SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Holtz.
SPEAKER_01: I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, today we were going to do Acts.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start Acts, but then after a discussion with the pastors and the fact that there was a couple little, I don't know, interruptions coming into Easter, we decided to finish up.
SPEAKER_01: This was the message I was going to give two weeks ago to finish up Power and Gifts of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then we were going to start the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to go back to this Venn diagram that I did the first time I spoke on this.
SPEAKER_01: And I have a pointer this time.
SPEAKER_01: And so this I think will help.
SPEAKER_01: But this is called Walking in Our Destiny, Spiritual Convergence Through Partnership with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So I've developed this over the years in working with people, discipling people, in helping them grow in their faith.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that is really important to me is that each of you, as a part of a church where our mission statement is empowering people to change the world, that you discover who you are in the completeness of the way God uniquely created you.
SPEAKER_01: And I felt like on this last message that I was going to do on spiritual gifts, I wanted to go back to the Venn diagram.
SPEAKER_01: So if you'll notice here, we talk about natural talents that come from God.
SPEAKER_01: We also talk about spiritual gifts that sovereignly come from God.
SPEAKER_01: But where we sometimes miss it in the Christian church is we don't realize how important these other areas are in our development toward spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm calling it as spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: So this you have very little to do with.
SPEAKER_01: So as I see it, acquired skills, that's education, that's training, equipping that you do for yourself, that's on you.
SPEAKER_01: That's your responsibility in your relationship with God and your life.
SPEAKER_01: Character.
SPEAKER_01: That's your responsibility, how you develop character.
SPEAKER_01: Relational skills, again, your responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing in this, listen, there's nothing in acquired skills, character, or relational skills that can block you being all that God wants you to be.
SPEAKER_01: So what I find as a pastor and leader is how many people look at something like natural talents and then they blame God because they're not as gifted or talented as other people, but then they're not willing to take responsibility for what is their responsibility in developing these other areas of their life.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody here has relational challenges.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody here has character challenges, and all of you can probably think of ways that you could develop the skills of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you if you find yourself, as I say this, going, wow, I'm really blowing it here, I'm really blowing it there, the answer is yes, you are.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is we all are.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's got this wired.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a difference between salvation and sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: And so that process of sanctification is all of this being coming together in such a way that I'm calling it spiritual convergence, and that's where they overlap.
SPEAKER_01: So the point in talking about spiritual gifts is not just to focus on spiritual gifts, but to also realize that you're a cluster.
SPEAKER_01: You're a cluster of many different aspects of your life that God wants to grow you in and develop you in.
SPEAKER_01: So today I want to talk about activating, activating our spiritual gifts in our life.
SPEAKER_01: So if you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12, this is where we've been camping a lot.
SPEAKER_01: You that are guests with us today, maybe you haven't heard these messages.
SPEAKER_01: They're online, they're on our website, you can look them up.
SPEAKER_01: They've been somewhat sequential.
SPEAKER_01: But 1 Corinthians 12 has been the main chapter that we've gone through, and it talks about the different gifts there.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to look at just verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: Just look at verse 31, which is the last verse of 1 Corinthians 12, before we go into chapter 13, which is the famous love chapter.
SPEAKER_01: So some of you, when you see chapter 13, you may have even had that read at your wedding.
SPEAKER_01: It's not uncommon for that to be a kind of popular wedding passage about love.
SPEAKER_01: But look at 1 Corinthians 12, 31.
SPEAKER_01: But earnestly desire, and I would say underline or circle, earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, What are the best gifts?
SPEAKER_01: We'll go back to verse 28, which I covered when I was talking about leadership, and that is first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, administration.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about all that, varieties of tongues.
SPEAKER_01: And when we were talking about all of that, it does seem that there is an order to that as it relates to leadership and government in the local church.
SPEAKER_01: So he's talking about earnestly desire the best gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say, and using my Venn diagram as an example, what is the best gift for you is what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying if you're a gifted teacher, you should try to be more of an evangelist.
SPEAKER_01: It means that be the best teacher that God's called you to be.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, do evangelism too, because we're supposed to do the work of an evangelist.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is that God did uniquely create you in a certain special, awesome, wonderful way.
SPEAKER_01: And I feel like it's my responsibility, it's our staff team's responsibility to help discover that in each of your lives so that you can live that out.
SPEAKER_01: So that's 1 Corinthians 12, 31.
SPEAKER_01: Now, chapter 13 is about love.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: So he makes this very interesting statement.
