again, and then he was it says he was um around for about 40 days, and then he ascended.
SPEAKER_00: They watched him uh uh uh ascend, wouldn't you know?
SPEAKER_00: I can't even imagine what that looked like.
SPEAKER_00: And so there he is, and then they start gathering.
SPEAKER_00: It says that the Holy Spirit comes on them and they're they're gathering, they're gathering in groups large and small.
SPEAKER_00: They would gather in the temple and then kind of a more communal, kind of a community gathering.
SPEAKER_00: There were no doubt there were there were many people that were gathering in that group that weren't even believers.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, probably like we have this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of you in the room.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know where you're at with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're still wondering, you're still questioning.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be a gathering much, much like much like this.
SPEAKER_00: And so they would gather in that, and then they would gather in their in their homes.
SPEAKER_00: They would say house to house.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing, um, we're going through a group right now called Way of Life.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is step three of what we call our formation pathway.
SPEAKER_00: It's an intentional pathway to be formed and discipled in our church.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've got about 50 some people that have been signed up.
SPEAKER_00: We're in their when tonight's our last night.
SPEAKER_00: We've been doing this for seven weeks, and it's all made up of their different community groups that they gather together with.
SPEAKER_00: It's incredible because we get to talk about things that we're teaching about on the weekends or things that we just sort of take for granted, like salvation and baptism.
SPEAKER_00: And then we get together in the groups, and the groups are actually able to talk about these and sort of flush this out so they can actually get it in them.
SPEAKER_00: It's an it's it's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't make that up.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: They were doing that from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: That's Acts right here.
SPEAKER_00: Then it says this it says that they are gathering, they said they had a lot of gladness, there was a lot of joy that made up the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Like they were actually excited to see each other.
SPEAKER_00: How about that for a church gathering?
SPEAKER_00: People like being around each other.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know if you've ever been to a church where they don't like, or at least you wouldn't know that they like being around each other.
SPEAKER_00: I know some pastors, they don't even like pastoring the church they pastor because nobody seems to like each other there.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just thank God Freedom Church isn't like that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for not being like thank you for the culture that you that you want to repeat and and create with me here at Freedom Church.
SPEAKER_00: You we actually like each other, at least most of us we like each other.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for that, right?
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
SPEAKER_00: I like pastoring you.
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: Gladness, authenticity.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible describes them in the beginning of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: There's this level of like authenticity that made up the early church.
SPEAKER_00: That just means that they weren't religious and weird.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Religious and and weird.
SPEAKER_00: You know what nobody ever says?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was thinking I've been a bit religious and weird.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever says that.
SPEAKER_00: They're always like, yeah, religious and weird, like those people.
SPEAKER_00: That's what everybody always you can't just say, oh, I was so encouraged, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I felt the atmospheric pressure of my heart uh shifted in that dynamic.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, bro, I think that was just the AC shifting on or something.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even know what you're talking about right now.
SPEAKER_00: Religious and weird.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever says, I'm I'm religious and weird.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give let me help you out because if I ask you that, you're gonna be like, oh, of course I'm not religious and weird.
SPEAKER_00: So let me help you out with that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Um, when when you're when you're first of all, that's performative.
SPEAKER_00: Religiosity and and being weird.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's performative.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't really let people know what's going on, and I gotta per I gotta portray myself in a way that's not accurate to who I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's performance.
SPEAKER_00: And performance always leads to a lack of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And so the better question isn't do I am I performative and am I religious?
SPEAKER_00: The better question is do I have compassion for people?
SPEAKER_00: Because what my observation, religiosity and compassion can't live together.
SPEAKER_00: The better question is, do I have compassion for people?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just compassion's not a spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_00: That's um, that's a character, that's part of the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: That was that was free.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's the first part of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And then they get to Acts chapter 6, and we get this guy, Philip.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's who we're gonna read about in Acts 8.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 8, Philip is preaching.
SPEAKER_00: He preaches, we get to see the results of his preaching.
SPEAKER_00: He preaches an incredible message.
SPEAKER_00: It's clear based on Acts 8.
SPEAKER_00: It's like based on how people are responding, he's anointed, like God's using him to preach.
SPEAKER_00: But see, he doesn't start in Acts 8 preaching, he starts in Acts chapter 6 because all the things I just said, that sounds like a church I want to be a part of.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I want to be a part of that church.
