SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Father, when we say my one defense, what we're saying is we don't have a leg to stand on.
SPEAKER_01: Because left to ourselves, we will eat too much, drink too much, spin too much, talk too much.
SPEAKER_01: Just fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do it too much.
SPEAKER_01: So we confess today that we need you.
SPEAKER_01: You're our one defense, but you're also our righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, when we got it wrong, you got it right.
SPEAKER_01: Where we were faithless, you were faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to be faithful today.
SPEAKER_01: Just illuminate the Bible, make it come alive in our head and in our heart so it finds expression in our hands this week.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, I pray for people in this room that have close to given up on themselves spiritually that you just nudge them today and say, Hey, I hadn't given up on you.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, talking to you today, that's got your name on it.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about that.
SPEAKER_01: We're driving to work tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, just kind of brood over the text today, just as you did in the very beginning in creation, where the Spirit of God was just hovering over what was uncreated and unformed.
SPEAKER_01: Make some stuff today, God.
SPEAKER_01: Shape some thoughts in our head.
SPEAKER_01: We ask all this in Jesus' name, and everyone said Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And then you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, we're going through the Gospel of John, preaching to the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: We're not giving religious lectures.
SPEAKER_01: We believe the Bible is the word of God, it's it's truth, it's authoritative, uh, it has consequence in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna read 144 words, starting in John chapter 1, verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna read down to verse 34, and I want to talk to you this morning about embracing the possibilities.
SPEAKER_01: Embracing the possibilities, because every time the Bible, uh every time the Bible says something, it says it with great reason, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a great reason in what John records in this gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say John records, the Bible teaches that that the Bible was written, was inspired.
SPEAKER_01: It was it's the breathed-out word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It was inspired by God, it was recorded by men.
SPEAKER_01: And so you may be here today kind of going, oh, the Bible's written by a bunch of people.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches of itself that the Bible was written by God, recorded by people.
SPEAKER_01: And so it has authority in our lives today.
SPEAKER_01: And it it makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we believe, that's our experience, and that's what we want you to experience today.
SPEAKER_01: So let me read in John chapter 1, uh, starting in verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: It says, The next day he, John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is he of whom I said, After After Me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.
SPEAKER_01: I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came, baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And John bore witness.
SPEAKER_01: I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
SPEAKER_01: I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I have seen and we have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you you say, What do you mean, embrace the possibilities?
SPEAKER_01: Every time the Bible says something, every time we read something in the Bible, because the Bible says of itself in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, God says, My word never goes out and comes back to me void, but it accomplishes the purpose for which I sent it.
SPEAKER_01: So every time you hear the Bible, it is pregnant with purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It's an invitation to us to think about our lives in relation to this objective truth.
SPEAKER_01: And there's four things in here that the Bible says to us, and they're so subtle, if you're not careful, you miss them.
SPEAKER_01: Let me point to these four things.
SPEAKER_01: And then what we'd like to do, if you're visiting today, I just want to lay all the cards on the table.
SPEAKER_01: I want to teach the Bible, and then to end, I'll be quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Miracle of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we'll give you some time and space to think about it and just kind of say, hey, what did you hear God say into you today, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll speak a blessing over you, and you'll be you'll be dismissed this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing the Bible says to us is that God has done something about our sin.
SPEAKER_01: God has done something about our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in that statement right there in verse 29, or excuse me, yeah, verse 29, where John the Baptist says, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's two things in that sentence I want to point to.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is the word behold.
SPEAKER_01: If you notice, no one says behold anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's your assignment this week.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to use the word behold as often as possible.
SPEAKER_01: Like none of you women are gonna cook supper tonight and walk out and go, behold.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna say, Hey, you ungrateful weasels, get in here and eat this food I've made, or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: No one says behold.
SPEAKER_01: And so, because we don't use the word behold, we don't have a frame of reference for it and what it means and its implications.
SPEAKER_01: Like I walked out the other day, my wife and I were going out to dinner, I walked out and I said, Behold.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Let's go, get in the truck.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, You're not beholden.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I know what you mean by that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go, I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I need to use this word more so she has a frame of reference for it.
SPEAKER_01: And so my mission this week is to say, behold every chance I get.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I do something, like I load the dishwasher, behold.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, You're gonna behold something else if you don't stop saying behold.
SPEAKER_01: But he says this: he says, Behold the Lamb of God, and here's the other part that is radically consequential for first century uh Judaism and people that were listening.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what he's really saying there is, hey, by the way, do not miss.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the person that's gonna do something that's never been done before in relation to your sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying when he says, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, what?
SPEAKER_01: That's what they heard.
SPEAKER_01: And it was like people could be working, people could be doing whatever.
SPEAKER_01: They hear that phrase and they're like, What?
SPEAKER_01: What did you just say?
SPEAKER_01: It's subtle and it's nuanced, but it's radically provocative for them.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you say, Well, haven't they been doing something about their sin?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who sins and doesn't do anything about that?
