WEBVTT 00:00:08.208 --> 00:00:09.789 What an exciting time to be alive. 00:00:09.789 --> 00:00:10.590 Amen. 00:00:10.590 --> 00:00:16.856 God has chosen us out of all of history, all of the time, since the creation of the world. 00:00:16.856 --> 00:00:27.365 He's chosen us to be alive in this season and this time, and some of us are like question, mark, why? 00:00:27.365 --> 00:00:29.329 It doesn't seem like I'd rather have. 00:00:29.329 --> 00:00:30.611 Some of us feel like that. 00:00:30.611 --> 00:00:35.000 Maybe we would rather have lived in the 1800s and others would want to live in 2100s. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.569 So it's like you're all over the map, but guess what? 00:00:38.569 --> 00:00:50.960 God has chosen us to be a part of this time, this season, to make a difference, and he's got a plan that's greater than our plan and he's working it in our lives and he wants to work through us in this coming year. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.000 So get excited about it and be looking forward to what God has in store. 00:00:56.561 --> 00:01:09.000 Mark last week just reminded us that the elder team goes away in the fall, and we do this in order to seek the Lord about what he wants to do in the church, in and through Trinity Community Church, in the new year. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:15.010 And so we went away in October and we felt like the Lord was very kind to us to speak to us. 00:01:15.010 --> 00:01:20.000 Three words that we feel like are going to really inform us as we build out the rest of this year. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:27.914 So those words were encounter jubilee or freedom jubilee and prepare. 00:01:27.914 --> 00:01:31.000 Encounter jubilee and prepare. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:42.000 Now, when we go away and ask the Lord what he wants, it's not that we're asking Him how he wants to grow the church or practical things that we need to do, necessarily. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.768 It's more about we're asking God what do you need? 00:01:45.768 --> 00:01:51.000 What do you, as as people that are a part of this church, need in your own lives? 00:01:51.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And, by the way, when I say you, I mean me too, dude, because just because I'm one of the shepherds here in this church does not mean that I'm not a sheep as well. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:07.000 I am a sheep and I need to hear the voice of God and I need to follow the voice of God, just like everybody else. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:22.894 And so the messages that I bring are impactful to me, because I've had to work through it during the week or during the time of preparation, and then also the messages that other people bring as well are so impactful and important and informative to me. 00:02:22.894 --> 00:02:28.853 So pray that as we begin this talking this morning, we're going to talk about encounter. 00:02:28.853 --> 00:02:36.000 I thought about the title of close encounters of a God kind with sounded nice, but I just stuck with encounter. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:37.323 We'll just go there. 00:02:37.323 --> 00:02:40.090 We're not trying to be too cool for school, right? 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:50.302 And we're going to talk about encounter, especially when it comes to the person and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, very important. 00:02:50.623 --> 00:02:53.570 Let's look at John, chapter 14, verses 16 and 17. 00:02:53.570 --> 00:03:10.973 It says and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper this is Jesus speaking to his disciples to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. 00:03:10.973 --> 00:03:19.033 You know him, for he dwells with you and will be what In you. 00:03:19.033 --> 00:03:21.252 Let's pray, father. 00:03:21.252 --> 00:03:22.000 God, I thank you for your word. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.909 I thank you that your word is truth and life. 00:03:24.909 --> 00:03:35.000 And we ask, lord, that you would cause our eyes to be open to what the spirit is teaching us this morning, that it would inform us that it would transform us. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:43.000 And, father, that we would take what we've received and give it to others so that they can be affected in such ways themselves. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:51.979 And, father, we also ask that you would reinvigorate us when it comes to our desire to encounter you in our daily lives. 00:03:51.979 --> 00:04:00.000 And, lord, as we take this moment just to be silent, father, we ask that your presence would be here and speak to each and every one of us. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.842 I just want to ask us just to be still for just a minute in the presence of God. 00:04:04.842 --> 00:04:44.264 Thank you, lord, thank you, father. 00:04:44.264 --> 00:04:50.846 Bible says be still and know that I am God, and I just want to encourage you guys. 00:04:50.846 --> 00:05:03.670 Let's not let the busyness of life, let's not let all the distractions and the noise stop us or hinder us from really taking time To just be still in the presence of a holy God. 00:05:03.670 --> 00:05:09.391 That's not just something that we should be experiencing on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night. 00:05:09.391 --> 00:05:13.430 This is something that we should be experiencing every day of our lives. 00:05:13.430 --> 00:05:16.689 And it's not just the feeling, although it does come with feelings. 00:05:16.689 --> 00:05:26.225 There's something so powerful about a God who cares enough about us to want to encounter us Amen. 00:05:27.464 --> 00:05:29.000 So quick question. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:33.000 These are not trick questions, so real, easy answers, right? 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.569 So if you had to find God, the Father, this morning, where would you find Him? 00:05:36.569 --> 00:05:41.547 If you had to locate Him, like, knock on His door, where would he be? 00:05:41.547 --> 00:05:47.125 He's in here, but where is he actually? 00:05:47.125 --> 00:05:51.608 Literally, he's on His throne in heaven, isn't he? 00:05:51.608 --> 00:05:53.925 And where is Jesus Christ, his Son. 00:05:53.925 --> 00:05:56.665 He's at the right hand of the Father. 00:05:56.665 --> 00:05:57.689 And guess what he's doing there? 00:05:57.689 --> 00:06:00.000 He's interceding on our behalf. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:18.000 Aren't you so glad that God didn't just send Jesus to stand in the gap one time for us, but for all of eternity he continues to stand in the gap, to stand on our behalf, praying for us, standing between Satan and God as a stopgap. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:23.952 When Satan comes in like a flood, god raises up a standard against him, and the standard is Jesus Christ. 00:06:23.952 --> 00:06:26.000 Thank God for that truth. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.927 Where is the Holy Spirit? 00:06:27.927 --> 00:06:31.629 Holy Spirit is in the earth. 00:06:31.629 --> 00:06:38.872 He's in the earth, and for those who are followers of Jesus Christ, he's in us. 00:06:38.872 --> 00:06:41.990 He's in us. 00:06:41.990 --> 00:06:49.889 So why is it then, if those three things are true, god the Father is in heaven on His throne, as he should be. 00:06:49.889 --> 00:06:53.470 God the Son is at His right hand, as he should be. 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:56.959 The Holy Spirit is in the earth, dwelling within us. 00:06:57.922 --> 00:07:02.252 Why is it that we very rarely hear people talking about the Holy Spirit? 00:07:02.252 --> 00:07:04.846 Doesn't that seem strange? 00:07:04.846 --> 00:07:09.000 Well, there's lots of reasons for that, and we're going to get into that a little bit. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:25.853 One of the main reasons is, I believe, that there's an all-out attack that Satan attempts in order to, in any way he can change our perspective or distract us away from what's really important and what's really true. 00:07:25.853 --> 00:07:42.415 And there's been no other doctrine that I know of in the whole body of Christ, including the Rapture, not Rapture and any other thing that you could list or name that has been more misunderstood and caused more division than the Holy Spirit. 00:07:42.415 --> 00:07:48.389 That is not God's intent, that is man's doing and that is Satan's doing Right. 00:07:48.389 --> 00:07:59.713 So we want to make sure that Trinity Community Church by the way, it's in our name Trinity we want to make sure that we are not God the Father, god the Son and the Bible, as important as the Bible is. 00:07:59.713 --> 00:08:13.899 The Bible is the written word of God, it is our manual, it is our, it gives us a pattern of living, it gives us the perspective of who God is and His character and His nature and who Jesus is, all of those things. 00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:22.000 But the Bible cannot replace the Holy Spirit as a part of the Trinity Right, and that's what Jesus was trying to say here. 00:08:22.661 --> 00:08:34.894 I want to get into that in just a minute, but I want you to picture in your mind, derek and John just let us in a time of communion, and the verses that they were reading were found in the book of John in relation to what I just read. 00:08:34.894 --> 00:08:44.591 Jesus has come triumphantly you know, triumphantly entered into Jerusalem and he sends His disciples out to find a room so that they can have a supper together. 00:08:44.591 --> 00:08:49.437 They get together, he washes their feet and says that they should be servants. 00:08:49.437 --> 00:08:51.967 As he is a servant, they have a meal together. 00:08:51.967 --> 00:09:00.634 As they're having the meal, then he institutes the Lord's supper, which he says that we are supposed to partake of until he returns Right. 00:09:00.634 --> 00:09:06.000 And then, as he's doing that, as he's concluding the communion, he says one of you will betray me. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.452 And then he specifically says that Judas is the one that's going to betray him. 00:09:10.452 --> 00:09:13.000 And Jesus had just washed his feet a few minutes earlier. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:18.432 Can you imagine the heart of God to wash the feet of your betrayer? 00:09:18.432 --> 00:09:20.764 And yet Jesus. 00:09:20.764 --> 00:09:25.493 And then Jesus says to Judas go and do what Satan has already entered you to do. 00:09:25.493 --> 00:09:28.951 And then he turns to Peter and says Peter, you're going to deny me. 00:09:28.951 --> 00:09:34.960 Three times before the rooster crows and Peter was like you're right, God, jesus, you're right, right? 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:36.044 Is that what he said? 00:09:36.044 --> 00:09:38.014 He said absolutely not. 00:09:38.014 --> 00:09:39.000 I will die for you. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.811 What he meant was I will die fighting for you. 00:09:42.811 --> 00:09:48.712 He didn't mean I will give up my life for you at that point. 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:57.000 Now we know, reading the rest of the Bible, that things got good with Peter, and Peter ended up living his life sacrificially for the Lord. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:13.332 And he ended up giving his life, ultimately sacrificially, being crucified, and asking, requesting that he be crucified upside down, so that he would not didn't feel like he was worthy to be crucified in the same manner as our Lord, jesus Christ. 00:10:13.332 --> 00:10:16.980 So here you have this backdrop of all of this stuff going on. 00:10:16.980 --> 00:10:25.693 In John 14.6, right before the passage I just read Jesus gives one of the greatest revelations of who he is in all of the Bible. 00:10:25.693 --> 00:10:30.947 He says I am what, the way, the truth and the life. 00:10:30.947 --> 00:10:34.913 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:10:34.913 --> 00:10:37.121 Let's not forget. 00:10:37.221 --> 00:10:39.905 Why did Jesus come to this earth? 00:10:39.905 --> 00:10:50.610 He came to this earth in order for us to be restored, to write, to have an opportunity to be restored, to write relationship with His heavenly Father, amen. 00:10:50.610 --> 00:10:57.000 But now he turns the tables on His disciples and he begins to talk about something they weren't quite prepared for. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:58.950 He's going to leave them. 00:10:58.950 --> 00:11:01.000 He's going to leave them. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.336 And what were they thinking in their Jewish minds? 00:11:04.336 --> 00:11:04.980 And what were they thinking? 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:08.000 What were the people that were around them thinking was going to occur? 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:23.931 They were thinking that the Messiah was going to destroy Rome, eradicate them from their kingdom, and that he was going to reestablish the throne of His Father, david, in Jerusalem and he was going to rule and reign forever and ever and ever. 00:11:23.931 --> 00:11:27.269 And Peter and the rest of the guys were all for that. 00:11:27.269 --> 00:11:42.000 And how many of you know, there will be a time and there will be a day when Jesus will return to the earth and he will literally rule and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords forever and ever and ever. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.960 So those things are true and they will come to pass. 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:50.893 But His first coming was not about that, yet what was it about? 00:11:50.893 --> 00:11:53.206 It was about bringing redemption. 00:11:53.206 --> 00:12:08.173 It was about bringing a plan and instituting a plan whereby we could have our relationship with God restored, and also so that he could send Holy Spirit into the earth to live among us and to dwell in us. 00:12:08.173 --> 00:12:15.937 So he says I'm going to leave you, but don't worry, I'm going to send you something that's great, you're going to love it. 00:12:15.937 --> 00:12:22.312 So let's look at this passage and talk about what Jesus is teaching his disciples about the Holy Spirit. 00:12:22.780 --> 00:12:32.764 Now, when you talk about Holy Spirit, I interchange so you can use the article, the, because the Bible uses that in a lot of places, so it says the Holy Spirit. 00:12:32.764 --> 00:12:39.152 I like sometimes, when I'm talking about Holy Spirit, to move the, loose, the, the. 00:12:39.152 --> 00:12:41.086 And why do you think I do that? 00:12:41.086 --> 00:12:57.528 Because a lot of times when people think about the Holy Spirit they think about something like Star Wars May the force be with you or you know some kind of mystical, you know entity out here, some kind of being Casper the friendly ghost or something like this. 00:12:57.528 --> 00:13:00.427 He's much more than that. 00:13:00.427 --> 00:13:14.326 He feels things deeply, he can be moved with compassion, he can be grieved, he thinks, he discerns, he teaches, he considers, he reasons. 00:13:14.326 --> 00:13:25.528 He has all of these elements about him that are not other world right, even though he is a supernatural being OK, so really important for us. 00:13:25.528 --> 00:13:27.386 You can refer to it either way. 00:13:27.386 --> 00:13:37.624 But sometimes when I lose the article is because I'm reminding myself that this is not just a, this is not an aberration, this is just a mark. 00:13:37.864 --> 00:13:45.835 The Holy Spirit is just as much a part of the Trinity as God the Father and God the Son, and that's the way that God intended it. 00:13:45.835 --> 00:13:48.326 It's not our plan, it's his plan, right. 00:13:48.326 --> 00:13:55.539 So in his dialogue with his disciples, the first thing he's instituting and teaching them is the Holy Spirit is God. 00:13:55.539 --> 00:14:04.495 You'll notice the spirit is capitalized S in many translation the spirit of truth, the spirit, the Holy Spirit, even. 00:14:04.495 --> 00:14:06.539 They weren't being promised. 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:10.370 These disciples weren't being promised a lesser version of God. 00:14:10.370 --> 00:14:16.182 This was someone who was equal to Jesus in every way, and we know that. 00:14:16.222 --> 00:14:21.092 Almighty God reveals himself as one being eternally existent in three persons. 00:14:21.092 --> 00:14:26.166 We don't understand the mystery of that fully and I don't think we need to. 00:14:26.166 --> 00:14:28.807 There are some things that God leaves us. 00:14:28.807 --> 00:14:31.389 What's the right? 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:32.062 What's the right word? 00:14:32.062 --> 00:14:41.539 We are aware of our own inability to totally comprehend and understand who God is, and that's okay. 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:43.539 It's okay, right. 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:48.491 He shows us who he is in the ways that we need to know and comprehend and understand. 