SPEAKER_00: Thousands of people actually wanted to be a part of that church, so it grew rapidly and they got to get organized.
SPEAKER_00: So Acts chapter six, they have a little bit of a different socioeconomic culture.
SPEAKER_00: And so when people were coming into the church, it's like, I mean, they were feeding each other.
SPEAKER_00: Like you know, that communion meant we're gonna have a meal.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, this is your meal for the day.
SPEAKER_00: Like it was like they were taking care of people on an we're often used to in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: And so here they are, they're doing this, they got to get organized.
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a bit of a mess.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Philip, the great preacher in Acts chapter 8, he starts by weighting tables in Acts chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is important for you because because I know for some of us, it's like we got like a fire burning in us.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, man, I want to change the world, I want to change my nation, I want to see people come to Jesus, I want to reach the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: God, use me.
SPEAKER_00: And don't be surprised when he's like, that's great and all.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to get on a team and make sure them rows are straight.
unknown: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that's that's where it starts.
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's at that's at one through six.
SPEAKER_00: We get to eight.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read this.
SPEAKER_00: This is Acts chapter eight, verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because he just preached, and people are responding.
SPEAKER_00: For some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, nothing's new.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's new, gave him their attention and exclaimed, This man is rightly called the great power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you got that in your bio?
SPEAKER_00: The great power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody needs to love you enough to be like, you need to change your name.
SPEAKER_00: That's not good.
SPEAKER_00: The great power, this man's the great power of God.
SPEAKER_00: They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.
SPEAKER_00: I like to think of Simon the sorcerer as like first social media influencer in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Like you didn't think you didn't think that was in the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: It's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's right here.
SPEAKER_00: They they they they pay tribute with their attention and they are amazed by his ability.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I know it's like, well, it's sorcery.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we think he's pulling rabbits out of hats.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me give you the modern version.
SPEAKER_00: The man knows how to he knows how to get influence, he knows how to make money, he knows how to get women.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
SPEAKER_00: You know exactly what I'm talking about because there's plenty of it on your Instagram feed right now.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of that.
SPEAKER_00: He knows how to do all the things, and they're amazed at his great power.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same spirit, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: That spirit lives, that lives on.
SPEAKER_00: The same spirit that we have in now, it's been, it was then, it's it's now too.
SPEAKER_00: And you know why I think that is?
SPEAKER_00: I think we're I think we're as people we're looking for power.
SPEAKER_00: I think we really are.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking for we're looking for power.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we said at the beginning, life's life's hard, life's challenging.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking for we're looking for that like that extra.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what I think?
SPEAKER_00: I not only I think that we're looking for it, I think we need it.
SPEAKER_00: I think you are designed for power.
SPEAKER_00: I think that you were designed to see God at work in your life in a unique, experiential way.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't think that the I don't think that it's all it's all about what you know.
SPEAKER_00: I think that there's something to be said about the experience that you're having with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: And I think and I think I I might even say this, I think as a parent, I think we got a lot of parents in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I think I think there's there's something to be said about your kids growing up and and going, I didn't I didn't just hear what I was supposed to do, I watched the power of God at work in my mom and in my dad.
SPEAKER_00: I think I think that's an important part of a life in partnership with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: And and and I'm and it's not just what you see in others, but what you see in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I think that you should be able to look back and go, my goodness, there was I used to be, and now I'm different.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't explain that because that's the that's the power of God at work, not only to save you, but he also wants to give you the power to like he wants to empower your life to empower your life to make a difference, for witness, to live on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Like he wants to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And I think and I think this is a critical part.
SPEAKER_00: I think people are hungry for it.
SPEAKER_00: I think that I think we're all looking for it.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that, and I and I would say this, I think, I think as as a as a as the current generation of of Christians in our culture right now, I think we need to give the next generation a better vision of God's power in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I think we need to be open to that.
SPEAKER_00: I think we need to be more intentional about that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God, look at that, they believed.
SPEAKER_00: They're going, I'm in.
SPEAKER_00: They're believers, they're going, I'm gonna follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching the good news.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: That right there ought to be a little bit of a the good news.
SPEAKER_00: It's the kindness of God that leads people to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you dirty rotten sinners, give your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, where's the good news at?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the good news?