SPEAKER_01: At least feels bad, tells God they're gonna try harder and do gooder and do better and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they've been doing.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: John says, hey, here's what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: When I say God has done something about our sin, it's easy to go roll your eyes and go, really, that's all you came up with?
SPEAKER_01: That's the best you got.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we've got to hear it through the lens of people who for thousands of years.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in the Old Testament, here's the difference.
SPEAKER_01: What they've been doing, they've been engaged in religious duties because in the Old Testament, under the law, and you'd go to the you'd sin, you'd go to the priest or you or to the temple, and you take an animal and you'd sacrifice that animal for your sin, and your sins were covered.
SPEAKER_01: They were covered.
SPEAKER_01: That's why there's a guy in the Old Testament named David.
SPEAKER_01: He was a king, he was a great guy, did a lot of great things.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says he was a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_01: David did a lot of great things, but David also did some not so great things.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, David had an affair.
SPEAKER_01: He, the woman he had an affair with, he got her pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: They had a baby, the baby was, uh the Lord took the baby's life as a consequence for their sin.
SPEAKER_01: David not only had an affair with the woman and got her knocked up, but he also had her husband killed.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, Hey, that ain't good, man.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's two, David's confronted with his sins, and he repents and he's broken over that.
SPEAKER_01: And there's two, what's called Psalms of Confession in the Old Testament, Psalm 51 and Psalm 32, where David is just trying to say, as a broken man, oh my gosh, when I try to keep silent, my bones waxed old, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When I try to keep everything on the down low, I was miserable.
SPEAKER_01: I started off drinking jack and coke and it went to just straight up Jack out of the bottle.
SPEAKER_01: This wasn't getting any better, David says.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, What?
SPEAKER_01: When I confess my sins, God was faithful.
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things he says in Psalm 32, verse 1, he says, this he says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, that's the best I could hope for in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Their sin was covered.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: what's covered is still there.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't go away.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: What's covered is still there.
SPEAKER_01: It's like this.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine you and your wife were having people over for dinner at 7 o'clock, and at 6 45, you get a little tiff because your husband's in the kitchen, ladies, giving you tips and pointers on how to do what you're trying to do, and you're in a hurry, and he's in the way, and finally he you just say, Could you just shut up and get out of my kitchen and leave me alone?
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01: Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: About that time the doorbell rings.
SPEAKER_01: Your dinner guest got there 10 minutes early.
SPEAKER_01: And you look at each other, you're like, just, just, I tell you what, if you want to do something, answer the door.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, All right, we'll come back this because you disrespect me this way in my house.
SPEAKER_01: And you answer the door.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Come on in.
SPEAKER_01: And you go in there, and the whole time it's going on, you're looking at your wife like.
SPEAKER_01: And your wife's got a spatula in her hand, and she's like, You think I'm afraid of you?
SPEAKER_01: You wait to the people that want to beat you about the head and neck with a spatula.
SPEAKER_01: Hi, would you like some bread with that salad?
SPEAKER_01: Come on in.
SPEAKER_01: It's covered up.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know you.
SPEAKER_01: You that you're fighting, or your kids walk in and you're like, hey, mom and dad, are y'all fighting?
SPEAKER_01: No, we're not fighting.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom's just acting like her mother, and I pray to God that you don't act like your mom when you're this age, because that's called generational sin.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, if you're thinking of saying that, don't.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be the chainbreaker, honey, who breaks this generational sin because your mother is just like her mother.
SPEAKER_01: That's never funny.
SPEAKER_01: It's an awkward dinner.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you can cover it up.
SPEAKER_01: You can act like, hey, it's good to see you guys.
SPEAKER_01: But it's still there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what sin was like in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: They did all these religious duties to cover it up, but it was still there.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's such a radical thing when John says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: When people heard takes away, they were like, What?
SPEAKER_01: What did you say?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way the Bible says it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before we read from the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: The law can never do what only God can do.
SPEAKER_01: The law kind of points to what God is going to do one day.
SPEAKER_01: The law, the Old Testament, the law, the rules and regulations, by keeping the rules and regulations, you can never get there on your own religious efforts.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 10 says it like this, verse 1, for since the law was but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered?
SPEAKER_01: Since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 to 4.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me draw your attention to four things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Bible points out and kind of says, hey, by the way, uh the law, anytime scripture says the law cannot, what the law cannot do, really the point it's making is only God can do this.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, hey, the law is powerless to do this, what he's really saying is only, it's building a case for the sufficiency and the solidarity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: There's four things the Bible tells us right here that the law can't do.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the law can never make perfect.
SPEAKER_01: The law can never make by perfect.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean perfect in a way, I mean complete.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, the law can never make perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, under the law, sacrifices never cease to be offered.
SPEAKER_01: They never cease to be offered.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, under the law, people never felt cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean, never felt cleansed?
