SPEAKER_00: All right, good evening.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Wednesday to you.
SPEAKER_00: Three things real quick before I get started.
SPEAKER_00: One reminder at the conclusion of recharge, as everyone goes to classes or choir, I am I am making myself available for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So if you need, want, you have a burden of prayer, I am happy to stick around as long as you need and to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Two, uh, Air Force is the best branch in the military.
SPEAKER_00: Three, I am a very cheap billboard and can be bribed with usually just a Snickers bar uh for those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Um, now let's get serious for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine with me that you are there when Solomon dedicates his temple.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Remember David's son will build, will build the Lord God Almighty a house.
SPEAKER_00: And so the temple is built.
SPEAKER_00: You can read uh through there, there's two different accounts, one in Chronicles and one in Kings, where where it talks about all the material that's used, but it's finally, it's finally ready.
SPEAKER_00: Now, at the dedication of Solomon's temple, right?
SPEAKER_00: They they they sacrificed 22,000 oxen, 120,000 sheep, 120,000.
SPEAKER_00: Each priest is personally dedicated.
SPEAKER_00: He has his robe, he goes through his cleansing process, and and then when all of that is done, the Levites, they they uh lead Israel in in singing and in rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: They blow their trumpets as loud as they can and they shout praises to Yahweh, the one, true, the only God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Shekinah glory, remember the the cloud, the pillar of cloud and the fire at night?
SPEAKER_00: The Shekinah glory falls and enters into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone there fell on their face, they could not get up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And they worshiped God probably like they had never worshipped in their entire life.
SPEAKER_00: And most of us would say, I would give my right arm to have been there just to see something that incredible and that amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And the Old Testament, the scripture says that those saints longed for our day.
SPEAKER_00: For our day, they longed for what we have.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have to go through the blood of oxen and sheep, they don't have to go through Levites, they don't have to meet God at a temple in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We are the temple.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ, his Spirit indwells us.
SPEAKER_00: So on Wednesday nights we've been talking about meeting spots for the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to experience God, if you want to feel and experience the Holy Spirit, that there are particular meeting spots that you can meet him, and one of those, distinctly in the New Testament, is in his church.
SPEAKER_00: In the church.
SPEAKER_00: Because every one of us, okay, it doesn't matter what day of the week we meet, right?
SPEAKER_00: The church is not the building, we are the church, and we are gathered, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And you and I experience the Holy Spirit here when we are gathered.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read for you, 1 Corinthians 12.
SPEAKER_00: Um, none of these are on.
SPEAKER_00: I was planning on you doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Um let me read it this way.
SPEAKER_00: All right, 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There are a variety of ministries and the same Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
SPEAKER_00: But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse twelve.
SPEAKER_00: This is anybody's body, even as the body is one, and yet there are many members, but all the members are part of one body, though there are many, right?
SPEAKER_00: We are one body, so also is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, so again, the point that I'm gonna make real quick if you want to experience the Holy Spirit of God, come to church.
SPEAKER_00: When the church is gathered, there is a unique manifestation of the Spirit of God for you to experience.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So when we gather corporately, all right, so the first thing, uh when and how you experience the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is in the corporate gathering.
SPEAKER_00: When we corporately gather together, okay, on Sunday mornings or here, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We are praying together in unity, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're praying the truth of God, we're praying the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: We God Himself has promised to meet us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when we sing together, what God's word says he inhabits the praises of his people.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so he comes and he meets with us.
SPEAKER_00: So when we uh praise his name, when we sing the promises, I don't know about you, I'll tell you flat out, I experience the Spirit of God when I am here worshiping with you on a level that I do not whenever I'm listening to my favorite worship songs in my vehicle by myself.
SPEAKER_00: When I am with you, I sense the presence of God much more palatable, much stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We hear and I preach, and when you go to groups, we teach God's word.
SPEAKER_00: How about when we take the Lord's Supper or baptism?
SPEAKER_00: This is a collective thing that we do together.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that the New Testament says, Paul says that that some people were dying because they were taking the Lord's Supper in an inappropriate manner?
SPEAKER_00: Now you pause and you step back from that and you say, What?
SPEAKER_00: They were dying because they were not examining their heart, they were taking the Lord's Supper in an inappropriate manner.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Paul's like, yeah, some of you are sick and others of you have died because of that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is he expressing?
SPEAKER_00: He's expressing the fact that when we, when the church is gathered, that's there is a unique power and presence of the Spirit of God that is you it's unique, it's different from when you are just by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So God moves in power amongst his people, unlike when you are simply alone.
SPEAKER_00: Really quick illustration about how God never calls us to be Lone Ranger Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know in December of 1944, uh Japan had a group of soldiers, uh, one in particular, I'm gonna mess up his name, uh, but it was like uh Oshina, who uh was sent to the remote islands of the Philippines.
SPEAKER_00: And he was largely by himself, but there were a few other kind of guerrilla warfare kind of uh Lone Ranger soldiers that were sent to the islands.