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
SPEAKER_00: So not only are they born again, they're following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're even following Jesus in water baptism.
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Saved, baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this next part.
SPEAKER_00: Simon himself even believed and was baptized.
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Even the social media influencer guy that seems to have it all together, even he's like, I'm in this follow up, this message.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in, and I'm even I'm ready to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: It says he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles that he saw.
SPEAKER_00: When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they accepted.
SPEAKER_00: They're going, we got a new set of believers.
SPEAKER_00: We got some Jesus followers.
SPEAKER_00: Things are happening.
SPEAKER_00: There's clearly some time here.
SPEAKER_00: They're changing, there's things happening.
SPEAKER_00: It says they sent Peter and John to Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers, the people who are already in Christ there that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them.
SPEAKER_00: They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And see, for a lot of us, you here's what this means: you can experience the redemption of Jesus in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Without this, what we're talking about here, without this encounter with the Holy Spirit, you can experience the redemption of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus through his Holy Spirit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You can experience the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace and patience, like all those things that go how to, by the way, the thing that qualifies you for leadership in the kingdom of God is not, are you the person with the most you know, out um uh right gifts of the spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Like, are we looking around going, that person operates in that gift and that person operates in that gift?
SPEAKER_00: That's not the qualification for leadership, it's the fruit of the spirit, and you can experience a life-transforming fruit of the spirit in your life when you come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can experience the justification of God, stand before God, and it's like, no, I know I'm guilty, but now because of Jesus, I'm not anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know, I know, but I'm I'm leaning on I'm gonna, it's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's called justification.
SPEAKER_00: You can experience that, but then there's something else here, and it's this idea of the spirit coming upon us, and that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: And look what it says in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter and John place their hands on who?
SPEAKER_00: Believers, people are following Jesus, people whose lives we have every reason to believe is in the process of being transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Place their hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There's something, there's something, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: There's something different about that.
SPEAKER_00: They're receiving the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that whole language, we we see some of this in John chapter 20.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is with his disciples, he's preparing to leave.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Bible says he breathes on them and they receive the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that looked like.
SPEAKER_00: I could imagine that was a big deal and a big moment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know how that moment went down.
SPEAKER_00: He breathes on them and they receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But then he tells them this he says, but hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00: Here in a short while, the spirit's gonna come upon you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a little different.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens in Acts 2.
SPEAKER_00: We see the Spirit coming upon them.
SPEAKER_00: And then two chapters later, they're all in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 4, they're all in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: They're just like, and then it says that they cry out to the living God, and the spirit comes upon them.
SPEAKER_00: Again, they're filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know what they're looking for?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's power.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: He says he's giving them power.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you three Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: Now, pastors love Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we love giving Greek words because when we give you a Greek word, it makes us feel like we're doing scholarly work, you know?
SPEAKER_00: It's like I went to seminary for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's my Greek.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those things that's like, tell me you're you think you're smart without telling me that you think that you're smart.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, all right, I have some Greek words for you this morning that you will not remember, but I have them for you.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, these ones are helpful though, okay.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a little different.
SPEAKER_00: I have helpful Greek words for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here you go.
SPEAKER_00: I got some helpful Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one para.
SPEAKER_00: And it means this with.
SPEAKER_00: And and I have this jar of this jar of water because it's like that's the Holy Spirit, and we're the empty cup right there.
SPEAKER_00: And and then this first word is this idea that is that the Holy Spirit is with us.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: This is where this is at John 14, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Pull my verse up.
SPEAKER_00: It says the spirit of truth that the world.
SPEAKER_00: Did I write that down?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: That's that, that's this, this is Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: It says word para.
SPEAKER_00: He's with you and will be, meaning he's not at the moment, he will be in you.
SPEAKER_00: And and and this is the this is the whole I idea uh around this is that is that he's the one that that convicts you in me.
SPEAKER_00: You can go back to my picture here.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that convicts us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, our natural tendency is not toward flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, you and you know this because this is many of our stories here, right?
SPEAKER_00: At some point along the way in our stories, somebody, a person, a great mentor, a pastor, or the police, even have intervened at some point in our life and have like course, helped us course correct, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because our natural progression tends to be destruction.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we tend to do.