SPEAKER_01: That's another word we don't use very often.
SPEAKER_01: People lived under the law, under just keep trying to keep the rules and measure up to the to the rules.
SPEAKER_01: People live with this constant feeling that God is somehow disappointed with me and I'm gonna get it one day.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's this sense of I'm never quite right with God.
SPEAKER_01: The fourth thing the law does is it reminds people of their sins.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, hey man, if I'm really such a good person, why do I have to keep coming here and making sacrifice for my sin?
SPEAKER_01: Because I keep doing the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so when John the Baptist shows up on the scene and says, it's a radical shift in thinking, when John shows up and says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, what he's really saying is this, wouldn't you love to forget your sins and be in a relationship with someone who's forgotten your sins as well?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that, because nobody in this room, just by sheer fact, matter of fact, that you're breathing has ever experienced that.
SPEAKER_01: But let me ask it again.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you love to be in a relationship with someone who has no record of your past wrongs that you've done?
SPEAKER_01: Just this past week, my wife and I had a little discussion.
SPEAKER_01: We don't fight at my house because I'm the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: We have spirited discussions.
SPEAKER_01: We were having a spirited discussion where we were discussing an area of growth in my wife's life.
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle of that, she said, Well, don't you have some flaws?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Not that I can think of right now, so let's stay focused on yours.
SPEAKER_01: That too was not funny, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Now you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Go back to the question.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you love to be in a relationship with someone who had no, I mean, if someone came up to you after the service and said, Hey, is your husband ever done anything that's just absolutely goofy?
SPEAKER_01: And you look, ladies, and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: No, I can't think of anything he's ever done like that.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, there's a person there who's been married a long time.
SPEAKER_01: No, I can't, no, but that's what John is saying.
SPEAKER_01: When John says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, he is inviting them to think about God in a way they've never thought about God, and he's inviting them to think about themselves in a way they never thought about themselves.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what why do you say, wouldn't you love to be in a relationship with someone who has no frame of reference for your past sins?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is how God, this is how the Bible teaches us that God thinks about us once we become Christians.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says like this in Romans chapter 8, verses 1 to 4.
SPEAKER_01: There is therefore now, key word.
SPEAKER_01: There is therefore now.
SPEAKER_01: Now means something exists now that didn't exist back then.
SPEAKER_01: This whole new reality.
SPEAKER_01: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_01: For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.
SPEAKER_01: He condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It means four things.
SPEAKER_01: Just the exact opposite of the other four.
SPEAKER_01: It means number one, in Christ I'm perfect.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I'm complete.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not lacking.
SPEAKER_01: There's not something, oh, I gotta kind of add to what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I can stand in the sufficiency of what Jesus has done in my place for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I mean when I say in Christ I'm perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, I don't have to make sacrifices for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to make sacrifices for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean I don't have to acknowledge my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to make sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I the good that I do, here's what I mean by don't have to make sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: Listen carefully.
SPEAKER_01: The good that I do is not to compensate for the bad that I've done.
SPEAKER_01: That's karma.
SPEAKER_01: That's not grace.
SPEAKER_01: That just puts you on a treadmill of religious determination and spiritual bookkeeping, trying to balance it all out.
SPEAKER_01: Oh thirdly, in Christ I'm clean.
SPEAKER_01: Just let that just kind of land on you a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ, I'm clean.
SPEAKER_01: I've been I've been cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, think back to the Last Supper where Jesus washes the disciples' feet.
SPEAKER_01: He's going around, he gets to Peter, this one that's very zealous, he's very eager, and he says, Oh Lord, you're not gonna wash my feet.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, If I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter says, Oh, then don't just wash my feet, wash my head and my hands, and just give me a sponge bath, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what Jesus said?
SPEAKER_01: He said, That's not necessary.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You're already clean because of the word I've spoken to you.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever think of yourself as clean before God?
SPEAKER_01: You ever think of yourself knowing everything you've done?
SPEAKER_01: And just think that you know what?
SPEAKER_01: When God looks down on me, he's just like, man, that cat is clean in my eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth thing is that sin is no longer necessary.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is no longer why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's been taken away.
SPEAKER_01: It's been taken away, it's been removed.
SPEAKER_01: It's what what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about this more in my class, my apologetics class on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but but about our sinful nature has been removed because a lot of time, here's why I will talk about this in my class, is because a lot of times you start trying to have a spiritual conversation with somebody and they'll throw up in your face, well, who are you?
SPEAKER_01: You think you're better than me?
SPEAKER_01: And you could just smile and go, Oh, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: I know what an egregious, horrible sinner I used to be, but I'm not that person anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I just think that you could, I want you, this hope has so changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to experience the hope I have because of my relationship with Christ and what Christ has done for me and my sin.
SPEAKER_01: He'd do the same thing for you and your sin.