00:14:48.491 --> 00:14:54.176 So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and this is something to remember. 00:14:55.345 --> 00:14:57.480 The Trinity is dynamic and unified in purpose. 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:01.519 They always keep in step with one another to bring about their purpose. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:12.508 There's never been a time in all of eternity that God the Father looked at God the Son and they were thinking different thoughts, or that the Holy Spirit spoke up and said ah, I don't think that's a great idea. 00:15:12.508 --> 00:15:19.153 They've always been unified in purpose, in direction, in action. 00:15:19.153 --> 00:15:23.539 Maybe their apparatus or their way of doing something may look different. 00:15:23.539 --> 00:15:27.480 We can look at this in the way that they've worked together in the past. 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:29.528 They worked together in creation. 00:15:30.264 --> 00:15:36.029 Genesis, chapter one, verses one through three, says In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 00:15:36.029 --> 00:15:45.539 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:48.868 And God said let there be light. 00:15:48.868 --> 00:15:50.432 And there was light. 00:15:50.432 --> 00:15:57.107 So you have God, the Father, kind of, as the architect of the creation, and Jesus Christ. 00:15:57.107 --> 00:16:03.129 When it says and God said, let there be light, john one brings us into the light on what that is. 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:05.407 Jesus is the word of God. 00:16:05.407 --> 00:16:12.365 So when the word was spoken let there be light Jesus was that word and the Holy Spirit was waiting. 00:16:12.365 --> 00:16:18.539 He's like the builder he was waiting for the word to be spoken so that he could perform it, so that he could cause it to come to pass. 00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:24.111 So when God said let there be light, there was light. 00:16:24.111 --> 00:16:26.539 They also work together in salvation. 00:16:26.539 --> 00:16:28.250 You can see this in John three. 00:16:28.250 --> 00:16:38.539 The Father sends the son, the son does the work of redemption, the spirit draws, saves, transforms and keeps us, and they work together in mission. 00:16:38.659 --> 00:16:41.188 There's a beautiful story in Isaiah, chapter six. 00:16:41.188 --> 00:16:50.018 Isaiah, who is already being used to speak the word of God, is now encountered with this vision of heaven where he sees God seated on the throne. 00:16:50.018 --> 00:16:50.539 And what does he do? 00:16:50.539 --> 00:16:56.467 Does he run up and jump in his lap and say and rub his belly and say I want a new Honda? 00:16:56.467 --> 00:16:59.116 No, no, of course it wouldn't have. 00:16:59.116 --> 00:17:05.320 That would have been very prophetic at the time, right, no Hondas around back then, but anyway. 00:17:05.320 --> 00:17:21.867 So now we fell on his face as one dead in the presence of a holy God, and he said I'm a man undone, unclean, my lips are unclean, even though he's already spoken for God. 00:17:21.867 --> 00:17:25.539 He's recognizing his own inability, his own sin. 00:17:25.539 --> 00:17:40.290 And the Bible says that an angel took a tongue and grabbed a burning coal out of the incense altar that's in heaven and he placed that coal on Isaiah's lips and he said to him now you've been made pure. 00:17:40.290 --> 00:17:53.394 And during that whole occasion the Trinity is speaking together and they say we need somebody to go as a messenger who will go for us Father, son and spirit. 00:17:53.394 --> 00:17:58.067 And Isaiah goes forth and of course, we know he was used of God to speak. 00:17:58.067 --> 00:18:04.539 The majority of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah Amazing stuff. 00:18:04.539 --> 00:18:06.539 So they work together in mission. 00:18:07.501 --> 00:18:13.997 The second thing that I believe that Jesus is trying to bring across to his followers is that he's a very present helper. 00:18:13.997 --> 00:18:15.460 He's a very present helper. 00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:19.931 How many of you would acknowledge this morning that we need some help? 00:18:19.931 --> 00:18:25.174 We need some help on a daily basis? 00:18:25.174 --> 00:18:26.539 I know that I do. 00:18:26.539 --> 00:18:42.756 And Jesus understood, much more succinctly especially, that these very same disciples that he was talking to were, in the days and weeks ahead, going to encounter the greatest persecution that they could ever imagine in their entire lives. 00:18:42.756 --> 00:18:49.791 And he knew that they weren't yet ready for it, but they were going to be made ready for it. 00:18:49.791 --> 00:18:50.192 Why? 00:18:50.192 --> 00:19:06.996 Because he was going to send the Holy Spirit, who was going to be their helper, their advocate, their strength when they were weak, their encouragement when they needed encouragement, their joy when they were filled with sorrow, their laughter when they only had tears and could find tears. 00:19:06.996 --> 00:19:13.550 The Holy Spirit is a gift from God and he is a great helper. 00:19:13.550 --> 00:19:17.519 He leads us and guides us. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:18.945 He's an advocate for us. 00:19:18.945 --> 00:19:25.051 The words that the Scripture used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit are personal words, very personal. 00:19:25.051 --> 00:19:26.282 He cares. 00:19:26.282 --> 00:19:30.008 This is a person who interacts with us. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:33.028 The last thing is Holy Spirit reveals Jesus. 00:19:33.028 --> 00:19:35.479 The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus. 00:19:35.479 --> 00:19:38.410 Holy Spirit isn't here with his own agenda. 