SPEAKER_00: We tend to follow the path that seems right to us, and so that ends up being destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And see, the Holy Spirit, though, you may not have been thinking about God, you weren't even thinking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't even church, it was the last thing on your mind, but in that moment, you're about to do something, you did something, you're thinking about doing something, and there's that voice, and it goes, Hey, there's a better way.
SPEAKER_00: There's a better way.
SPEAKER_00: And you didn't know what that you thought, oh man, my conscience.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a really conscious person.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, really?
SPEAKER_00: You really think that's you think that was your wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: It's like that's the Holy Spirit with you.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible's really clear throughout John 16.
SPEAKER_00: It says, one of the things it says, says the Holy Spirit is going to convict the world of sin.
SPEAKER_00: When you and I come to Jesus, make no mistake, the Holy Spirit came and got us.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming to get us.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming, he's been trying to get you for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: It's the voice.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, there's a better way.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is with us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the next, here's the next word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word in, or we in.
SPEAKER_00: So they go, Holy Spirit is now in us.
SPEAKER_00: He's in us.
SPEAKER_00: This is Romans chapter 8, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: You, however, are not in the realm.
SPEAKER_00: Talking about those of us who are in Christ, following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're a Jesus follow, you're saved, you're born again, you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: In you.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, my verse is a little bit messed up.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the part where you go, I'm following Jesus, the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the ways what it means to be in Christ, to be born again, is that the Spirit marks you.
SPEAKER_00: How do you how does it how do we know who's who?
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of the Living God lives on the inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may not know that because your life looks like it's always looked, but this is where the spirit living in you is now in the business of transforming you.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit's in the business of changing you and me.
SPEAKER_00: And so the spirit is on the he's with us, convicting us, he's in us, transforming us.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the last one.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the here's the last word is this word epi or upon.
SPEAKER_00: And this is that idea where he, the spirit of God is not just in you, but there's a supernatural empowerment where the Holy Spirit is now on you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we read at the beginning of Acts, where he says, Hold on a second, I've breathed on you, you've received the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not many days from now, he says, I'm going to pour out my spirit upon you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference here.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God being born.
SPEAKER_00: This is just Acts.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: This I don't even have time to pull all the verses up.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 1, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: This is all the places where this word is used.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1, verse 8, chapter 4, verse 8, chapter 4, verse 31, chapter 6, verse 3, chapter 6, verse 5, chapter 7, verse 55, chapter 8, verse 17, chapter 9, verse 17, chapter 11, verse 15, chapter 13, verse 9, chapter 13, verse 52.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: This idea that the Holy Spirit is with you, He's in you, and He wants to come upon you.
SPEAKER_00: He convicts us, He transforms us, and He empowers your life for purpose and for witness.
SPEAKER_00: And I get it because some of us we kind of come from, I know we have some different backgrounds, some different church backgrounds, and it's like, well on a second.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I I've even had people ask me this.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, are you a word church or are you like a spirit church?
SPEAKER_00: You all about the word or you guys all about the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, when you're all about the word and you ignore the Holy Spirit, you become rigid and judgmental.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is clear, the word kills.
SPEAKER_00: It's the spirit that gives life.
SPEAKER_00: But when you get all about the Holy Spirit and you ignore the word, here's what happens: you become gullible, goofy, and ineffective.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're all about the spirit, but you don't, you're a spirit, you're you're biblically anemic.
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't have, you don't have a Bible depth of knowledge to be able to discern what's the spirit of God and what's a different spirit, and you end up believing all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: What you end up doing is you end up chasing spiritual gifts and manifestations because that's what you've now interpreted as the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And what you'll end up doing is ignoring the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit in your life and in the life of others.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be in you, he wants, he could with you, but he wants to be upon you and he wants to, he wants to change you, he wants to empower you.
SPEAKER_00: I said life's hard.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, life's difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And I think for a lot of us, I think we genuinely want to like be used of God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to do, we want to do things for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We want to we want to be used by God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's a noble thing to desire.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us, we're just tired though.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's exhausting.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like, and I and I and I'm not just talking about like, you know, physical like energy stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying like there's something, there's something weighty about wanting to do something for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I just tell you, a lot of us, we're just we're like running that race dehydrated.
SPEAKER_00: We're dehydrated.
SPEAKER_00: You can't run a race without some water.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be hydrated.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just telling you, that's a that's a better picture of the spirit with you, in you, and coming upon you.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: How does that this is with the language of like the Holy Spirit filling us?