SPEAKER_01: I've never met a person that said, you know what, I don't want to, I don't want to struggle with my sin anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I I mean, I I'd I don't want to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: I want to struggle with it all my life.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when I get in spiritual conversations with people, I don't ask them, hey, if you come to a point in your life, you know for sure if you die tonight, you'd go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I ask them questions like this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, can you imagine not sinning anymore?
SPEAKER_01: You think that's possible?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, yeah, fat chance.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What if the Bible says that it's possible?
SPEAKER_01: What if the Bible just kind of says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: If you take this out, here's a question you should ask yourself today.
SPEAKER_01: If you took sin out of the equation, on what basis would you relate to God?
SPEAKER_01: What would you and God talk about?
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like being in a marriage where all you do is fight.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the reason those marriages don't last.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because all you do is fight, it's because if you stop fighting, then what do you talk about?
SPEAKER_01: You look at the other person and you're like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're so conditioned for conflict.
SPEAKER_01: And when conflict goes away, it's like, hi, I'm Bob, what's your name?
SPEAKER_01: I'm Susie.
SPEAKER_01: We've been married 28 years.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same way with sin.
SPEAKER_01: If you took sin out of the equation, on what basis would you relate to God?
SPEAKER_01: See, the first thing John tells us is, hey, God's done something about our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing he tells us from the text is that God allows for progress.
SPEAKER_01: God allows for progress.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist says, I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptized him with water that he might be revealed to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you say, What do you mean, I myself did not know him?
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist and Jesus were related.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you have family members you wish you didn't know?
SPEAKER_01: You got that drunk uncle that comes to the family reunion every year and makes a fool of himself?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I wish that sucker wouldn't show up.
SPEAKER_01: No, what John, he's not saying, he's not disown, like, I don't know who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is, I didn't understand that Jesus was the Messiah until I saw him baptize.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you read on, and we read it just a minute ago, where John says, hey, uh in in the next verse, he says, verse 32, and John bore witness, I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
SPEAKER_01: And he repeats, I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the spirit descend to remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I have seen, in other words, hey, God, God told me this was gonna happen, it happened, I saw it, and now I bear witness that this is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying God allows for progress because John the Baptist, who Jesus said was the greatest man ever born of a woman, John the Baptist said, you know, I didn't understand that Jesus was the Messiah until I said I'm baptized.
SPEAKER_01: And so now I live with an understanding I didn't have before.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It means two things.
SPEAKER_01: It means something for these people, and it means something for us people.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, for the people in the Bible times, remember, John is the pal, the guy that wrote the Gospel of John, he's a Palestinian Jew.
SPEAKER_01: He is writing to these Jewish people, very religious people, they're scattered all over, and they don't believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They say, hey, good guy, moral teacher, not the son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And what he's doing is he's just kind of laying the case out there, and he's kind of because he realizes they're not gonna go from zero to sixty in four seconds like a sports car.
SPEAKER_01: These people are gonna have to hear the truth, they're gonna have to think about it, they're gonna have to ask some questions, they're gonna have to say, Can I get back to you on that?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, could you clarify that?
SPEAKER_01: What about this?
SPEAKER_01: What is if this is true, then what does it mean about this?
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: It's all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And so you realize they got to hear the truth, they gotta think about the truth, and then they're gonna come to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: So for them, it's it's a process.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say that God allows for progress, let me let me be clear.
SPEAKER_01: Progress is not perfection, it's participation.
SPEAKER_01: Progress is not God saying you better hurry up and get your act together, the clock is ticking.
SPEAKER_01: It's participation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's what it means for them.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: What it means for us is if in this room right here, there are people that are all across the spectrum.
SPEAKER_01: All across.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, hey, I I don't I don't believe in Christianity, I do not consider myself a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: You're welcome here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Relax.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna corner you and give you a Jesus pop quiz.
SPEAKER_01: I would just say this: you keep coming, you keep listening, because we believe what you really want is the truth, because that's what God created you for.
SPEAKER_01: So the more you hear the truth and you think about it and you process that, you might inch a little bit closer and a little bit closer.
SPEAKER_01: On a scale of one to ten, you may be sitting here right now and you maybe think, hey, I'm about a two.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep coming.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe six months from now, you'll be a three or a five or a seven.
SPEAKER_01: But we believe this that you would do well, as the Bible says in in 2 Peter, you would do well to pay attention to the gospel, to the word as a light shining in a dark place until the morning start dawns and it rises in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible allows, God allows for people to kind of make this progression, just kind of, hey, Hey, I'm making progress.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not there yet.
SPEAKER_01: I have many people in my life who I I've gotten to know, and they look at me and they go, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't believe like you believe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not there yet.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't say to them, hurry.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I say to them, hey, describe to me where you are.
SPEAKER_01: And it's fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: They say things like, I pray to a guy I don't really even believe in.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wow, that's gotta be difficult.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the thing: because God allows for progress, we allow for progress.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes progress is two steps forward and one step back.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist, this same guy in Matthew chapter 11, he's at the end of his life.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison.