SPEAKER_00: And he was sent on his mission, December 1944, and he was told, listen, whatever you do, do not surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh try and confuse the enemy, but whatever you do, do not surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he goes down there and like a month later, Japan surrenders.
SPEAKER_00: But he's on his island.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're trying to send word to him that uh that the war is over.
SPEAKER_00: So uh uh planes uh come by and drop leaflets, uh they put newspapers out for him to read, they come by with with uh messages and and air horns and messages of all, but all the while he says that that has to be propaganda from the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: He does not know how to discern truth, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so he stays hidden, he stays uh just eating in the jungle.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, for 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: 30 years, 1974.
SPEAKER_00: He was 22 when he went in, he was 52 when he came out because he was by himself and he did not know how to discern the voice of the enemy, and he was so confused, he wasted his life for 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: World War II is over and it's 1974, and he finally came home.
SPEAKER_00: You were not meant to be alone.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the other area.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you will experience the Holy Spirit when the church gathers in other people's giftings.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the scripture passage I read said that the Spirit of God has gifted every member of the body.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a Christian, okay, the Spirit of God indwells you and you have giftings, you have purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you have natural giftings and abilities, you have uh you have experiences, you have passions, and the Spirit of God comes inside of you and quickens uh in a supernatural way and highlights those giftings, and the scripture calls that spiritual giftings, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And and there's an extensive analogy that's used about that as the church, guys, we are the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to think about the way that your body works.
SPEAKER_00: If my left elbow itches, does it just radically vibrate and scratch itself?
SPEAKER_00: No, what does it do?
SPEAKER_00: It sends a signal to the brain, and the brain sends communication to the right arm that says, your brother over there itches.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to get to action and go over there and scratch it for him.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's the way your body works.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about the way, the way that you experience the giftings of other people, and you are experiencing the Holy Spirit that has gifted them, and you are growing because of their giftings.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: When we come to church through preaching and teaching and praying together, when you speak to people through wisdom and discernment, that they have experience and they have passions, and they have walked through trials in life and received comfort from the Lord, and they are able to pour in wisdom into you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Spirit of God working in their life and through them to you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think of all the ways that we uh so Paul says in in Romans uh Romans 1 verse 12, he says, I he was never, he he could, he had never, by the time he wrote the letter, he hadn't been able to go to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I can't wait to come to you, Rome, and to meet you so that we can bear fruit one to another, so that I can bear fruit with you and you can bear fruit with me.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this beautiful, incredible picture.
SPEAKER_00: We just got back from India, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we we took the mission trip, and and many of you, uh, you know, of no fault of your own, but but you had a general impression that we were gonna go over there to India and and we were just gonna preach the gospel and we were we were gonna try and birth things, but that that's not what we were doing.
SPEAKER_00: We went over there to see what God was doing and to meet with leaders that were there in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So this is a completely different culture, uh, completely different, right?
SPEAKER_00: Socioeconomic status, uh, education, background culture, all those things.
SPEAKER_00: And we went over there, and you know what's absolutely fascinating and amazing?
SPEAKER_00: How much we learned from them, how much we were encouraged by them, how much, how much I am different from just spending uh 12 days there and coming back and saying, you know what, the the Lord really stirred up some things in in my spirit and in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And for them to be able to say the same thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: It is bearing fruit one to another.
SPEAKER_00: That is the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, real quickly, I'm running out of time, and that is uh the one another's.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture is full of the New Testament, it is full of one another commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Love one another the way that Christ has loved you, pray for one another, encourage one another, be patient with one another, give wisdom to one another, bear one another's burdens, show hospitality to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, listen, when you go through life, when you go through trials and difficulties, you're not, again, you're not meant to go alone.
SPEAKER_00: How are you going to experience the Holy Spirit when when the church is the church, when we do the one another's, when we love one another, when we pray for one another, okay, when when we bear one another's burdens, when we're patient and wise, bearing fruit back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: When we do that, okay, when the church is the church, you I know I know you don't always think of it in really spiritual terms, but the Bible wants you to, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: So when I experience uh Glenn Smooth's hospitality, uh by the way, Glenn Smoot is a uh rock star uh driver on on road trips, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And uh when I when I experience that in in him, right, that's that's part of his giftings and his wiring, that's that's the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: When we experience uh Mark's giftings to to sing and to and to leadish and worship so many different areas, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Frederickson's uh hospitality, right?
SPEAKER_00: When we ex we're experiencing the Spirit of God and you know that when you're in the depth in the real trials of life, like I've seen this church love each other in incredible ways, and it it it doesn't always feel real spiritual, but but truthfully, like that's the Spirit of God in each of us ministering to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So you're experiencing the Holy Spirit when we come to church.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray over us.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the body, we thank you that we are not alone, we are not isolate, you have not created us to walk alone.
SPEAKER_00: None of us is sufficient, each of us is desperate to be poured into by each other.
SPEAKER_00: The foot cannot say to the hand, I do not need you.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Father, humble us and and allow us to genuinely drink this in that we experience the Holy Spirit when the church is gathered and when the church is loving each other.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.