SPEAKER_00: How do we how do we step into that?
SPEAKER_00: How do we receive what the what the apostles throughout the book of Acts are not just once, but many times, are receiving from the Holy Spirit, filling us.
SPEAKER_00: And here's here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: And this shouldn't surprise you because we've already, this word has kind of popped up already in some of the scripture we we've read, and it's this word believe.
SPEAKER_00: You got believe.
SPEAKER_00: Now that that maybe that sounds a bit juvenile, maybe that sounds a little bit infantile, but can I just tell you this?
SPEAKER_00: You only move toward that which you believe.
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, well, I don't sure I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, don't be surprised when you don't experience it until you actually start believing it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I don't believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that you have gotten exactly the results that you believe you were supposed to get.
SPEAKER_00: It's that's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: We only move toward that which we believe.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you know that whole saying it's like you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we all know that saying, right?
SPEAKER_00: We get it's like our excuse as we get a little older, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're like, see, I'm stuck in my ways.
SPEAKER_00: They they actually have a psychology term for that.
SPEAKER_00: It's called cognitive entrenchment.
SPEAKER_00: So if you didn't think I was smart with the Greek words, now you know I'm really smart, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And honored, I had to look that up this week.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that either.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, we learned something new this week.
SPEAKER_00: Cognitive entrenchment.
SPEAKER_00: It means this, it means it means you can't teach a dog to do tricks.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_00: It means you're stuck in your ways, and you hear something about the Holy Spirit, and you're like, wow, I've been following Jesus for quite some time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just saying, do you know what the opposite of that is?
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of cognitive entrenchment is called humility.
SPEAKER_00: It's just humility.
SPEAKER_00: Will I let the Bible get in the way of what I have been believing?
SPEAKER_00: Look at Luke, this is the next part, Luke 11, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: If you then, though you are evil, that he's not that's us.
SPEAKER_00: That's that means you you need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: It means you mean you're created and you're broken, like all of us, and you need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: So if you, being broken and evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: This is like a part of our theology that we've just sort of like ignored and left out.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I came to Jesus, but Jesus has this whole thing of like, you gonna ask me to receive?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna ask me for the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna do that here in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna, we're gonna, we we believe, and hopefully, through your hearing today, your faith is built, and you actually are in a place where you can go, no, I believe this.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna ask, and then here's the next part we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: This is Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing this, and he says, Don't get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, be filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a weird verse, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I I don't maybe you don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's weird.
SPEAKER_00: It's like that's some strange things to put together.
SPEAKER_00: And and here's let me let me help you out.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying the Bible's really clear, like getting drunk, getting intoxicated, like don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's sin.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: But but there's something else going on here because it's like don't get drunk on wine, instead be filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I think and I think a more modern day way of understanding this is like there's things that motivate us to want to like excess and drink too much, and like get drunk.
SPEAKER_00: And like we we if there's a there's a bit of a way to like escape.
SPEAKER_00: Life's hard.
SPEAKER_00: What do we say?
SPEAKER_00: Life's hard, life is difficult, and and and sometimes, sometimes a few extra drinks in the evening sounds pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: So that sounds sounds that doesn't sound bad.
SPEAKER_00: So I think a modern day reading would be like, don't get drunk on wine and stop binge watching Netflix till three in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying getting drunk and watching Netflix are the exact same thing, they're not, they're not the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00: But what motivates us to do both of those things does tend to be the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And he and and notice is the notice the antidote to the pressures of life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: There's a better way.
SPEAKER_00: Be filled with my spirit, be filled with my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Life's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Stop, stop chasing the fake ways of alleviating the difficulties and pressures of life.
SPEAKER_00: Stop stop accepting the counterfeit, stop believing the lie, and instead be filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a that's a command, the way this is written.
SPEAKER_00: That's a command.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going, hey, if you feel like it, be filled with no, he's saying, be filled.
SPEAKER_00: It's also passive, you know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that you just decide to do, it's the spirit of God, like he does that.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta, it's a surrendering moment.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't do it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It's also, it's also like a progressive word, meaning like a in in literary terms, it's progressive, meaning it's not just one time, it's actually written in a way where it's saying, be filled and be refilled, be filled, and continue to be filled.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: After we believe and we ask, we do what they did in Acts chapter 8, and we receive.