SPEAKER_01: He's fixing to get killed.
SPEAKER_01: And he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, Are you the one to come or should we expect somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: And he wasn't doubting, he was like, This, I just, if I'm fixing to get killed because I believe you're the son of God, I want to just double check, you are the son of God, right?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus didn't send his disciples to go, you tell that ungrateful locust eater to shut up.
SPEAKER_01: Take one for the team.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus smiles and goes, Hey, you tell John what you hear and what you see.
SPEAKER_01: The blind can see, the deaf can hear, the dead are raised, the good news is preached to the poor.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I am doing everything that was foretold about me as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And John dies with this right belief that Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so don't beat yourself up.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's five steps forward and two steps back.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing in your marriage relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you, every once in a while, you all come up to me and say, Hey, when you talk about you and your wife and stuff, are you just making that up so we'll think you have problems too?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not making it.
SPEAKER_01: We had a disagreement last week, and my wife did say to me in the midst of it, hey, do you do you have any faults?
SPEAKER_01: And not that I can think of right now.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stay focused on yours.
SPEAKER_01: And she looked at me and she's like, and I went, My faults have nothing to do with what we're talking about right now.
SPEAKER_01: She said, You're right.
SPEAKER_01: This is painful.
SPEAKER_01: I hate this.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, It's tough not being perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm full of compassion.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, ladies, aren't you sad I'm not available for you?
SPEAKER_01: My wife just looked at me and she's like, Oh.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my kids, hey, you're not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: I'm such a bad parent.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my overachieved achieving children, hey, make a C.
SPEAKER_01: It's liberating.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I am banned from going on the high school campus across the street.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want my kids to labor under this burden of perfection.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we're all perfect, then why does Jesus have to die?
SPEAKER_01: God allows for progress.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing the Bible tells us this morning is to just embrace the part that you play.
SPEAKER_01: John says this, verse 31, he says, I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came, baptized him with water that he might be revealed to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Hear those words, but for this purpose I came.
SPEAKER_01: If you had to put it in a sentence today, how would you just how would you finish that sentence?
SPEAKER_01: For this purpose I came.
SPEAKER_01: What's the purpose you came?
SPEAKER_01: What is the purpose?
SPEAKER_01: Because see, unless you embrace the part that you play, you're going to get invited to compare yourself to the to the part that other people play.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: John sees his life in relation to Jesus and to getting everybody ready for his coming, and that's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he, that Jesus as the Messiah would be revealed to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And here's my point when I say embrace the part that you play.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes we have to have a sense that our life matters in the grand scheme of things.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, our role, we begin to look around and kind of go, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: It happens right here in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to it in a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_01: These religious leaders come to John the Baptist and they say, Hey, what do you think about everybody going over there to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because you know, he's baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire, and you're over here baptizing with water.
SPEAKER_01: What does this feel like?
SPEAKER_01: Remember this religion always appeals to your insecurities.
SPEAKER_01: It always does.
SPEAKER_01: Always does.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, hey, they're trying to get John to turn on Jesus, John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: They said, What do you think?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everybody's going over there, and you got like six people, and he's got like six thousand.
SPEAKER_01: He fed them all with a big Mac and a small fry.
SPEAKER_01: And John says this, he said, That's great with me.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he must increase and I must decrease.
SPEAKER_01: And they were like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: They looked at each other like, How do we make him angry now?
SPEAKER_01: Here's another thing.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you understand your role and the purpose behind your role, you will struggle with anger the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Because you'll look around and you compare yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You'll get on Pinterest.
SPEAKER_01: No one's house looks like that in real life, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: That's just free.
SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: I came in, I went to the house the other day to get lunch, and our stupid dog had gotten up on the couch where he's not supposed to be, not on the couch where you sit, but behind one of the couch cushions and was wedged in between the back of the couch and the couch cushion.
SPEAKER_01: And I walked in and I was like, now you caught your fat self can't get up, can you?
SPEAKER_01: And he had relieved himself all over the top of the couch.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that wasn't what I thought.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I thought, I'm gonna stomp you in half.
SPEAKER_01: You better thank God I have kids or you wouldn't be here right now.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just like trembling.
SPEAKER_01: No one puts that picture on Pinterest.
SPEAKER_01: Look what my dog did to my couch.
SPEAKER_01: My pottery-bound couch has been defiled by my free dog.
SPEAKER_01: That's the most expensive free dog I've ever owned.
SPEAKER_01: And when I ripped the pillow and he jumped off and kind of opened the back door, and I just said, just go outside.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go talk the rest of the night.
SPEAKER_01: I came home from the office at 6:30 that night and I walked in and he was in the injury hall.
SPEAKER_01: He turned around and ran to the back of the house.
SPEAKER_01: My wife said, What's wrong with him?
SPEAKER_01: We're not on speaking terms.
