[0:00] Good morning. Glory, glory, hallelujah. His truth is marching on. Thank you, youth, for that resounding battle cry this morning. And Elliot and Kevin for choosing those songs this morning for worship.
[0:15] The Bible stands on a firm foundation. We hardly ever sing that song, but precious words. Thank you for that. Well, Pastor Wayne has asked me multiple times over the last few years to fill in for him at various occasions that have never worked out for me.
[0:31] And then a couple of weeks ago he asked me again, what are you doing Pentecost? Are you going camping? I said, I don't think so. Well, can you preach? I said, sure. I can do that this time. It works for me. So he's up in the creek camping and preaching.
[0:46] He's doing a German message there. Pastor Henry's in Peace River, and then Pastor Peter Reimer is camping. So you're stuck with me today. So I want to look this morning at the changing power of the Holy Spirit.
[0:59] And I will tie in Pentecost and our personal lives today. But before we start, let's bow for a word of prayer. Gracious Father, we come before you. We thank you for another day, another day of mercy, where your mercies are new once again.
[1:15] Thank you for your power, your Holy Spirit, your leading, your guiding in our lives, as you said in the book of John, how you have sent him to guide us and direct us and to lead us into all truth. May you be with me this morning as I speak.
[1:28] May I speak your truth and your truth alone. And may you be seen through me. In Jesus' precious name, amen. The changing power of the Holy Spirit.
[1:40] So I want to look first at how the early church on Pentecost received the Holy Spirit. And then I want to look at the general population at that time, how they received the Holy Spirit. And then I want to make application to us today.
[1:53] So let's look at a few verses in our text, John 16. And I'll just read 13 to 15. The Holy Spirit is a promise that Jesus promised back in John before his crucifixion.
[2:28] And then if we turn to Acts 1. And I'll be spending a lot of time in Acts this morning. Acts 1, verses 4 to 5. Jesus reiterates this promise just before his ascension.
[2:39] And he tells them to go to Jerusalem and wait in the upper room. Acts 1, 4. And being assembled together with him, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me.
[2:53] For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And so for those of us who don't know the story, the disciples went back from the ascension.
[3:04] They went back into Jerusalem. And there was a group of about 120 that were gathered in the upper room waiting for the promise of the Father. So first of all, I want to look at those 120 people in the upper room.
[3:25] Acts 2, 1 to 4. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
[3:37] Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave the mutterants.
[3:48] So we see they were gathered in this upper room, and they were waiting for the promise. I'm sure they were having a prayer meeting, spending lots of time in prayer. And then on Pentecost morning, there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind.
[4:00] It says just the sound. I don't know if it was actually a rushing wind or just the sound of a rushing wind, but there was this sound, and then flames of fire came unto their heads. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
[4:12] And what did they do? What was the effect of this filling of the Holy Spirit? They went out speaking with boldness. They went out speaking in different languages. And I'm sure these are just different languages, not tongues that other people might speak about, because there were many people gathered in Jerusalem that morning for the Pentecost feast.
[4:30] And if we read further, we see all kinds of people from all different nations were hearing the gospel message in their own language. So they were speaking in different languages, and they were speaking with boldness.
[4:43] I want us to remember these disciples. They weren't exactly bold and honorable men before they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's look back a little bit. Remember the time where James and John and their mother came to Jesus and said, Lord, would you grant my sons James and John to sit one on your left and one on your right?
[5:03] And what did that do amongst the disciples? It caused division. They were arguing amongst themselves, well, we want to be on the right and the left. We want to be up there. We want that position of honor and prestige.
[5:14] So these disciples, if we study into that, we see that they were looking for an earthly kingdom. They wanted the honor and the glory of being with Jesus, serving in an earthly kingdom, and have that power and prestige.
[5:24] They were men with selfish ambitions, just as we are today. They weren't exactly bold and honorable men. They might have had their moments. But then look at Peter's denial.
[5:37] Very common story. He said to Jesus Christ, just before his crucifixion, I will go to death with you, Jesus. I don't care what happens. I am going to be bold and stand up for you.
[5:48] And Jesus says, Peter, before the night is over, you're going to deny me three times. And that's exactly what he did. When push came to shove, Peter was a coward. And what about the rest of the disciples?
[6:00] As Jesus was being arrested, he told the guards and the Pharisees and whoever was coming out, he said, if you want me, if you seek me, take me and let these others go. And the scripture says they all fled.
[6:12] They chickened out. They were cowards. They were not men of great boldness before they received the power of the Holy Spirit. But what about now? What about after this rushing wind came and they received the power of the Holy Spirit?
