Real Life Community Church Richmond, KY

Acts | Part 37 | The Forgotten God Part 2: Why The Holy Spirit Still Matters

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Ever feel like you’re using only 10 percent of what your faith can do? Acts 19 opens a window into the Holy Spirit’s full scope—healing the sick, breaking demonic power, and freeing people from the mastery of sin—while keeping all the credit where it belongs: with God. We walk through Ephesus, a bustling city where the gospel collides with entrenched spirituality and the occult, and we trace how deliverance is a Trinitarian work: the Father wills it, the Son secures it, and the Spirit applies it in real lives.

We look closely at “extraordinary miracles” and ask the hard questions. Does God still heal through ordinary believers? Scripture and lived experience suggest yes—while refusing the false security of formulas or celebrity spirituality. You’ll hear a striking testimony of restored sight and a candid look at moments when healing doesn’t come and why trust still holds. Then we step into the gritty realism of spiritual warfare. The sons of Sceva try to leverage Jesus’ name without knowing Him and meet a painful lesson: authority is relational, not magical. Yet fear has no final word. Christ’s victory at the cross is decisive, and the Spirit within us is greater than any opposing power.

The arc lands where the gospel always aims—freedom from sin’s rule. New believers in Ephesus confess practices and burn expensive occult books, not from pressure but from conviction and joy. We talk about daily holiness without legalism, walking by the Spirit, and making concrete choices that cost something because Jesus is worth more. Along the way, a modern story of Spirit-led conviction shows how guidance can redirect a life in a single, obedient act.

If you’re hungry for a faith that actually changes things—bodies, battles, and habits—this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us where you’re asking the Spirit to work next.

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SPEAKER_00:

Listen, if you have your Bibles, we're in a uh if you're new here, we're going through the book of Acts right now. But I'm gonna invite you to turn this morning to the book of Acts, chapter 19. And I'm just gonna read the text as we go through the message. Acts chapter 19. So almost everyone has a smartphone this day and age, yes? Using them to text and to make calls and to scroll through social media. Yet you know many smartphone users are quite unaware of the full scope of what those little devices are capable of. Do you know that your phone can translate languages in real time, can measure distance, can track health, can scan documents. Do you know your phone can even, with your camera, can identify plants and animals? Pretty remarkable. But you know, just like many people do not know the full power of their phones, many Christians have not yet discovered the full power of the Holy Spirit available to believers. So last week we began looking at Acts chapter 19. We look at the first looked at the first 10 verses, and through that lens, we I pointed out uh two functions of the Holy Spirit. Number one, we saw that the Holy Spirit regenerates. You remember John's or our Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in the book of John, and he tells Nicodemus, if you want to be saved, if you want into the kingdom, you must what? Be born again. In other words, it's not enough to just try to follow the teachings of Jesus, to go to church and to read your Bible while all those things are good. Jesus says, No, you want in the kingdom, you've got to be transformed, made new. That's called regeneration. And that is a work of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Secondly, we looked at the fact that the Holy Spirit not only regenerates, but that he also gives us power. Number one, we saw through the text that God gives his people spiritual supernatural gifts. Amen. That's one form of power the Lord gives us. But number two, and more importantly, the Holy Spirit gives us the power to boldly preach the gospel even amongst people who despise us and our faith. That's the work of the Spirit. Today we're gonna look at verses 11 through 20, and we're gonna look at another function of the Holy Spirit, namely, the Holy Spirit delivers. Now, I'm not suggesting that the Holy Spirit works for DoorDash. No, to be delivered means to be freed or rescued from situations like danger or evil or restraint. Are you glad the Holy Spirit delivers? And today I want to look at three expressions of the Holy Spirit's deliverance. Number