SPEAKER_01: He knows what's wrong with him.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Why, why, why do I tell you all this?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: unless you embrace the part that you play, and it may be big, it may be small, here's what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna disconnect the little daily decisions that you need to make.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna just go, hey, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus is over there baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, and John's like got a little squirt gun.
SPEAKER_01: Who wants some water?
SPEAKER_01: Should have filled this thing with vodka.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much better.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be teaching school and you're gonna be like, uh, this life is passing me by.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a midlife crisis, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That is a failure to embrace the role that you play in the grand scheme of what God's doing in the world.
SPEAKER_01: It's not midlife crisis.
SPEAKER_01: Men don't go out and get a red Corvette and unsnap your shirt and get the Mr.
SPEAKER_01: T starter set with the three or four gold chains.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need that.
SPEAKER_01: You need to embrace this for such a time as this, this is what I'm called to do.
SPEAKER_01: This is it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when I say embrace the part that you play.
SPEAKER_01: The last thing that the Bible says to us this morning is simply this learn to live in the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Learn to live in the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: For the next three minutes, I'm gonna talk about something that we don't talk about hardly at all, but for sure, not enough in the Baptist church, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to talk to you about.
SPEAKER_01: Do not make for the exits.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you about being baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: See, the baby cried.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody pinch the baby.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta go pinch the baby.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what you've been told, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what I was told.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me carefully.
SPEAKER_01: When I became a Christian, uh and I have kind of a big personality or whatever, people came up to me and they would say this, Oh brother, now that you're a Christian, that's all that's all good and everything, you know, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But now you need to be filled with the spirit and you need to speak in tongues as evidence that you're filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And every time someone would say that to me, my spirit would be like, No, I don't think that's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But I'd been a Christian like 10 minutes, and I was just like, ah, uh, uh, something about that just doesn't jive with me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I say, learn to live in the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the first sermon we preached in John, we preached from John chapter 20, where John says this is the purpose of the book.
SPEAKER_01: He said, These things are written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: Life in his name is not some ecstatic utterance, it's not some charismatic experience where, hey, that's all well and good, but you gotta, you know, you know, now, now that you're a Christian, if you want to take it to the next level, no, that's that's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't say, well, now that you're a Christian, if you're really serious, you're gonna break through.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: When you become a Christian, and let me be clear, when you're genuinely converted, you get all of God you're ever gonna get.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get him on the installment plan.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's a little bit, and then for the people that really want it, you get the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's the bonus pack right there.
SPEAKER_01: That's 1995, and it said again soon.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look right there in John chapter 1, by verse 12 or 13.
SPEAKER_01: To as many as received him, to get to them, he gave the right, the powerful privilege to become the children of God, not born of the flesh, not born of the will of man, but born of God.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again, and I'll demonstrate from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: What's happening here in John, when he when John says of Jesus, hey, he baptized, he says, Hey, the one that you see the Holy Spirit come and land on and remain on.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about when Jesus was baptized.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove comes and lands on him.
SPEAKER_01: That was a sign that God had given John the Baptist to say, hey, I'm gonna point out who my who the Messiah is.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: It happens, and John is like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: That just happened right here in front of me.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Yes, I didn't believe it up to this point, but then God did what God said he was gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so John's like, now I believe.
SPEAKER_01: I see that he really is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, he's gonna baptize with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, go back into the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there, but you you can write this down.
SPEAKER_01: You see if I, yeah, hey, does that really never let anybody, me included, never let anybody stand in front of you and teach you the Bible without knowing.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I need to take that to the scripture and see if that's really true.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter 11, about verse 1 and 2, Isaiah 42, verse 1, Isaiah 61, 1, all of those, there's this progression where God says, hey, when the Messiah comes, here's how here's how you're gonna know who the real thing is, because my spirit's gonna be upon him.
SPEAKER_01: My spirit's gonna be upon him.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 61, that's what Jesus stands up on the temple and he and he reads from the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on, reads it, sets it back down, and Jesus says to the people, Today this is fulfilled in your presence.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Oh! Are you saying you're the son of God?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus smiles and goes, Yep.
SPEAKER_01: And what's for dinner?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not this, it's he's just like, Yes, and here's how you know he is.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you, I brought you a verse that just explains it very simply.
SPEAKER_01: This is Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 25 to 27.
SPEAKER_01: I will sprinkle clean water on this.
SPEAKER_01: Is God way back in the Old Testament, saying, Hey, this is what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_01: I will sprinkle clean water on you.
SPEAKER_01: You shall be clean from all your uncleanness.
SPEAKER_01: For all your idols, I will cleanse you.
SPEAKER_01: I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
SPEAKER_01: I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
SPEAKER_01: Here, verse 27 again.
SPEAKER_01: And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the New Testament talks about walking in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you become a Christian, God's spirit comes to live inside of you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So here about five or six times in this passage, God says, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will.