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:43.539 He's not like saying, okay, father and son are away, so now I'm going to get to do my thing. 00:19:43.539 --> 00:19:48.291 No, he is the spirit of Christ that's in the earth. 00:19:48.291 --> 00:19:52.500 He is continuing the work that Jesus began. 00:19:52.500 --> 00:19:57.539 Oh, not when he came from the incarnation, but before the foundation of the world. 00:19:57.539 --> 00:20:07.734 The plan of action that's being carried out in 2024 is not an adjustment based on man's failure. 00:20:07.734 --> 00:20:22.189 The plan being carried out in 2024 is the plan that was created before the foundation of the world, and there's one God that's in charge and there's three ways that he expresses himself Father, son and spirit. 00:20:23.892 --> 00:20:29.520 Isn't it interesting that Jesus said that he came to reveal what the Father? 00:20:29.520 --> 00:20:33.208 Jesus came to this earth to reveal the Father. 00:20:33.208 --> 00:20:34.915 But what does the Holy Spirit do? 00:20:34.915 --> 00:20:37.198 He came to reveal Jesus. 00:20:37.198 --> 00:20:39.255 Isn't that awesome? 00:20:39.255 --> 00:20:41.170 They all are so caught up in each other. 00:20:41.170 --> 00:20:46.069 They can't help but talk about the other one and bless the other one and glorify the other one. 00:20:46.069 --> 00:20:47.375 That's what they're here to do. 00:20:47.375 --> 00:20:54.817 The Holy Spirit is here to guide us, lead us, reveal us, reveal to us who Jesus is. 00:20:56.529 --> 00:21:03.453 Any truth that we come to know about Jesus Christ we come to know only through the active revelation of the Holy Spirit. 00:21:03.453 --> 00:21:09.637 That's the only way that we ever know any truth that we believe about God. 00:21:09.637 --> 00:21:20.557 It's through the active revelation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and it is the active work of the Holy Spirit that should be the normal experience for every believer in Jesus. 00:21:20.557 --> 00:21:28.420 It should be normal for us to experience the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:32.601 He's not a foreign entity to believers in Jesus Christ. 00:21:32.601 --> 00:21:34.933 It should be normal. 00:21:34.933 --> 00:21:37.896 Now you're thinking in your head. 00:21:38.369 --> 00:21:40.276 I've seen a lot of things that don't seem very normal. 00:21:40.276 --> 00:21:53.317 You could list a lot of things, and I've been in the kingdom now for 48 years, 49 years, 47, whatever it is, over 40, right, and I have been through. 00:21:53.317 --> 00:22:02.880 I've been through the healing movement, I've been through the Jesus movement, I've been through the charismatic movement, I've been through the grace movement. 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:08.301 I've been through huh, oh yeah, the laughing. 00:22:08.301 --> 00:22:09.776 I don't even know what to call that movement. 00:22:09.776 --> 00:22:11.233 Ha, ha ha ha. 00:22:11.233 --> 00:22:23.237 Whatever, I've seen all of those things and I've seen the good and I've seen a lot of stuff that was flesh, that was called the spirit of God. 00:22:23.237 --> 00:22:30.736 But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, right, just because the bathwater was bad. 00:22:30.736 --> 00:22:36.637 Let's not divorce ourselves from the truth that makes us free, that gives us life. 00:22:36.637 --> 00:22:44.976 God wants to encounter us, and the way he chooses to do it is through the Holy Spirit. 00:22:44.976 --> 00:22:47.428 That's his principle way. 00:22:47.428 --> 00:22:49.170 I'm getting ahead of myself. 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:55.529 All right, you pulled it out of me, okay, so let's look at three caricatures real quick. 00:22:55.529 --> 00:22:56.769 Now, what is a caricature? 00:22:56.769 --> 00:23:00.502 A caricature is not very Cochran. 00:23:00.502 --> 00:23:02.710 Good to see you, my friend. 00:23:02.710 --> 00:23:04.916 Let's welcome Barry here. 00:23:04.916 --> 00:23:05.518 And Kim. 00:23:05.518 --> 00:23:06.903 Yeah, yeah, amen. 00:23:06.903 --> 00:23:10.265 Barry's living. 00:23:10.265 --> 00:23:13.529 Barry's a living miracle and God is in the process of healing him. 00:23:13.529 --> 00:23:19.450 He's been through a process over the last several months and we're just so grateful to see what God's doing in Barry's life. 00:23:19.450 --> 00:23:21.463 Great to have you and Kim with us this morning. 00:23:22.613 --> 00:23:29.361 And then sorry, I don't like to do that and embarrass people too much, but I just saw you back there and I thought, wow, that's awesome. 00:23:29.361 --> 00:23:41.426 That's one of the things I was so excited about being in the hospital as long as I was in 2020 was getting back to church, getting back to fellowshiping with believers and because, man, I just missed it. 00:23:41.426 --> 00:23:49.479 I missed the life that is a part of being together in a corporate setting like this, focusing in on Jesus. 00:23:49.479 --> 00:23:55.170 So the caricature so caricature is not saying something that isn't true. 00:23:55.170 --> 00:24:02.450 It's a drawing or an image that takes something that is true and then expounds on it, magnifies it. 00:24:02.450 --> 00:24:13.117 So I was gonna have the media team put a picture up of me with bulging biceps, with bulging biceps and I do have bulging biceps. 00:24:13.117 --> 00:24:20.332 They just this guy. 00:24:20.332 --> 00:24:22.092 You know I'm gonna so anyway. 00:24:22.092 --> 00:24:27.939 So there's some truth in that, but it would be rapidly amplified. 00:24:27.939 --> 00:24:31.315 It would be very much amplified, right, it would be a caricature. 00:24:31.430 --> 00:24:42.214 And so I wanna talk about the caricatures that sometimes we get in our heads concerning Holy Spirit that limit us from understanding really his primary thought and purpose in the earth. 