one, the Holy Spirit delivers from sickness. Number two, the Holy Spirit delivers from spiritual darkness. And number three, and most importantly, the Holy Spirit delivers from sin. So if you're ready, say amen. All right. My focus this morning, again, is gonna be on the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. But I want to make this clear up front. The deliverance that God gives us is a Trinitarian work. And you go, what in the world does that mean? Here's what I mean: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all involved in distinct yet, unified ways in our deliverance. So let me just risk oversimplifying this. This God the Father, he willed our deliverance. God the Son paid for our deliverance, and God the Holy Spirit applies deliverance in our daily lives. So let's begin unpacking this. Number one, the Holy Spirit delivers from sickness. Look at verses 11 and 12. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin, skin, were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. So Paul is in Ephesus, and this is the start of his third missionary journey. And Luke tells us that as Paul was in Ephesus, that through Paul there were many, many healings taking place, extraordinary miracles. Now, the question I want to begin with here is who is really doing the healing in our text? Look at verse 11. What's the first word? God was doing extraordinary miracles. It is God alone who heals, it is God alone who works miracles. There's no such thing as a regular human miracle worker. There's one miracle worker, and that is the Lord Himself. Yet, notice the text, God was doing extraordinary works through the hands of Paul. It is the Holy Spirit in Paul's life that is working through him to bring about these healing miracles. Now, everything, every miracle you see in the book of Acts is tied to the theme verse in outline that we find in Acts chapter one, verse eight. And you shall receive what? Power. Okay. You shall receive what? Power. One more time. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. The reason these miracles happen throughout Acts, and the only reason that they happen today is not because of some man or woman, it's because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through believers, men and women of God. So the question is okay, God worked through Paul, but does he still really work through Christians like this today? Well, let's go back. Who's doing the work? What like by whose power is Paul doing these miracles? The power of the Spirit. Well, let me ask you today: do we still have, Pastor Ben, the same Holy Spirit that Paul had, or is this like 2.0? No, we have the same Holy Spirit as Paul had. So I would say, yes, yes, and amen. God still works through his people to bring about healing and other miracles today. So now that may be obvious to some of you, but it's not so obvious to everyone. There are brothers and sisters in Christ, other uh preachers, even who insist that while God still can do miracles, that he never uses believers to work through in this way. And here's their argument. They would say, well, these are the apostles doing the miracles, and it was to validate their ministry. And since there are no longer Capital A apostles, which by the way, I very much agree with, they would argue then, well, then there's God does not need to use us in this way today. Now, let me just give a rebuttal to that argument. Number one, these at these miracles in the book of Acts, they're not limited to the apostles. Let me just share a few instances with you. In Acts 6, verse 8, God does signs and wonders through Stephen, who is not an apostle, he is a deacon. He's a deacon. Acts chapter 8, God uses Philip, not an apostle. Through Philip, healings come to many people and other great miracles. He's an evangelist and a deacon. Acts chapter 9, God uses Ananias. We know very little about him to bring about healing to Paul's blinded eyes. So that's not a good argument that, oh, it's it's only for apostles, because that's not true even in Acts. Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, so Paul is writing to normal church people like you, like me, and he tells them in Acts chapter 12 that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to every believer. And he then goes on to list nine supernatural, what we call the charismatic gifts, normal people. Does that make sense? One of those gifts in verse 12, guess what it might be? It's the gifts plural of healing. I think God still works through his people to bring about healing. James 5, interesting text, says, if you are sick, call the elders or pastors of the church, have them anoint you with oil and pray for you. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Notice James doesn't say, well, just pray, though you should do that. He says, Call others to pray for you, because God works still through his people. Now, not all believers have the gift of healing. God doesn't always use every believer in the gifts of healing. And that's the point in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul says, Not all speak in tongues, not all have prophecy, not all have the gift of faith or miracles, and not all have the gifts of healing. We all have different gifts, and that's what makes each one of you so necessary and the body of Christ so beautiful. Are you with me? Stephen Ramlaw over here. Um, you have correct me if I'm wrong, you've experienced two undeniable healings as we've prayed for you up here, laid hands on you and anointed with oil. More than that? Okay. Five or six. All right. Yes, God still works through his people to heal. Now, here's a question I need to address. Does healing always come? Like if we have enough faith and we do this, you know, if we find some kind of formula, and this is something I want to be really clear about. And the answer is I believe no. Well, it doesn't always come in this lifetime, it always comes. Do you know that Paul himself didn't even heal every sick person that he encountered? In 2 Timothy, he leaves behind Trophimus, which sounds like a disease. His name, you know, sounds like a disease in and of itself, who was ill. In 1 Timothy, he Paul instructs Timothy himself. He says, Take a little wine. Okay, take a little wine for your stomach and your frequent ailments. Paul does not send Timothy a uh prayer cloth and say, Hey, come out in Jesus' name. He doesn't say, Timothy, lay your hand on your stomach and rebuke the the you know demon of stomach aches in Jesus' name. He doesn't do that. So we see healings constantly. I mean, they're they're pervasive through the the Bible, but they don't always come in. That's important. And you ask why? Can I can I tell you the answer? Lean in. I don't know. That's my answer. I'm not God. Is it all right if we just pray and believe God for miracles and then just let God be God? We've got to trust Him. Well, how do you know if the Lord wants to work through you to bring healing? How do you know? Well, I would say learn to hear the voice and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps if you hear something, particularly that stretches you, that's in your mind, somebody's on your heart, and you sense you need to go and pray for them or lay hands on them or whatever it might be, and that will not go away. Could it be, Jan, that that's the Holy Spirit? So let me give you an example of this. Matter of fact, uh I was gonna share a testimony that uh Dr. Buske shared uh several weeks ago, but in case you missed it, I want you to hear it. And do you mind to share it? I'll bring the mic to you. You're the the blind baby. Do you mind to share that? Be ready, in season and out. This is so great. Listen to this.

SPEAKER_01:

We had a family that baby had been dismissagnosed, he had meningitis. He was in the hospital for a long time. When he came out of the hospital, he was totally blind. They could put a flashlight in his eyes, there was no movement of the iris, they could move their fingers back and forth. He had no uh awareness of that. When they brought the baby home and he was in the church service for the first time, the family was thanking the church for taking care of their older daughters, etc. etc. And a strange sense came over me that I should not pray for that baby but declare that it was being healed. Well, I wasn't going to do that. But it came so strong I couldn't deny it. And I'll tell you, I didn't believe a word of what I said when I was speaking because the Holy Spirit was so heavy on me. The baby came forth and I declared, not prayed for, declared, you are receiving your sight. No one else believed it, apparently, because no one praised God, no one clapped, no one said hallelujah. They thought Pastor went off his rails. That evening the mother called me and she was crying, laughing, and praising God. She said she was holding the baby over her shoulder, and her husband walked behind her, and the baby followed him. They quickly got a flashlight, flashed it in his eyes, and the iris is closed. Turn the flashlight off, the iris is open. They moved their finger back and forth, and the baby followed her. When they took the baby back to the doctor, he said the baby, as far as we can tell, has perfect sight. It had surely nothing to do with my faith, but God is faithful.