SPEAKER_01: Now, remember a few minutes ago, I said, hey, this is not a charismatic experience as much as it is this faithful fulfillment by a faithful God.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says of Jesus, He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not some second-level experience for the real serious, intense Christians.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying from the get-go in John's gospel, hear this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: I've him to immerse you in the realities that the Bible's been pointing to for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is not some crazy, hey, I gotta do, I gotta be filled with spirit and speak into.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: To be clear, tongues is a gift.
SPEAKER_01: It's the least of all the gifts, it's a spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_01: That's a whole other sermon.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the way you identify who's a Christian and who's not.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus says, hey, this is just Christian, this is learning to live in this reality.
SPEAKER_01: It's learning to walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's not this thing we manufacture, it's a reality that Jesus says, and this is the way it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll see this in John's gospel as we keep going.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, three chapters over in John chapter 4, Jesus is talking to this woman.
SPEAKER_01: He meets at a well, and he says, Hey, would you give me a drink of water?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Hey, why are you even talking to me?
SPEAKER_01: You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we don't, we don't, I mean, you go to LSU and I go to Troy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, you saw it too.
SPEAKER_01: I was texting all my friends from LSU last night during the game, going, Really?
SPEAKER_01: Troy?
SPEAKER_01: Troy, the smallest school in their entire football subdivision, and you're in Death Valley getting kicked around by these JUCO rejects?
SPEAKER_01: Person texted back, I'm not coming to church tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: I texted back, that ain't gonna make your team any better.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, the woman's like, hey, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan.
SPEAKER_01: What do we talk to each other?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, This, look at this.
SPEAKER_01: If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks for you for a drink, you would ask me and I would give you living water.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, This hey, this water will become in you a well springing up to eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the spirit of God living inside of somebody.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying to her, this is not some external, I'm trying to keep all the religious rules.
SPEAKER_01: This is an internal reality.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the Bible says, if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what happens we have people go around the country right now because we don't talk enough about the Holy Spirit in the church.
SPEAKER_01: We have people go around the country having these experiences, these events where they sell tickets to.
SPEAKER_01: And they have a cool band and they talk about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I have non-discerning friends that go to those.
SPEAKER_01: One of my friends went to one and he called me after because he's like, hey, you want to come?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm well, you're making, I'm not making fun.
SPEAKER_01: I just I have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I received the Holy Spirit when I when I was converted, July 5th, 1982, long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: I just had to learn to walk in what's already mine.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm just telling you, I mean, they have manifestations of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so he goes, a couple nights later, he calls me.
SPEAKER_01: How was it?
SPEAKER_01: And he said this out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Man, there was, I mean, the Lord was there.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, okay, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What makes you say that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, there was gold dust coming down from the ceiling.
SPEAKER_01: I said, That's called confetti.
SPEAKER_01: Did y'all go out for drinks before you went to this thing?
SPEAKER_01: Shut up, McLean.
SPEAKER_01: I'm serious.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's manifestation of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: There was gold dust coming down.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I believe in the Holy Spirit, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I do not believe when we want to work the Holy Spirit instead of worship him, we grieve the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And you can grieve the Spirit with your excess and with your absence.
SPEAKER_01: You can grieve him on both sides.
SPEAKER_01: But just stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: You're smart people.
SPEAKER_01: I said, so there were gold flakes coming down.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, everyone that was there saw it.
SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Bill Johnson from Bethel, I mean, it was just incredible and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I just let them spool out lines.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's my crazy redneck self, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Here's my confession.
SPEAKER_01: I right now have temperatic adjustable bed lust.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just confessing to you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have one.
SPEAKER_01: I have some friends that have one, and they say, oh yeah, it's got this little remote control, and you can raise the head or the feet, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: It's got a heater in there and it's got a vibrator.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: I hate my bed.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I go home, I look at my bed and go, you are 19 years old.
SPEAKER_01: You're full of dead skin and sweat.
SPEAKER_01: I should burn you.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what my big country cracker self is going to do.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm in a room and there's gold flakes coming down, I'm going to be like, y'all keep singing a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Let me get some of this and take it down here with me, and I'm going to sing another song.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to just geek scooping it all up.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be running down a mattress firm.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like that adjustable temperature.
SPEAKER_01: I got some, you take gold.
SPEAKER_01: And my friend said, that's not funny.
SPEAKER_01: I said, no, here's what's not funny.
SPEAKER_01: Your stupid self was in a room where gold was coming down and you didn't pick nothing up.
SPEAKER_01: I said, hey, if I see a dollar or a$20 bill on the ground, I pick it up and the first thing I do is look around.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Any, any?
SPEAKER_01: While I'm putting it in my pocket, I'm whispering.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody miss this?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's a sign.
SPEAKER_01: And my friend's like, oh well, uh uh, none of those us talking.
SPEAKER_01: We're just on different pages.
SPEAKER_01: I said, no, no, no, we're on different pages.