SPEAKER_01: He says, earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way, and that is chapter 13, which is love.
SPEAKER_01: So the cultivation of love is going to be, you're going to see in just a moment, is the first step in developing the emergent gifts that God has for you.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at chapter 14, chapter 14, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue love and desire, and in your New American Standard Bible, I use the New King James, but in the NAS it says earnestly desire again.
SPEAKER_01: Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: So it's evident from our pursuit of an understanding of spiritual gifts that Paul is trying to help this very charismatic church in Corinth to understand there's actually a proper way for spiritual gifts to emerge in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So as we talk about activating spiritual gifts, I want to give you six thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: I could have done 20 because there's no set way, but I want to give you six practical thoughts on how we can grow to activate our unique spiritual gifting.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I I entitled it Six Ways to Quickly Activate Your Unique Spiritual Gifting.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I said quickly is because I think there is a route in your life if you want to pursue earnestly to be all that God created you to be to make the biggest impact that God wants you to have in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And not everybody wants that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, for some people, and some of you in this room, Sunday is where you go to church because that's the way you were raised, and so you come to church because that's the way you were raised, and it's not really about anything that's going to affect the next six days of the week.
SPEAKER_01: And I think God wants us to come and gather as a church to be equipped, empowered to make a difference in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And it's all these things coming together.
SPEAKER_01: It's not any one thing, it's all of those things coming together.
SPEAKER_01: And so here, I want you to understand this, and I think it was up earlier, and I skipped it.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say it.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts emerge as you serve God and others.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts emerge in our life as we love and serve others.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean is that instead of pursuing spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts pursue us.
SPEAKER_01: So it is as we do the work of ministry, it is as we minister to others.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: So after graduating from Georgia, I went to University of Maryland.
SPEAKER_01: Some people say that's like the hidden, the hidden years of your life because you never talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's and it's true because I always jump almost straight from Georgia to Japan.
SPEAKER_01: But there were two years where I was on staff at University of Maryland.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm at the University of Maryland.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so fired up for the Lord because finally I don't have gymnastics anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to go to school, I've graduated, and I'm gonna give myself full time to being this campus minister with campus crusade for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So I go to um University of Maryland and I begin to ask people on campus, where does the football team house?
SPEAKER_01: Do they have a sports department or a dormitory for athletes?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, yeah, it's that building over there.
SPEAKER_01: So I so I started there because that's where I was the most comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: So I first guy, first door I knock on, this guy comes, big huge guy comes, and he's the center for the football team named Dave Pasella.
SPEAKER_01: Little did I know that he's an all-American, he's all conference, he's all everything.
SPEAKER_01: I lead him to the Lord that day.
SPEAKER_01: So I take out the four spiritual laws, read through it with him, he receives Christ, dude gets fired up.
SPEAKER_01: Then we go door to door to door, and before we knew it, over a period of like three months, we had 70 football players come into a Bible study that I'm leading.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've got all these Bible study people, and y'all ever heard of, well, I'm not gonna say.
SPEAKER_01: There's one really famous guy there at the time, he hated my guts.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So not everybody loved my evangelistic approach, but I would knock on doors.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I did.
SPEAKER_01: It was very simple.
SPEAKER_01: I just knocked, I just went down the hallway, knocked on doors, and I would just say, Hey, my name is Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: I'm with Athletes in Action, uh, a Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I've got this booklet uh called The Four Spiritual Laws, and could I take 10 minutes of your time to get your opinion on this booklet?
SPEAKER_01: And nine out of ten would say, Yeah, come on in.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm in there, you know, you got nude women posters and everything.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, whoa, okay.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's like it was it was like the going into you know sinner's den, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But um, but then guys would receive Christ, and and so I say, Well, look, we're starting on Tuesday night, we're starting a Bible study up in room, da-da-da.
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember what it was, it's like the seventh floor if I recall.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna be going through um some Bible stuff if you want to come.
SPEAKER_01: And then it was four, and then it was fourteen, and then it was twenty four, and then it was thirty-four, and it just kept growing.
SPEAKER_01: So, what would you say I'm ministering in?
SPEAKER_01: Like, if you think about spiritual gifts, what am I ministering in?
unknown: Evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: Evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm I'm an evangelist, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so then I um go down to the Greek area, which is where all the fraternities and sororities are.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a horseshoe-shaped area at the University of Maryland, and I just start going, again, house to house, meeting the president or the vice president for the fraternity or the sorority, sharing Christ with them.