SPEAKER_00:

Amen. Now, here's the thing. Um, Dr. Buskie doesn't go around just calling people healed in Jesus' name. If you're gonna say that, you better hear from the Holy Spirit and it better come to pass. And I love this too. I'm so glad you mentioned and just were honest to say, I didn't even believe it. Because we think, oh, somebody that doesn't get healed. Well, it's on it's on the person praying or it's on the other person. You've got to have you know perfect faith. And faith is very important. But how many know that if we'll just step out and even say, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, that God will use imperfect people like us. Beloved, I think the Lord still uses people today to bring about healing in people's lives. So, number one, the Holy Spirit delivers us from sickness. Secondly, the Holy Spirit delivers us from spiritual darkness. Look at verses 13 through 7. This is a crazy story. You cannot tell me that the Bible is boring. So some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. So these are not saved Jewish people, these are people who do not believe in Jesus. But they said, I adjure you by the name of Jesus, who Paul proclaims. Seven sons of Jewish high priests, of a Jewish high priest named Skeva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on the men, mastered all of them, and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. By the way, can I just point out as a side note, the Holy Spirit, you know, another facet of his ministry is to bring glory to Jesus Christ. Notice here, Paul's name is not exalted. So when you see a preacher who claims to be a faith healer, and all the attention is on him, and you got to come see me. Listen, that's not a God. A preacher who is really working in the power of the Spirit will hide himself behind the cross and say, There's nothing special about me. Look to Jesus. That was free. The sons of Skeva, crazy story. So, verse 12, Paul is casting out demons, right? And the seven sons of Skeva, who was the Jewish high priest, they see this and they go, Oh, this is pretty cool. Man, I'd like to have that power. We'll be famous. Our pictures will be on billboards. You know, the seven exorcist brothers, come get your deliverance. And so they approach this demon-possessed man to try it out. Seven of them, one man possessed by the devil, and they adjure the demon, come out in Jesus'. Well, the the Jesus that Paul knows, like we don't know about this guy, come out in his name, and what happens? Well, that doesn't go very well. Like, if you're gonna mess with the devil, you might want to make sure you're saved and really prayed up. Just saying. You know what this tells me? The phrase, come out in Jesus' name is not a magical incantation. Paul doesn't cast out demons because he says the quote-unquote magical words, he casts out demons because he's truly in Christ. And the name of Jesus has given him authority, and then it's the power of the Holy Spirit again working through Paul that brings these demons out. Now, on the weeks leading up to Halloween, I'm gonna step on some toes here. Let's toes here. Um, live TV and streaming services were littered with horror flicks. Now, some of you are acting like you don't know what I'm talking about, and they're all about the occult and the demonic. And here's the thing: if you watch these movies, you know, eventually you think if you watch them enough, well, they're only movies, and you grow numb to the reality of the dark forces that plague our world. Ephesians 6 tells us we battled not against flesh and blood ultimately, get but against powers and principalities, these forces of darkness. Peter tells us that we all have an adversary, the devil, who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Can I just tell you the devil is a force to be reckoned with? These powers and principalities, they are real and they're not to be taken lightly. These men are overpowered by these demons, and you ought to have an understanding that this is very real, and again, the devil is a force to be reckoned with. But I've got really good news if you are in Christ today. The devil is powerful, but he is no match for our God. Are you with me? Jesus defeated Satan decidedly at Calvary. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15. Since therefore the children uh share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death Christ might destroy the one who has the power of death, death, that is the devil, and deliver all those through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. How many know that Jesus won the victory? Amen. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that the devil is defeated. Now he still has some power on this earth. But here's the good news for the Christian Christ has decidedly defeated Satan, and the Spirit of God works in us and applies that defeat over Satan every day in our lives. This is why we pray daily. Um, do lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil or the evil one. Better translated. Here's the great news. 1 John 4, 4. Oh, there's a devil. There are these forces in the world, but John declares, greater is he that is what? In me, that is the Holy Spirit, than he that's in the world. The devil is a force to be reckoned with, but we don't have to cower in fear. We have every tool necessary by the grace and power of God to resist the devil. Now, I have shared this story before, but I don't have a lot of these stories, but I want to just tell you how real this is. So, quick version. I was in Colorado, I was an associate pastor in the office during the work week when a dear church lady came in, an elderly lady, and uh she's about four foot ten and she she comes to my knocks on my door, she says, Pastor Chris, she said, uh, hey, I met a lady on the street who's trying to come off of drugs, and she wants, you know, she's lost her family. She gives me this whole story, and she says, but I told her about Jesus, and she wants Jesus to transform her life. I said, Great. She said, Well, would you talk some more to her? She had some questions I couldn't answer. And so she comes in the office. And by the way, I'm trying to get all the details right. This happened many, many years ago. So this is the best of my memory. So this lady, she comes to my office, she's really kind, she sits down, and I start sharing the gospel with her. And um, telling her about how Jesus can transform her, answered her questions. And at the end of that conversation, I said, ma'am, would you like to receive Jesus Christ and repent of your sin today? And she looks at me with tearful eyes and she said, Absolutely. This is great. I mean, this isn't a Sunday, this is like a Monday or Tuesday. My week's gonna be good. So I say, Okay, I'm gonna lead you. I said, There's no magic prayer for this to happen, but I just want to lead you through a prayer of repentance and asking Jesus to come into your life. She says, Great. So I start something like, you know, uh, Father in heaven, uh, you know, on and on and on, you know, thank you so much for all that you've done for me. I know that I'm a sinner. And she's repeating each phrase after me. And then we get to the we get to the line where I say, I believe that Jesus is the Christ. And it's silent. And I'm thinking, this is good. She she's really feeling this. Like she she's so choked up she can't even speak. And it this went on um for what seemed like an eternity, it's probably only a few seconds. But then I started hearing her, I've got my eyes closed, murmuring, hear this murmuring, and I thought, what in the world? So I repeat, I repeat that line, and she doesn't say anything. I opened my eyes, and there's this um deep growling voice, like chanting that comes out of her. And her head is, I don't want to scare anybody, plug your ears if you don't want to hear this. But they uh her head cocks back. I mean, her eyes are wide. I can see much, they weren't all the way rolled back, but I see a lot of white in her eyes. And this little four foot ten church lady is by you know beside her like this. Crazy, crazy, crazy. This really happened. Well, I have never dealt with this before. They didn't teach me in in 18 years of discipleship growing up that I never took exorcism one-on-one in all my ministry classes. They never said, Oh, by the way, here's how you preach and here's how you cast out devils. Never did it. But here's the great thing. Well, I was a little freak out, freaked out, just to be honest, but the Holy Spirit gave me such a calm. It was amazing. I was reminded, greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. So I start praying for her. Well, she gets louder and louder, and I'm going, oh my gosh, what do I do? Well, I'm an associate pastor. My my my main lead pastor and another associate associate in the office next door. So I'm like to this little church lady, I'm sorry, I gotta go get my pastor. I don't know what else to do. And I'm leaving her, I didn't think this through with this demon-possessed or oppressed lady. So, anyways, I go to my pastor, I said, um, guys, if you're not busy, I have a demon-possessed lady in my office. And I'm always playing pranks, like, like, come on. I'm like, guys, I'm serious. They could tell by my face. So they said, bring her in here. I'm like, okay, sons of skeeves, she might overpower me, right? So, anyways, somehow I don't remember, we get her in the office, and we all start praying for her. This is a team effort now because none of us know what we're doing. Now, here's what you got to know. So, Pastor Michael, my lead pastor, is so he was a great pastor. He is so kind and so gentle. I never heard him raise his voice. And when he preaches, very conversational, doesn't get too excited. Pastor Matt, the other associate, is one of those old-time Pentecostal preachers. In the name of Jesus, right? So we're all taking turns, you know, you know, praying. I think, you know, I started praying, and then Pastor Matt, the associate, he's like, in the name of Jesus, we command you under the, you know, and then Pastor Michael's turn, and he's like, you know, devil, it's not too much trouble. You know, we'd like to know. But but it was just, and and finally, after praying and praying and praying, this woman was sobbing in tears of agony, and they all of a sudden turned to tears of joy. And her, that deep growl that I don't want to think about turned into hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And my secretary came in there and they hugged for probably 10 minutes as she just wept because she was free. The Holy Spirit delivers. Satan is no match for our God. Finally, and most importantly, the Holy Spirit delivers from sin. He doesn't just deliver from sickness, he doesn't just deliver from spiritual darkness, but he delivers us from sin. Look at verses 18 and 20, my favorite verses in the text. Also, many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. Now, listen, remember they don't have printing presses. Books were very expensive, and they counted the value of them and they found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. How many pieces of silver was Jesus sold for? These books were worth 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase mightily and prevail. So here we have new believers regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And now they have the indwelling of the spirit. And what's their what's the result? They start being convicted of sin and turning away from sin. Their magical arts, which the Bible forget bids got away, by the way. So if we got any people dabbling in magical arts, go home and get rid of everything you have, just in case. But here's what's cool. By their own volition, they gather these occult books and they bring them. Paul didn't say, hey, every occult book you bring it and burn it. This is the Holy Spirit leading them. They confess their sins, they divulge their practices. They don't just quietly do this. They say, Listen, we were so lost. We were so far from God. We were so bound by sin. We don't even want these books in our home anymore. And we want the world to know we're done with this dark power and we're serving now the Lord Jesus Christ. I love it. Now to be sure, Jesus has decidedly delivered us from sin. First Corinthians 15, Paul talks about the gospel and he says, Christ died for our sins. Isaiah 53, he was pierced for our transgressions. And here's what we know about this: Christ died that we so that we can be forgiven of our sins. Do we all know that? But do you know beyond that, Jesus' death did more than just forgive us our sins, he also delivered us from the bondage of sin. Let me read you Romans 6, 7. We know that our old self, 6, 6, and 7. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Listen, this is great news. So that we would no longer be enslaved by sin. For one who has died, that means we've been crucified with Christ, has been set free from sin. There's no better news in the world. Listen, before coming to Christ, you don't just sin, sin is your master. You can't stop it. You might be able to discipline yourself in one area, but another sin is going to raise its ugly head and it will control you. So yes, gloriously, we are forgiven because of the cross when we are in Christ, but we are no longer slaves to sin. I love Dr. Busky, the old song, Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. That's a Wesley song, right? Is that right? Listen, fourth verse. He breaks the chains of canceled sin, the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the fowless clean, his blood a veil for me. Christ has delivered us from the bondage of sin. Do you know that the Holy Spirit applies that freedom from sin to our everyday lives? Galatians 5:16, walk by the Spirit, Paul says, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh or the sinful desires. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us. Listen, some of you have b who are Christians have believed the lie of the enemy that you can't give up that sin that so easily entangles you. You say every week, I'm I'm gonna stop it, and you go home, and Sunday night or Monday, you're right back to what you used to do, and you're living like a slave to sin. But I just want to remind you that you, if you are truly in Christ, you are no longer a slave to sin. John in his first epistle wrote to the church, I have written these things so that you may not sin. And then he adds, if you do sin, you have an advocate with the Father. Well, what's that? Seems like a contradiction. It's like, no. When you are an unbeliever, you sin and you can't help it. It's around the clock. When you come to Jesus, sin is no longer your master. You but you will stumble from time to time, but it's not your way of life. So let me just tell somebody it's not in your strength alone that you can give up that sin that so easily entangles you. That is the power of the Holy Spirit. Lean on him. The Spirit convicts us. He convicts us. Now, I'm gonna share a story. I was uh visiting uh Kara, who is Carol's uh daughter, her husband is in the hospital and has been very, very sick. And so I went over to see them on Friday. And while the the nurses were in the room, Kara and Carol and I went to a family room. And Kara gloriously was sharing how the Lord had been working in her life, and she'd grown so much in the Lord. It's a great story. And then she tells me a story about the Holy Spirit, and I said, Kara, I'm gonna use that story, but I won't use your name. And you tell me I'm right. She said validated. She said, Chris, please use my name. So here you go. So, Kara, if you're