SPEAKER_01: You're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And those people are stealing money from you by selling tickets to those experiences, and they're abusing.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are trying to work the Holy Spirit into something.
SPEAKER_01: And no gold does come down from the say.
SPEAKER_01: That's nonsense.
SPEAKER_01: But see, here's the thing: when you live in ignorance to the Holy Spirit, you're susceptible to things like that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me be clear.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in part of worship services where incredibly powerful things happen.
SPEAKER_01: I was eating at Kirby Lane in Austin, Texas this past week.
SPEAKER_01: That's an incredibly powerful thing right there.
SPEAKER_01: Have some of them pancakes and that queso.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa! And my waitress is getting about getting ready to leave, and I just kind of said, Hey, I have a burning desire, like I'm supposed to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on with you?
SPEAKER_01: And this whole stranger plops down in my booth by myself and she goes, Oh, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for asking.
SPEAKER_01: I am from Wyoming, and I don't know why I'm down here and I'm studying for the GRE, and blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, and just last night I just prayed and I asked him, and I said, Who's him?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, You know.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you know.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I like to call him by his name.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be clear about who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Ain't the big guy, the man upstairs.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Yes, him.
SPEAKER_01: All these other, some guy with a pink mohawk, guy with a pink mohawk, walks up.
SPEAKER_01: Boy, what in the world's the matter with you?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say that, I just thought, who pastor is this guy?
SPEAKER_01: Had a five-minute conversation and she kept looking around, and I said, You can get up and walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because I would tell you that's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I am so glad that a total, I said, I think God sent a total stranger in here to tell you I'm gonna pray for you, and thanks for telling me how.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go back to where I'm staying and I'm gonna spend some time praying, and you're gonna be one of the things I pray for.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Would you like some coffee to go?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I would.
SPEAKER_01: Now, hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying, and I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: Walking in the Spirit, being baptized, when you become a Christian, you're immersed.
SPEAKER_01: To baptize means to immerse.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying to these people, I'm here to immerse you in the reality of the spirit-led life.
SPEAKER_01: That's Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's not running around the country trying to chase these, it's not about intensity.
SPEAKER_01: This is the best way to say it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about intensity, it's about intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what intimacy is when you, here's how you know you have spiritual intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: You start to do the wrong thing, and something inside you says, No.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, hey, hey, moron, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's what it sounds like in my head.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit's very clear.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, fat so, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Happened last night.
SPEAKER_01: My wife made homemade donuts yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: I walked in the kitchen last night at 11 45, walking over chords room, and the Holy Spirit said, No, no, we're not doing that.
SPEAKER_01: One.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Because see, hey, you can live, this is the last thing.
SPEAKER_01: You can live disconnected from all that and go have these intense experiences and never know intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: And you were made for intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says when he says, I Jesus is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to immerse you in the reality of the Spirit-led life.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment and just kind of ask the Lord, what had your name on it today?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for some of you it was that part about progress.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God allows some progress.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was, hey, God's come to do something about your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, hey, you gotta embrace the part that you play.
SPEAKER_01: You're not baptizing with fire and the Holy Spirit, but what you do matters.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's just this last part, just learning to live in the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to immerse us and say, hey, this is what it's like.
SPEAKER_01: This is what life in my name involves.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what you're made for.
SPEAKER_01: So let's think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Father, when we sing and say, fill us up until we overflow, we're confessing our understanding of what we are made for.
SPEAKER_01: We receive the Holy Spirit when we come to Christ, and then we have to live in a place of fullness.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, teach us just to be full of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Because to be full of the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And to be led by the Spirit is to experience the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we desire.
SPEAKER_01: Not as an intense experience, but as an intimate expression.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks that you made us for that.
SPEAKER_01: And so we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our church.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we do every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: We worship and we teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we wear slacks and sometimes we wear a pearl snap wrangler.
SPEAKER_01: My wife said, You're wearing that, and I went, God doesn't care.
SPEAKER_01: So I think we want to demonstrate that to you.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what you dress, you don't have to dress up, you dress whatever you're comfortable in.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the reality: we want to make progress every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: We want to work further into intimate relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And you're welcome to come and be on that journey with us.
SPEAKER_01: When you came in, you were given a worship folder, has information about our church on the far right side, has a little tear off portion.
SPEAKER_01: If you've had a chance to fill that out, would you tear it off?
SPEAKER_01: Drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: And today, that's also where we receive our offering.
SPEAKER_01: If today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you do that as well, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me acknowledge something.
SPEAKER_01: I went a little long today because I want you to understand what the Bible actually means.
SPEAKER_01: And so I owe you a few minutes and I'll give them back to you next Sunday, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You act like you don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: You mean-spirited Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Stand up, let me bless you, even though you don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Emptiness is your appetite's longing for satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Fullness is your understanding satisfying you.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and live in fullness in the name of the Father and the Son, and the cause of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.