SPEAKER_00: And we receive.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not based on us, that's based on Him.
SPEAKER_00: We believe, we ask, we trust, and then we see it at work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I know for some of us, we're like, is that is that it is it is it that simple?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me say this because a lot of you are following Jesus, and you you say, I'm a born-again, I'm a Bible-believing, I'm a Christian, I'm a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me about that moment when you became a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: You believed, you asked, and then based on what you were taught, you received it and you said, I believe by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And you, and it's highly unlikely you walked out of here with some chill down your spine and some little tingly moment.
SPEAKER_00: You just trusted that when you walked out of here, you went, I I used to be, but now I'm different.
SPEAKER_00: I used to be that, but I believe this, and I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: And I and that's called that's called a moment of faith, believing that when you don't physically see it manifested yet in your life, but then you're on the lookout for it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because then you begin to go, Wow, my desires are changing.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, I'm doing things I didn't do before.
SPEAKER_00: I struggled all these years with not yelling at my kids, and you know what I didn't do yesterday?
SPEAKER_00: I almost yelled and I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh my goodness, the spirit of God is changing me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just these these moments, it's the same way with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna believe, we're gonna ask, and then we're going to receive, and we're gonna be on the lookout as he begins to manifest himself in our lives, and we become open to hearing his voice and looking for him to empower our work, to empower us for witness, empower us for purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Like that, like literally, like breathe into the parts of your life and actually live in partnership with us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to be like spirit-empowered, to be spirit-filled.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this is as a spirit-empowered life.
SPEAKER_00: That word spirit throughout the Bible, you get words like water and wind.
SPEAKER_00: Wind, it's where we get the word pneuma or pneuma pneumatology.
SPEAKER_00: It's the study of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You think like a pneumatic tool?
SPEAKER_00: You're using wind to power the tool.
SPEAKER_00: It's power, the Holy Spirit, it's it's power.
SPEAKER_00: And so to be spirit-filled and to be spirit-empowered means this: it means to receive the animating presence of God in your life so that He can empower your life for witness and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just go ahead and pray.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: And I and as we get even excited about the fact that you didn't leave us by ourselves, that we actually have that you give us your Holy Spirit to partner with us through through our life.
SPEAKER_00: And we we are we are so we're so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we're gonna do here, church.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna, we're gonna believe, we're gonna ask, and we're gonna receive.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna receive the spirit coming upon us here today.
SPEAKER_00: But before we do that, the the step one is if you haven't committed your life to Jesus, you need to do that first.
SPEAKER_00: You need to commit your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he died for you, he he rose again on the third day, and he says that when you follow him, he says that he will raise you to new life with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so make this prayer your your own.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never committed your life to Jesus, Jesus, I give you my life and I choose to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you died for me, I believe you came back from the dead, and that you would you want to raise me back to new life with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm all in.
SPEAKER_00: Your ways are now my ways.
SPEAKER_00: I'm committed to you.
SPEAKER_00: I give you my my allegiance, I give you everything.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saving me.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want all of us, we're also gonna pray to receive the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never done this, maybe some of you are like, this is all new to me.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know this was an option.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, that's how they fell in Acts 8.
SPEAKER_00: You know that's how they fell.
SPEAKER_00: They showed up, they're like, wait a second, there's more.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: There, I didn't even they didn't even tell us, they didn't even tell us there was a Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been following Jesus for 20 plus years and you go, Oh, I've done this.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, yeah, you need a fresh refilling of the Holy Spirit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You you you you've been dehydrated.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm just say this if you believe and you want to ask and receive this morning, just as an act of receiving, just turn your palms up with me, just as a way to say, I'm here to receive this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we believe you.
SPEAKER_00: We believe your word, we believe you what you said, we believe scripture, we believe you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we we take a moment and we just go, you said to ask, and so we're asking.
SPEAKER_00: Would you give us your spirit, your Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: We know you're we we know you've you've been with us, we know you're in us.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come upon us?
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer is what they prayed in Acts 4.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stretch out your arm?
SPEAKER_00: Would you heal us?
SPEAKER_00: And would you would you pour out your spirit in a way that empowers us to do your work, to live your way full of purpose and full of power.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for using us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we have a partner for the rest of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we don't have to do this on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, for giving us your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, come on, let's put our hands together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's tell Jesus thank you this morning.