SPEAKER_01: They would get saved, and then I'd ask if I could come in and speak, and then I'd come in and speak, and I'd make up stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I just made up stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what do you want to speak on?
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I didn't expect any of him to say yes.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, could I come in and speak at um at your uh what did that?
SPEAKER_01: It was like a team meeting, I forget what they call it.
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't met Liz at UCLA, who's a tridel, so I didn't know anything, and I wasn't a fraternity guy, so I'm just making this stuff up.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Well, what do you want to speak on?
SPEAKER_01: I went, um, leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that we need that.
SPEAKER_01: You come in and speak on leadership.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I'll leave one.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know a clue about leadership.
SPEAKER_01: And um, so I go back and I just make up something.
SPEAKER_01: And so I speak in these team meetings.
SPEAKER_01: And one time I was speaking in this one team meeting, I'm sitting there talking, and it was on leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so evidently it's the third or fourth time I'd done it, so I must have knew what I was talking about at this point.
SPEAKER_01: But the point that I was trying to do with the talk was get to the greatest leader of all time, which is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, I get up and everybody's eating spaghetti.
SPEAKER_01: And so I didn't know this, but then I could see some guys whispering in the back, but I had no idea what they were whispering about until I saw a meatball headed straight from my head.
SPEAKER_01: And so I duck and it splatters on the back wall, and then food fight! And it's just a and in like 30 seconds, the whole place has got spaghetti and meatballs all over the walls.
SPEAKER_01: That one didn't go well.
SPEAKER_01: That one did not go well.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was working as an evangelist, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so I started um Greek life.
SPEAKER_01: It was called Greek life and then the Bible study, and Greek life grew to about 50 fraternity and sorority people.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm working as an evangelist.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: My point is I was on staff, I raised support to be a missionary, kind of evangelist at the University of Maryland.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I was tasked to do, and so I just did it, right?
SPEAKER_01: I just did it.
SPEAKER_01: But what I found in the second year was that what I got most excited about actually wasn't the evangelism part, it was the discipleship part.
SPEAKER_01: It was the part where I would follow up with different guys and gals and help them start growing in their faith, learn about the Holy Spirit, learn how to how to have a quiet time, how to read God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: And then I would get more excited about Tuesday night with the Bible study with the football team than even the door-to-door, you know, not knocking on doors and sharing Christ with people.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my point that it's as you go, it's as you serve others, it's as you love others, it's as you're just faithful in your job, in your family, in your marriage, that if you're open to it, now that's the big if.
SPEAKER_01: If you're open to allowing the Holy Spirit to show you things, your gifts emerge.
SPEAKER_01: They just emerge by virtue of you being in the context of loving and serving others.
SPEAKER_01: So my first point is love God and love people.
SPEAKER_01: Love God and love people.
SPEAKER_01: That's the starting point to discovering who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying in 1 Corinthians 12, 31.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying in 1 Corinthians 14 1, is that you pursue love.
SPEAKER_01: So love's the starting point for everything.
SPEAKER_01: So you could you could argue that when you get married, you are full of love for each other.
SPEAKER_01: But as we see marriages go south, as we see things begin to creep into a marriage that are detrimental to the health of that marriage, somewhere love turns to contempt.
SPEAKER_01: Love turns to contempt.
SPEAKER_01: And we, all those things that we used to overlook in those early years because we're so in love, you know, start to get grayed on us a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody go like this if you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's just the way we are.
SPEAKER_01: We we sometimes we take for granted the people that we experience the most unconditional love from.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing how we do that?
SPEAKER_01: And I've done that with Liz too, and she's done that with me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, same with everything in life, we have to keep pursuing a habitual culture of love, and it's really, really hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's really hard to do because we start taking for granted the very people that we love the most, and they take us for granted too.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we see that a lot in families.
SPEAKER_01: Liz and I were talking about it the other day, how many families we know have disassociated with their kids, and the kids have disassociated with their parents over whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, but yet this is this is the woman.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is the mom who literally gave every day of her life for 18 years to raise that child and the husband many times who sacrificed financially, and yet we find ourselves in disconnection, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so it takes work, it takes a lot of work.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why Jesus is asked by the Pharisees, what's the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say the greatest commandment is that you be all that you can be.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say the greatest commandment is that you discover your spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say the greatest commandment is that you get spiritual convergence.
SPEAKER_01: He said the greatest commandment is that you would love God with all of your heart, love God with all of your soul, love God with all of your mind, love God with all of your strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: So it's loving God, it's loving yourself, and it's loving others.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've just learned in my life that where my love is not where it should be, it usually has to do not with my lack of love for God, it's actually a lack of love for myself.
