Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme. I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How are you today?

Steve: I'm well. How are you?

Scott: I am well as well.

Steve: Maybe we should sing, it is well with our soul.

Scott: Nice. I don't think I can do that.

Steve: I got up this morning to walk my pups, and it's a beautiful day. It's sunny. Chilly. I walked outside, and there are 24 little pink flamingos in our yard.

Scott: I assume they're the little fake kind you stick in yard?

Steve: Today is April 1st. I'm guessing it's one of my wife's friends. My friends would never do something like that. (I later discovered it was my son and grandkids!) Steve: Sandi will probably go outside and take pictures and put it on Facebook. Scott: Nice.

Steve: Let's jump into part two. Last week we were talking about the communion or fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We mentioned the connection between the Spirit and the water, which we'd discussed previously, and the basis for these studies which were the golden lampstand.

The privilege of the priest, twice a day, was to fill up the bowls of the lampstand with golden oil. The golden oil is the Spirit. Now we're going to do part two so you can bathe in these truths about the Holy Spirit.

Father, thank you for what your word teaches us. I know that it doesn't always fit what we think about the spirit, but I pray that you'll expand us, expand our understanding, expand our appreciation for the many facets of the Holy Spirit and some new ones that we may discover this morning. Give us ears to hear what your spirit is saying right now to us as the church in Jesus' name. Amen.

Scott: Amen.

Steve: When I think about the lampstand, I'm thinking about it through the lens of Christ, through the lens of the New Testament. Jesus, in the book of Revelation, walks among the seven churches, the seven lampstands, and it's pretty clear to me that the lampstand represents the church.

When I'm thinking about praying for the church, I think that those of us in the church, need fresh oil every day just as much as those seven bowls which the priest filled up with golden oil every day. The oil in that regard was for light, and we're going to talk about that later.

I often pray, "Fill us with your Spirit," according to Ephesians 5:18, which says, "Be filled with the Spirit." It's a command, not a suggestion. We need to be filled with the Spirit. We also know that true worshipers will worship the father in Spirit and truth. We need the Holy Spirit.

Twice a day the priest filled up those bowls with golden oil, which my mind quickly makes the application so we need to be refilled on a regular basis. We have this other truth in Ephesians 1:13, which says, "In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed," past tense, "with the promised Holy Spirit." I embrace both expressions. I used to try to figure it out. I know that I am sealed with the spirit, then I have the Spirit, and I know that I couldn't have even said Jesus is Lord without the help of the Spirit. Yet Paul and John, they make it appear like I need more of the Spirit on a regular basis. This is not to take away from the fact that I've been sealed already, past tense, but to be up to date.

That's what I mean about the many facets of the spirit. I hold them before God and let Him figure out the theology of it and how it works into my little boxes. I say both, amen.

On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus talked a lot about the Holy Spirit. He knew He was leaving. He knew it was going to be hard for them that He was leaving, and He kept affirming them over and over by saying, "I'm not going to leave you alone." John 14:16-17. "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you for forever, even the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

I am going to send you a helper to be with you forever. He's not going to ascend. He's not going to descend. He's going to be with you forever. John 14:26, same chapter a little bit further along. "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."

Boy, I bet Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, John, counted on that sentence right there. They were trying to remember all that Jesus had done as they were trying to write a record of His life. God had put on their heart to write what they had seen and experienced, and it was the Spirit that brought to remembrance all that He had taught and said.

Next chapter, John 15. "When the Helper comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the father, He shall bear witness about Me.”

He's going to make you know things about me that you never saw in scripture. He's going to illuminate these passages in the first covenant, and He's going to reveal me. He's going to bear witness about Me.

John 16:7. This is the one that sure was hard for them to swallow. "I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the counselor/helper/ advocate," different ways to translate that one word, "will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you.

I need to go so He can come. Take my word for it. He will be your advantage. It won't be less that I'm gone. It'll be more because He, the counselor, helper, and advocate, will come to you.