00:24:42.214 --> 00:24:45.978 Okay, so the first one is that the Holy Spirit is essentially power. 00:24:45.978 --> 00:24:49.798 The Holy Spirit is essentially power. 00:24:49.798 --> 00:24:51.815 He's a force of power. 00:24:51.815 --> 00:24:56.239 Okay, now, is the Holy Spirit powerful, yes or no? 00:24:56.239 --> 00:25:01.458 Do we want the power of the Holy Spirit involved in our lives? 00:25:01.458 --> 00:25:03.622 I'm not. 00:25:03.622 --> 00:25:05.153 Are you sure it's not a true question? 00:25:05.153 --> 00:25:07.790 Do we want the power of the yes. 00:25:07.790 --> 00:25:19.921 Yes, we need the power of Holy Spirit, actively engaged and involved in our lives, healing miracles, deliverance signs and wonders. 00:25:19.921 --> 00:25:35.140 We desperately want these things occurring on a regular basis, not just within the four walls of this church, but in our offices, in the cubicles, in grocery stores, at Walmart, family gatherings. 00:25:35.140 --> 00:25:42.233 We want these types of things occurring because we believe that God wants to encounter people, jesus' disciples. 00:25:42.233 --> 00:25:48.260 If anybody on the planet could understand power encounters, it's these disciples. 00:25:48.260 --> 00:25:52.160 They'd seen Jesus open blind eyes and deaf ears. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:57.318 They'd seen him cast spirits out of people and people be raised from the dead. 00:25:57.318 --> 00:26:02.679 They themselves had laid hands on people and seen them healed and seen miracles performed. 00:26:02.679 --> 00:26:10.076 They saw bread and fish multiply all of the different things that you can think about in Jesus' life and ministry. 00:26:10.076 --> 00:26:19.734 Jesus is powerful and he hasn't stopped exercising his power just because the Holy Spirit has come and he's here. 00:26:19.734 --> 00:26:24.491 The Holy Spirit carries the power of God with him. 00:26:25.255 --> 00:26:29.153 Okay, just a quick story, and I've told this before, but it's been a long time. 00:26:29.153 --> 00:26:38.215 When I was a kid, my family used to go to the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, which was just north of us where we lived in Wyoming, and we've administered there a lot. 00:26:38.215 --> 00:26:39.996 We became friends with the people there. 00:26:39.996 --> 00:26:53.618 My best friend growing up was a Native American man named CT Waukes-On-Ice that was his name and we went back a few years ago and got to reconnect with him and watch him dance. 00:26:53.618 --> 00:26:57.335 It's an amazing the culture don't get me started on the culture. 00:26:57.335 --> 00:27:03.036 It's just an amazing thing to see aspects of history right Carried out even in today's world. 00:27:03.036 --> 00:27:14.734 So here we have these people and we would go up, my family would go up and minister to them and on occasion we had this big tent meeting and we were staying there for several days out in the middle of nowhere. 00:27:15.130 --> 00:27:22.281 If you've never been to Montana, you can go anywhere and be nowhere, if you know what I'm saying. 00:27:22.281 --> 00:27:24.657 There's a lot of wide open spaces. 00:27:24.657 --> 00:27:31.416 There are people infringing upon that wide open space, but for the most part there are a lot of places where you can go and have not a lot of people there. 00:27:31.416 --> 00:27:39.893 So we were there and it was a tremendous experience, very a culture rating, in the sense that they killed a buffalo. 00:27:39.893 --> 00:27:57.895 The Native Americans killed a buffalo to eat over the week and they put it in the stream to keep it cool because it was in the middle of the summer, and they would also wash their clothes in the stream and bathe in the stream, and then we would cut pieces of buffalo and cook the buffalo and eat the buffalo. 00:27:57.895 --> 00:28:07.576 So it was, for a young white kid who never experienced anything like that, it was a pretty amazing thing. 00:28:09.232 --> 00:28:15.020 But God was so faithful during that time and he moved mightily, saving people, healing people. 00:28:15.020 --> 00:28:32.038 A lot of miracles happening and one night in particular we heard in the distance of Siren and we were in the middle of nowhere Again, this was not somewhere you would find accidentally and the Siren came closer and closer and then we saw the flashing lights and there were police cars that were escorting an ambulance. 00:28:32.038 --> 00:28:51.055 The ambulance backs up to the tent and the doors open and on a gurney there's a man who's brought on a gurney out into the tent, to the middle of the tent where my dad was standing preaching, and when the crowd saw who this man was, there was a gasp in the crowd. 00:28:51.055 --> 00:28:57.797 We did not know it, but this man was the chief of the Groningen Nation and he was near death. 00:28:57.797 --> 00:28:59.935 He had emphysema very badly. 00:28:59.935 --> 00:29:00.893 He was wearing oxygen. 00:29:00.893 --> 00:29:02.250 In fact. 00:29:02.250 --> 00:29:04.578 He was in the hospital getting ready to die. 00:29:05.109 --> 00:29:08.053 He found out about this meeting that was happening and he told the doctors. 00:29:08.053 --> 00:29:25.678 He did not ask them, but he told them that he needed to go there, and so they brought him there and he came up to my dad and, with his weakness and frailty, somehow he communicated to my dad and he said this if your God is real, heal me. 00:29:25.678 --> 00:29:39.992 My dad looked at us, we looked at him and he just did one of these, which we all knew was in every language, is what we need to pray. 00:29:39.992 --> 00:29:55.176 We need to pray, and I'm here to tell you that my dad laid hands on that man and all of us around him and we began to pray and the spirit of God entered that place and entered that man's body and completely healed him. 00:29:55.176 --> 00:30:00.557 He ripped his oxygen off, he got up off of the gurney on his own. 00:30:00.557 --> 00:30:05.459 Of course, all of his people are around trying to thinking he was hallucinating or something. 