SPEAKER_01: And so if if you, Liz and I were talking this morning, how the three big C's for Steve in my life are competition, comparison, and condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: Competition, comparison, and condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I struggle with.
SPEAKER_01: She struggles with other stuff, but that's what I struggle with.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've been camping for weeks in Romans 8.
SPEAKER_01: To me, Romans 8 is one of the most powerful chapters in all of the Bible about how to walk in the Spirit and find life in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've had to do that because instead of focusing on my all these things where I lack love for myself, I'm asking God to activate love for myself, to activate love for others in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so I love this passage where the disciples come to Jesus and they say, Would you increase our faith?
SPEAKER_01: Say, increase our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus actually gives them something to do.
SPEAKER_01: So it's like Jesus saying, Well, I'm not gonna increase your faith unless you're willing to act on your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you're willing to act in what you know to be true, how can I give you more?
SPEAKER_01: So it's in, it's in us growing in the little faith that we do have.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's that mustard seed faith, Jesus says, that removes mountains.
SPEAKER_01: It moves mountains in our life.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_01: Pursuing love is activating your faith through actions.
SPEAKER_01: Mother Teresa once said, spread love everywhere you go.
SPEAKER_01: Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I wish that was more true in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Spread love everywhere you go.
SPEAKER_01: Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
SPEAKER_01: So, first, pursue love.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: So earnestly desire it.
SPEAKER_01: Earnestly desire, translated in the Greek, is the word zealo, where we get the word zealous.
SPEAKER_01: Eagerly covet, passionately pursue.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the imperative command form.
SPEAKER_01: Go after it.
SPEAKER_01: Go after more.
SPEAKER_01: And here at the end of the message, I'm going to give you a spiritual gifts test that you can take if you want to at a later date.
SPEAKER_01: But as we grow in Christ, there is this, there is nothing wrong with being zealous after spiritual gifts, to be zealous after the development of your natural talents, to be zealously after developing skills in your life.
SPEAKER_01: In so many of our lives, there's these latent part of who we are that God's just waiting on us to surrender to him and let him move so that he can come and develop that in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he says, I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_01: Knock and it will be opened to you.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds.
SPEAKER_01: To him who knocks, it will be opened.
SPEAKER_01: If a son asks for a bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?
SPEAKER_01: Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
SPEAKER_01: Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
SPEAKER_01: This is this is important.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, it says this if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_01: Saint Teresa of Avila said, You pay God a compliment by asking great things of him.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to challenge you, church, that all of us in our lives, there's great things that God wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Ask for them.
SPEAKER_01: God, do miracles through me.
SPEAKER_01: God, open doors that no man can shut.
SPEAKER_01: God, shut doors that no man can open.
SPEAKER_01: I'm available to whatever you want to do in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna earnestly go after.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be zealous for spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be zealous for the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Jesus said, Most assuredly I said he who believes in me, the works that you've seen me doing, you also shall do, and greater works than these, because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, ask and seek and knock.
SPEAKER_01: And so, do you see the correlation?
SPEAKER_01: There's the opportunity and the invitation, but then he leaves it up to us to go after it and pursue it.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, earnestly seek after and desire spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, be daily filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Be daily filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're going to start in a couple weeks the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And the classic title given for Acts in the second century, and I'll explain all this when we get to do the introduction to the book of Acts, is calling it the Acts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we get Acts, Acts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that it's really the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So the whole book of Acts, 28 chapters, is on the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The same Holy Spirit that resides within you and me if we're born again.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're not born again, you're here this morning, you've never surrendered fully to Christ, then you don't have the Holy Spirit yet.
SPEAKER_01: You have your Spirit, which is created in the image of God, good start, really good start.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you have a conscience.
SPEAKER_01: But the Holy Spirit wants to come in and birth a new person within you through your willingness to believe in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To say, Lord, I believe that you went to the cross at Calvary for my sins.
SPEAKER_01: I repent of my sins, which means metanoia is the Greek word.
SPEAKER_01: I turn from my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I do a 180, not a 360.
SPEAKER_01: I do a 180, I turn from my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that you rose again on the third day.
SPEAKER_01: We're coming into Good Friday and Easter soon.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't all end at Good Friday?
SPEAKER_01: Friday's good.
SPEAKER_01: Easter's better.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, a lot of great leaders in history have died saying they were God, saying that they were the hero of their people or whatever, but only Jesus rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so pumped.