John 16:13. "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you." Beautiful. Unbelievable.

That's in the 14th, 15th, 16th chapter of John. Then Jesus is crucified. John 20 verses 19 through 22. In that chapter, Jesus rose from the dead.

Here's what it says. "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week," this was Sunday. This was resurrection day. "The doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'

"When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" These were people that were shaking in their boots, and He said twice, "Peace be with you." He goes on, "As the Father has sent Me, even so, I am sending you. When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’" We could do a study on the breath of God, for He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

I confess that for decades, I thought they had to wait 50 days, till Pentecost, until the Spirit came upon them. But no, He couldn't wait. He knew that they needed the Spirit. They needed peace right then. They needed the paraclete, the comforter, the teacher, the counselor. They needed him right away.

They had suffered for three days thinking all was at an end, didn't connect the dots, didn't know that He had to die. Then as soon as He could, He came to them. He breathed on them, received the Holy Spirit.

50 days later, Acts chapter 1-8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

I think we receive power for different callings. They needed to have a special anointing to be His witnesses. That's as much as I'm going to say because all I know is those two passages are both true.

I'm jumping now to Paul. They've received the Spirit. They've been baptized in the Spirit. They've been tremendous witnesses. The church is growing left and right, and Paul is raised up. Stephen has died. Paul is raised up. Paul is preaching. Peter is preaching, and you have the whole book of Acts, which is phenomenal. It's surprising that I'm skipping it because I've taught on this several times. I really think the book of Acts should be called Acts of the Holy Spirit, or at least Acts of the Apostles filled, anointed, baptized in the spirit because it was the spirit that enabled Philip to do what he did, Stephen to do what he did, Paul to do what he did, Peter to do what he did. It was the spirit.

Now we have the church and Paul's writing to them, and he's talking about the Spirit a lot. I'm going to summarize some. In Galatians 5, you have this tremendous -- I was going to say symphony, but it's really antiphony. It goes back and forth between the flesh and the spirit. "Don't walk by the flesh, you'll die. Walk by the spirit, you'll live.” I'm going to hit the high points of the spirit. "Walk by the spirit. Live by the spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit. The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit, reap eternal life. We have this flesh, and we have to put it to death daily. If I, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh, then I'll live."

I like to sometimes go through and either highlight or put in bold the verses, "Walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, sow to the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit." In Romans all of chapter of eight is amazing. In Romans seven, we're in the flesh. Romans eight, we're in the Spirit.

The 10th verse, "Since the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 14th verse. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."

You can almost feel Paul working hard to make the distinction between the seventh and eighth chapters. It's not what I want to do. It's in my mind to do the right thing, but my body says, "No." Then, "Oh, thanks be to God. He gave us His Spirit, and the Spirit of Jesus Who dwells in you will give you life. He will lead you. He'll make you

sons of God."

There's another aspect to the Spirit. As I'm praying for the church, which I do a couple times a day, I often pray that God would help us to love one another. John 13:35 says, "All people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." This is called the new commandment.

This is reiterated in John 13:12. It's restated in John 15. "Everybody will know you're my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you." That's it. How do we love each other? Romans 5:5. "The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us."

He's been given to us. He's the vehicle. He's the channel. He's the source of the love of God. When we assimilate, comprehend, take in His love by the Spirit, then we're equipped to love Him and to love one another well.

Here's a nice verse that pulls a lot of these together. Titus 3:4-6, "When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.

"By the washing of regeneration and renewal," it's an ongoing renewing, if I remember correctly, "of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior."

He saves us by His mercy. His goodness and loving kindness appeared. We're washed, we're regenerated, and we're renewed by the Holy Spirit. This comes through Jesus Christ, our Savior. It's hard to separate the spirit and Christ. In one place, it even talks about the Spirit of Jesus.