00:30:05.459 --> 00:30:19.259 And to prove them wrong, he began to run around the inside of that tent and everybody, of course, is either on their face before God or rejoicing, crying. 00:30:19.259 --> 00:30:27.015 And he runs up and he grabs the mic and my dad's like what are you gonna say to the chief? 00:30:27.015 --> 00:30:30.680 And he grabs the mic and he starts singing. 00:30:30.750 --> 00:30:47.250 The only words to any Christian song that he knew is the first verse of Amazing Grace, and we probably sang it 20 times as he led the congregation singing Amazing Grace, holy Spirit is powerful. 00:30:47.250 --> 00:30:50.028 Do we need more of the power of the Holy Spirit? 00:30:50.028 --> 00:30:52.506 Absolutely, but is it all that? 00:30:52.506 --> 00:30:57.930 He is no, and if we find ourselves thinking of him only in those terms, we're missing out. 00:30:57.930 --> 00:31:00.394 We're missing out Acts 1-8,. 00:31:00.394 --> 00:31:05.670 Jesus said to his disciples you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. 00:31:05.670 --> 00:31:12.182 You will be witnesses in Jerusalem, judea, in Sumeria and to the end of the earth. 00:31:12.182 --> 00:31:19.564 The New Testament clearly teaches that power is available for this life, for this life. 00:31:19.564 --> 00:31:23.303 But we don't wanna be distorted in thinking that that's all. 00:31:23.303 --> 00:31:24.460 Holy Spirit is Okay. 00:31:24.460 --> 00:31:28.410 The second one Holy Spirit is primarily focused on performance. 00:31:28.410 --> 00:31:30.436 What does that mean? 00:31:31.461 --> 00:31:39.509 The gifts how many of you have been around churches that the majority of their experience with Holy Spirit was the exercising of spiritual gifts? 00:31:39.509 --> 00:31:55.178 So prophecy, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, tongues and interpretation of tongues, and everybody was kind of classified within the church based on their particular ability to express whatever gifts. 00:31:55.178 --> 00:31:59.590 They were Right Again, are the gifts of the Spirit real. 00:31:59.590 --> 00:32:05.019 They're called that, my God, the gifts of the Spirit. 00:32:05.019 --> 00:32:08.911 He introduces those to us as these being from Him. 00:32:08.911 --> 00:32:11.106 So we understand that these are real. 00:32:11.106 --> 00:32:14.009 We need more of them, not less of them. 00:32:14.009 --> 00:32:16.708 More of them, not less of them. 00:32:16.708 --> 00:32:27.008 Okay, it is our job as church leaders to equip you, as the church, to use the gifts that God's given you to be a blessing to the world around you. 00:32:27.008 --> 00:32:29.440 And that's there's Romans 12 gifts. 00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:30.619 There's Ephesians 4 gifts. 00:32:30.619 --> 00:32:32.166 There's 1 Corinthians 12 gifts. 00:32:32.166 --> 00:32:41.426 There's all kinds of gifts found in all of the scriptures that God can use us in a multitude of ways to be a blessing to others. 00:32:42.381 --> 00:32:43.786 The problem is not with the gifts. 00:32:43.786 --> 00:32:50.728 It's when a church focuses on the gifts alone and again the ranking system happens. 00:32:50.728 --> 00:33:00.326 The Corinthian church that Paul wrote to in 1 Corinthians was exclusively, was almost exclusively, focused on the gifts of the Spirit. 00:33:00.326 --> 00:33:06.506 The result was that they had become proud and arrogant and remained unspiritual. 00:33:06.506 --> 00:33:08.426 They were spiritually immature. 00:33:08.426 --> 00:33:16.282 The other thing that's worse than all of it 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that they weren't doing it out of love. 00:33:16.282 --> 00:33:24.444 In fact, it says that you can have all the gifts in the world and sound like a like. 00:33:24.444 --> 00:33:31.652 I wish I could like a gong, a loud noise, a crashing symbol. 00:33:31.652 --> 00:33:32.703 A crashing symbol. 00:33:32.703 --> 00:33:42.734 Do we love looking into God's face or into His hand? 00:33:42.734 --> 00:34:10.485 We have, unfortunately, even recently, become aware again of those who we have considered to be great in the faith and the sense, that have had tremendous impact in the kingdom of God and have focused on things of the Spirit, and especially in the area of the gifts, and find themselves unfortunately in a compromised position from a character standpoint. 00:34:10.485 --> 00:34:16.269 My friends, character matters. 00:34:16.269 --> 00:34:24.085 The gifts are absolutely essential, but character matters most. 00:34:24.085 --> 00:34:32.025 So if it's not just the gifts and it's not performance, what about a third one? 00:34:32.045 --> 00:34:34.170 The Holy Spirit is mostly interested in purity. 00:34:34.170 --> 00:34:39.630 Now I'm going to give you a huge clue here. 00:34:39.630 --> 00:34:43.349 What is the first name of the entity that we're talking about? 00:34:43.349 --> 00:34:46.885 So is he about purity? 00:34:46.885 --> 00:34:48.530 It's in his name. 00:34:48.530 --> 00:34:52.951 So Holy Spirit absolutely is about purity. 00:34:52.951 --> 00:35:01.269 We need we need a greater level of purity and holiness and fruit than we've ever experienced before. 00:35:01.269 --> 00:35:07.065 Galatians five should be on our lips just as much as 1 Corinthians, 12. 00:35:07.065 --> 00:35:15.449 The fruit of the Spirit is our little two year old Emma is quoting Galatians five, 22 and 23. 00:35:15.449 --> 00:35:17.708 I don't know that girl. 00:35:17.708 --> 00:35:18.690 I don't know. 00:35:18.690 --> 00:35:20.532 I could go on and on. 00:35:20.532 --> 00:35:23.469 I'll stop because I don't want to get into the wrestling match. 