SPEAKER_01: Josh Floyd's gonna speak on the cross, Good Friday.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta come.
SPEAKER_01: We do the best Good Friday service anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's a little bit spooky.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just say that.
SPEAKER_01: It's dark, it's spooky, it's it's Good Friday, man.
SPEAKER_01: But then on Sunday morning, we're gonna blast it with a choir, and it's gonna be unreal.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not the cross only that we believe in, it's the resurrection from the cross.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, you can bury truth, but truth eventually resurrects.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can bury Jesus, you can close the tomb, you can put this the seal of Rome on it, whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna bust out, and you can't keep a good man down.
SPEAKER_01: So putting your faith in Christ invites the Holy Spirit, Jesus, to come into your life.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've never done that, do it.
SPEAKER_01: Today.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are created in the image of God such that your spirit to God's spirit coming together is the very thing that will make you happy.
SPEAKER_01: It's the very thing that will bring you joy.
SPEAKER_01: It's the very thing that begins, this is really important, it begins eternal life right now.
SPEAKER_01: So eternal life's not something way out there, and it is in the hereafter.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's coming for sure.
SPEAKER_01: But the emphasis by Jesus on eternal life is now.
SPEAKER_01: Is that we can begin the eternal, personal, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus now by being born again.
SPEAKER_01: And so and so this idea of spiritual gifts is that we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So what's the filling of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: Give me three C's.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Write this down, you don't have to turn there, but write down Ephesians 5.18.
SPEAKER_01: To me, Ephesians 5.18 is the best passage in all of Scripture on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So whenever I've led someone to the Lord, the very next appointment that I have with them after they've given their heart to Christ is on the filling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So I started talking about the filling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what's happened.
SPEAKER_01: What's happened in American evangelical Christianity, and I would say Pentecostalism across the world, has made the filling of the Holy Spirit a unique experience versus a daily activity.
SPEAKER_01: This is really important.
SPEAKER_01: Because what we've done is we've entitled the filling of the Holy Spirit or the baptism of the Holy Spirit as if you need to have one unique experience, get knocked down, speak in tongues, whatever it might be, you know, with a guy who's got white shoes on and silver hair.
SPEAKER_01: And goes, be healed, or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Turns the word healed in Jesus into a four-syllable word.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's actually not what Paul's talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: He says a few things that's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So go, let me go with you, go with me a little bit on the on the Greek here.
SPEAKER_01: Present, passive, imperative.
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying that it's a continuous action, and I'm going to give you three C's.
SPEAKER_01: The first C is it's commanded by God.
SPEAKER_01: It's imperative.
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying basically, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You can't live the Christian life unless you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm commanding you, that's the only way to go.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason most people are living such unhappy, frustrated Christian lives is they're trying to live the Christian life in their own power.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, it's an imperative, it's a command.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, it's a daily choice.
SPEAKER_01: It's a daily choice.
SPEAKER_01: You can choose, even as a believer, not to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So you can wake up in the morning, you can walk into your office, you can open up your computer and look at porn.
SPEAKER_01: And an angel from God's not going to come down and zap you.
SPEAKER_01: And even though you're inviting demons into your office, you're probably not going to see them.
SPEAKER_01: No little horn things or tail and all that.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's your choice.
SPEAKER_01: Or you choose to wake up in the morning, you take your Bible, and you don't feel like it, and you haven't had coffee yet, and you stagger into the den and you start reading the word and you say, God, fill me with your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's the right answer.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it's not how much you feel about it or anything.
SPEAKER_01: It's more like you just obey God.
SPEAKER_01: So so number one is it's a command.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, it's a choice, but here's the kicker's number three.
SPEAKER_01: The kicker is it's a control issue.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you want in control of your life?
SPEAKER_01: So he says, don't get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So what Paul's doing, he's saying, just like you did the orgies and you did the uh different religious uh ceremonies and Ephesus and all of that stuff, where you are intoxicated with alcohol, with wine, now be intoxicated with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Let Him take control, put Him on the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for some of us, the initial experience might be really dramatic.
SPEAKER_01: Where someone speaks in tongues or where they see God show up in a mind.
SPEAKER_01: That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: But the filling of the Holy Spirit is a daily choice that we make that's usually not that dramatic.
SPEAKER_01: It's just doing the right thing through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Number four.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, just start serving people, just start serving in an area of need.
SPEAKER_01: I love the story of Mary.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a marriage at Cana, and they've run out of wine.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this story?