If we reference our little theological boxes, this doesn't make sense, but I hope that we can let the Scriptures expand our hearts and work deep in our hearts. The Spirit does not just convict us of sin. The Spirit points to Jesus, and the Spirit pours out the love of God into our hearts. That's what we need because we love because He first loved us. The more we take in His love, the more we can love Him. Three closing passages on another aspect of the spirit, another facet to this magnificent person. "The anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. As His anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it is taught you, abide in Him." This is 1 John 2.

1 John 4. "We know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us His Spirit." We've mentioned this before, that the Spirit is not only a comforter and a counselor, but He's a teacher. His anointing, this is the Spirit's work, He teaches us everything we need to know.

I find myself more and more, as I'm reading scripture and I'm going deeper than I ever have before, saying, "Spirit, what is that? How does that fit, or what does that mean?" He helps me to get a fuller comprehension. He teaches me. He is an amazing teacher, and we all have access to him. We're all being tutored by the Spirit, each of us at our own level and our own pace.

Way back in the Psalms chapter 143:10. "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. Let your Good Spirit lead me on level ground." This is one of my favorite names 5

for the Spirit. Good. He is good. He is solid. He's a teacher, a counselor, all that, but He's God, and God is good. He's love, and God is love. He's full of loving kindness and truth.

Everything that we've been studying to rebuild our understanding of God is true about the Spirit. I'll make this into a prayer. Father, help us to grasp and hold on to this truth that regardless of all the stuff that swirls around in the church and outside the church about the spirit, let it all bow to scripture.

Let us embrace the good Spirit. Let us be open to the goodness of your Spirit. Amen. Boy, Scott, I got on a roll, and I kept going. I know you haven't been sitting there. Scott: I'm overwhelmed with the idea of what the church could be if we actually got this. I don't know that there's been a time when we have. There are pockets here and there, I think, and people who knows this, but it's the power, everything. There's so much that could happen. I keep asking and hoping it does.

Steve: Amen. I think this is something that we, all believers, all of Israel, way back from the beginning, when God says to them, He comes down on the mountain and He said, "If you guys would just do this, this, and this, I'll be your dad. Be my priest. We won't even need a tribe of Levi. You can be it."

They said to Moses, "No." They held him at arm's length. They said, "You go talk to Him, and then we'll do what you tell us." Basically, what they're saying is, "We don't trust you. We don't think you're good, and we want you at arm's length." Does that make sense?

Scott: Mm-hmm.

Steve: I feel like in some ways, I've had the same things that I've had to deal with, but the more I've gotten to know God and to know His Spirit, He really is good, and kind, and gentle.

Steve: He's the One that said, "I really think it's good for you that I leave because then you get My good Spirit," the same good Spirit that had led Jesus and that had helped him and come alongside of Him. I don't believe Jesus could have fulfilled His earthly calling if He hadn't had the help of the Spirit.

He knows that we won't be able to fulfill our earthly calling without the help of the Spirit. Now I'm talking to myself as much as anybody, but I hope that we won't put the Holy Spirit at arm's length. I hope we won't say, "You preachers, you guys go ahead, you talk to the Spirit, but we're going to keep at arm's length."

I hope we will open our arms wide, and open our hearts wide, and open our spirits wide to embrace and to honor the Spirit because He's God. Let the Spirit have free course. That's an expression from an older translation. Have free reign. Have the keys to our heart.

Just as that church in Laodicea, He's knocking at the doors of our heart. He wants to come in and He wants to go deeper. I hope that we'll all be able to open our hearts and say, "Amen. Come on in."

You're right. We need this. Father, in Jesus' name, help us. I sent you knocking on my heart. You want to go deeper still. Help me to welcome the work of your Spirit because your good Spirit is good, kind, true, and faithful, and He will never leave us. Thank you for all these truths.

Forgive us for not honoring you or embracing you as we should have. Deliver us from that and save us from that. Now help us to turn a corner and open our hearts to the Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.