00:35:23.469 --> 00:35:28.692 I know all of yours are sweet and special and very smart as well. 00:35:28.692 --> 00:35:39.972 Okay, let's put them all into that Christian sport thing where they don't keep score and they'll just be anyway. 00:35:40.579 --> 00:35:42.666 This is obviously a biblical example. 00:35:42.666 --> 00:35:46.025 Holiness and fruit, not just the power or gifts. 00:35:46.025 --> 00:35:56.353 Jesus would go on in John 16 to say that the Holy Spirit would come to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. 00:35:56.353 --> 00:36:00.530 He cleanses us from the penalty of sin by justification. 00:36:00.530 --> 00:36:03.367 The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation. 00:36:03.367 --> 00:36:10.751 Because of the work that Jesus did on the cross, he can make us pure and white, just like we've never sinned. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:16.090 Holy Spirit also is active in the act of regeneration. 00:36:16.090 --> 00:36:20.791 None of us of our own will have decided to follow after God. 00:36:20.791 --> 00:36:21.882 God put it in our hearts. 00:36:21.882 --> 00:36:25.065 Because of the work of the Holy Spirit, it's called regeneration. 00:36:25.065 --> 00:36:33.626 And so when we are made alive and to God at the point of salvation and the pattern of sin through sanctification, how many of you are still in that process? 00:36:33.626 --> 00:36:37.923 If you're not, please come up for prayer at the end, because we need you to know. 00:36:37.923 --> 00:36:40.547 We need to speak a word of truth over you. 00:36:40.547 --> 00:36:43.128 You are in the process of sanctification. 00:36:43.128 --> 00:36:48.869 That is where God brings things to the surface and says to us deal with it. 00:36:48.869 --> 00:36:53.228 How many of you know, we have a cooperative effort in that. 00:36:53.228 --> 00:36:54.492 Amen. 00:36:54.492 --> 00:36:58.300 All of these are works of the Spirit and found in 1 Corinthians 611. 00:36:58.300 --> 00:37:01.516 It says it succinctly and such were some of you. 00:37:01.516 --> 00:37:08.699 But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. 00:37:08.699 --> 00:37:17.893 The main problem, when people focus only on purity as the Holy Spirit and make that their caricature, is they very easily become legalistic. 00:37:17.893 --> 00:37:43.364 So unless you speak in tongues a certain way, at a certain volume, or unless you worship in a way that is, you know big enough, or unless you read enough of scripture, or unless you wear your hair a certain way or dress a certain way, or whatever it is, we become, we can be purified, we become, we can become legalistic if we only think of Holy Spirit from a purity standpoint. 00:37:43.364 --> 00:37:43.985 Is he pure? 00:37:43.985 --> 00:37:44.867 Does he want purity? 00:37:44.867 --> 00:37:46.530 Absolutely, but is that all? 00:37:46.530 --> 00:37:48.072 I would say no. 00:37:48.072 --> 00:37:57.945 I would say there's more and I would say that we've maybe missed out on one of the primary focuses of the Holy Spirit, and that's what we want to end on this morning. 00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:03.010 The truest passion of the Spirit is encountering presence. 00:38:03.010 --> 00:38:13.693 Encountering presence as important as power, as important as performance and as important as purity are. 00:38:13.693 --> 00:38:19.313 God wants us to experience him. 00:38:19.313 --> 00:38:23.300 He wants to encounter us with his presence. 00:38:23.300 --> 00:38:32.798 The Spirit's main task is to make known the personal presence of the Christ of history in and with the believer and the church. 00:38:32.798 --> 00:38:34.699 That's his job, that's his heart. 00:38:34.699 --> 00:38:38.474 That's what he wants more than anything. 00:38:43.092 --> 00:38:44.179 How was this expressed in in in scripture? 00:38:44.179 --> 00:38:56.179 Well, first of all, how many of you have experienced and encountered the presence of God in such a way that the only thing that you could find yourself doing is to worship him? 00:38:56.179 --> 00:39:07.311 Did you guys know that we spend as leaders, we spend a lot of time praying for you as individuals, as families and as this congregation, that you will experience God for yourself? 00:39:07.311 --> 00:39:11.889 That is one of the deepest cries of our heart. 00:39:11.889 --> 00:39:17.659 Sometimes you'll see me looking around during worship and maybe I'll catch your eye. 00:39:17.659 --> 00:39:21.351 I am not looking around in order to count numbers or to try to judge you. 00:39:21.351 --> 00:39:38.065 What I'm trying to see is if you're in count, if God is encountering you in such a way that it's showing up in your life through worship. 00:39:38.065 --> 00:39:49.807 This is a place, a safe place for you to encounter God. 00:39:49.807 --> 00:39:54.153 We want that for you. 00:39:54.153 --> 00:39:59.255 How is this expressed in scripture? 00:39:59.349 --> 00:40:01.358 Often the phrase the Lord was with someone. 00:40:01.358 --> 00:40:12.159 Joseph was in the palace, he was in the prison, he was in the pit, he was in Potiphar's house and in all of those places it says the Lord was with him. 00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:16.873 Moses was nervous about going back to Egypt, and what did God say? 00:40:16.873 --> 00:40:35.298 Tell them I am is with you, and Jesus himself, before he would lift off of this planet, would look at these same disciples that we're reading about in John 14 and say these words I am with you always, even to the end of the age. 00:40:42.309 --> 00:40:47.260 Can you think of one advantage that the Holy Spirit would have over Jesus? 00:40:47.260 --> 00:40:49.818 And I'm not talking about from a competition standpoint. 00:40:49.818 --> 00:40:52.396 There's no competition between them. 00:40:52.396 --> 00:41:00.938