SPEAKER_01: It's really a great story.
SPEAKER_01: And so Mary says to the head steward, Well, go see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He'll tell you what to do.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes, Woman, it's not my time.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you're not on the timetable right.
SPEAKER_01: But then he thinks about it and he goes, Look at the faith of my mom.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if he switches gears or not.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those mysteries we'll ask him when we get to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, Okay, you know, fill these jars up with water.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, 20 to 30 gallons.
SPEAKER_01: 20 to 30 gallon jars, all right?
SPEAKER_01: They got to go out to a well.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably 500 people at this wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: So think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Look how many jars they have to go up, fill at the well, come back, and then he says, basically take the ladle and give it to the steward, and somewhere it's just water, and between it being water in a spoon to the steward, it becomes wine, and it's the best wine they've ever had.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how did that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Because a group of people served Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He told them to do something, and when they did it, a miracle happened.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same thing in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: It's as we serve others, you become the miracle.
SPEAKER_01: You go from being water to wine by serving and loving others in a supernatural way.
SPEAKER_01: So areas of need at the road, church.
SPEAKER_01: You probably thought, I wonder if he's gonna get to this part.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I am a pastor, right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I wrote down some different things.
SPEAKER_01: Road experience, greeting people at the doors.
SPEAKER_01: We always need people to greet at the doors.
SPEAKER_01: Sunday hospitality, the kitchen, putting out food, children's ministry, any number of areas in children's ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Tech ministry, audio, visual, facilities ministry, setting up and taking down, snow removal, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Serve if you want to know your spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_01: Just serve and watch what will emerge.
SPEAKER_01: And the relationships, my goodness, the relationships you'll build.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys remember that a few weeks ago we had Valentine's Day weekend and we had flowers that we gave you?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it didn't occur to me until staff meeting the next Tuesday that Allison and her husband Adam, who are over the uh the greeters, actually had to dethorn every one of those roses.
SPEAKER_01: And when I was thinking, when we were talking, when Alice and I were talking about um flowers, I don't think we thought about dethorning them, but they did that.
SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to pay her back.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got some roses for you, Allison.
SPEAKER_01: And I did not dethorn them.
SPEAKER_01: So just keep them the way they are, just stick them in.
SPEAKER_01: But thank you so much for doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome though?
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Allison did that.
SPEAKER_01: So they they serve.
SPEAKER_01: And so Allison, when she first came to the road, she wasn't up here doing worship.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but by virtue of being with people, kind of being in the culture of the road, these latent gifts were growing in her, and here she is today.
SPEAKER_01: It's true for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: That it's as we serve that God begins to emerge with his gifts in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, get in a small group.
SPEAKER_01: Get in a small group.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got small group signups and stuff out in the lobby today.
SPEAKER_01: So get in a small group.
SPEAKER_01: And what's so cool about a small group is you become friends with the people in the small group.
SPEAKER_01: And the more friends you have in a small group, the more grace there is for you to experiment with different gifts.
SPEAKER_01: So it might be scary, and you haven't been through maybe our training yet to come up and pray for people up here, but you can minister to people in a small group, and you suddenly begin to see people get healed or delivered from the demonic or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: You go, oh, I didn't know that God had gifted me that way.
SPEAKER_01: But a small group is one of the best settings for that to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Number six, read and listen to testimonies to stir up your faith.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about reading testimonies to stir up your faith that is very, very powerful in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I've I've always cut my teeth on a lot of biographies, and I love biographies, and they've helped me grow.
SPEAKER_01: And then I wanted to give you also a spiritual gifts test that we'll put up there.
SPEAKER_01: You can see the website.
SPEAKER_01: You might want to take a picture of that if you're interested.
SPEAKER_01: This is the gift test that we use here at the road for new staff.
SPEAKER_01: So when people are coming on staff with us, we um have them take this test.
SPEAKER_01: And then I wanted to close.
SPEAKER_01: Would all of you just stand now?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to close with this quote and we'll go into worship.
SPEAKER_01: Be who you were created to be, and you'll set the world on fire.
SPEAKER_01: And it's true that it's as you discover who you are in the kingdom and you become the kingdom person God wants you to be, you're gonna set your world on fire because that's what you were created for.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father God, we thank you this morning for the fact that you sovereignly blessed us with natural talents and spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, I pray that we would be known as a church, truly activated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, put your desire, put your passion in your people that they would earnestly, zealously covet spiritual gifts and grow to be all that you've created them to be.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: That's theroad.org.