listening, watching, um, this is on you. So, so Kara, uh, because of her husband's sickness and some job issues, they've been financially um really, really struggling. And so this has been going on for some time. And and Kara was wanting to find uh, you know, a way to bring some more income in. And so she had this friend, she has this friend who actually tends bars at weddings, serves alcohol at weddings. And Kara said, She's making a killing. Well, when you're desperate for money, sometimes you don't think clearly. And Kara didn't pray about this, but she said, I decided I'm going to bartending school. I'm gonna get my license. And here it is. Here's here's the path, here's how we're gonna get uh financially free. I'm gonna start serving alcohol at weddings. So she does this. She she uh goes to school for this, she pays to have this test, and she gets her certificate in the mail. Well, she goes to church, I think it was that Sunday, she and her husband, and uh during the altar call, the Holy Spirit speaks to her heart and convicts her, saying, You tear that up, you're not doing it. And she thinks, Oh, I put all this in. That's probably not the Holy Spirit. You know how you kind of rationalize, right? She gets in the car after church, no joke, and her husband Justin looks at her and says, You know what? The Holy Spirit spoke to me today and said, You need to tear up that bartending license. You can't do it. And she, here's the beautiful part. She tore it up joyfully. The Holy Spirit convicts, but here's the thing, and you may hear that, and it's like, well, I don't know if I like that part of the Holy Spirit, because to some people that hears like he won't do you hear it like, well, he's wanting to take away my fun. No, I realize, and the Bible affirms there is pleasure in sin for what a season, but beloved, it will wreck your life. God is not wanting to take away your fun, He was wanting to give you the abundant life that He has for you, He delivers us from sin. If you're here today and you are not a Christian, you know, a lot of people think, well, like maybe you feel the Lord drawing you to him, and you think, well, my life's a mess. And welcome to the club. Can I get a witness? My life's pretty messed up. And you think, well, maybe I I want to come to Jesus, but I've got to clean myself up first. I'm just gonna I'm gonna clean myself up, fix some things in my life, and then Jesus will gladly accept me. Here's the problem with that. You're a slave to sin, and you cannot clean yourself up. If you're waiting for that, it's like good luck. It'll never happen, and you'll never get into the kingdom. No, here's what the Bible teaches. You want your life cleaned up, you want to know you you want to know Jesus, you want to come into his kingdom. Here's what you do: you come to him broken, sinful, stained with sin, and you come poor in spirit and say, Lord, I cannot clean myself up, I cannot save myself, but I believe what Jesus did for me will cover my sin. I'm coming to you, you clean me up. That's what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. So, in closing, as Connor comes to the keys, I don't want you to leave any of you the same way you came in. I want you to leave in victory, knowing the grace of Jesus and the power of the Spirit more fully in your lives. So I'm I'm we're gonna have an altar call today. And I I think one of these calls will impact, will resonate with each one of you. I'll I'll find you in here somewhere. So one, if you are in need of spiritual, emotional, or physical healing, would you come down today and let us lay hands on you, anoint you with oil? Nothing weird's gonna happen. And we're gonna believe God for your healing. Secondly, if you feel oppressed by the enemy today, you feel like darkness is just following you around, would you come and let us pray for you as we remind you that greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world? Three, if you are a Christian and you are struggling with a particular sin, it's all right. Well, it's it's not okay to stay that way, but you don't have to. This is a safe place, this is real life community church. I've been where you've been. The Bible says, confess your sins one to another that you may be healed. You come, you confess it, you confess it to God, you confess it to a trusted brother or sister in Christ. But we want to pray for you and ask God to deliver you from that sin. Because listen, some of you, uh I just sense this. Um, some of you have a sin and and you've got one on your mind right now, and you think I can control it, it's not that big of a deal. And I want to say that's the enemy tempting you. And if you don't lay it down, it will wreck your life and it will wreck your family. Finally, if you've not experienced salvation, if you're not yet in God's kingdom, if you've not repented of your sin and come to the Lord Jesus Christ, I bid you to come today. What are you waiting for? One of my favorite things is to show someone a new feature on their iPhone and to hear them respond in amazement. No way it can do that. I hope those of you today who have not known the full scope of the Spirit's power will leave this room in amazement, shouting No way He can do that.