[6:25] And Peter stands out amongst most of them. And I just want to read a few portions of his messages. Acts 2.22. And I love the boldness of Peter. He just lays it on the line.
[6:36] He doesn't hold back anything. He says, So he's telling them this.
[6:50] He did signs and wonders and powers. You have no excuse. You knew this was a son of God or the son of God. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
[7:09] You crucified him. Peter is not holding back. He is not that chicken that was denying Christ just a few weeks before this. He did not hold back on these guys. And then verse 36 of the same chapter, Peter says again, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
[7:31] He puts it right out there. You crucified the Son of God. That's what you did. You guys are guilty. And then in chapter 3, it's a different sermon, but also the same type of boldness.
[7:42] Verse 11 to 20. And I'll read that as well. Acts 3, 11 to 20. Now the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John. All the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed.
[7:55] So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people. Peter's jumping on this opportunity. Oh, he healed this guy. People are crowding together. Oh, perfect. I'll preach a message. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this?
[8:08] Or why look you so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? Peter wanted honor and prestige. He wanted to sit at the right hand of Christ in his earthly kingdom just a few weeks or months before this.
[8:21] What did you do now? He says, This wasn't me. This wasn't me and John that healed this man. It's Jesus Christ who healed this man. He deserves the glory. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go.
[8:39] But you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of Life whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.
[8:53] Yes, the faith which comes through him, he has given him his perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And he just, and then further on, verse 18, But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.
[9:08] Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come for the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ who has preached to you before. He's calling them to repentance.
[9:21] He's convicting them with his words, telling them, You crucified the Son of God. Now you need to repent. It doesn't sound like a coward to me, does it? Not at all. He is a man filled with the Holy Spirit, a man of boldness, a man on a mission.
[9:36] And then as we keep reading in the book of Acts, the first few chapters, I'm amazed at how the disciples respond to persecution. They get hauled before the religious leaders into the temple and wherever they were meeting.
[9:49] And they told them, they threatened them, Stop teaching in the name of Jesus. You can't do this anymore. You're causing a big stir in the city. You have to stop. And they whipped them. And they told them, Quit it.
[10:00] And I love the response in chapter 4, 19 to 20. Acts 4, 19 to 20. But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
[10:14] For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. They had a fire burning inside of them, and they were out on a mission to preach this gospel.
[10:27] And then, another moment after they had been persecuted and whipped and threatened, they go back to their group of believers in Acts 4, 29 to 30. And they come before God and they pray.
[10:40] And they said, Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that we may be quiet, that we no longer speak these wonderful words of Jesus Christ. Grant us no more persecution.
[10:53] Is that what they said? Uh-uh. Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
[11:08] And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. These men were not deterred.
[11:19] That fire was burning within them and they were out to preach that word no matter what happened. Acts 5, 41 to 42. One of my favorite passages of Scripture.
[11:31] So they departed from the presence of the council, once again being threatened and whipped and whatever they were, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ.
[11:43] And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. What a testament. What a testimony for these men who were cowards, who were men of selfish ambitions, now having been changed by the power of the Holy Ghost and having an amazing testimony.
[12:06] And before we move on, I want to look just at the response of the religious leaders. If we go back to Acts 4, 13. And I love this. Now when these religious leaders, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus.
[12:29] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So what about...
[12:42] So the apostles and the 120 in that upper room had a very dramatic conversion and filling of the Holy Spirit. What about the general population? Because if we read in Acts, we see that thousands were added to the church daily.
[12:56] How did they receive the Holy Spirit? Well, if we look at Acts 2, 38 and 39. Then Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ through the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[13:17] Acts 3, 19. Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. They believed.
[13:29] They believed in Jesus Christ and they repented of their sins and they received the Holy Spirit. Thank you very much. And what were the effects of the early church after they received the Holy Spirit?
[13:49] You can look at Acts 2, 41 to 47. I won't read it. But you can see that these people, they were all in. They all congregated together. They had everything in common. They gave to the church.
[14:00] They gave food and they shared their food and they gave money and they sold land and possessions and gave money to keep the church going. They were generous. And it says they had favor with all the people. No one could say anything bad against them.
[14:12] They were doing the works of God and there was nothing they could say against them. And verse 47, So it wasn't just the apostles who were having this dramatic preaching experience.
[14:31] The general population that was getting saved, they were out there. They were doing the work of Christ as well. And the Holy Spirit was also changing them and empowering them. So how do we receive them today?
[14:45] Same way. Repent, believe, and accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10, 9 to 10 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
[14:59] For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. If you do that, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as it is written.
[15:14] So I want to look at some application this morning. Have you received Him? First of all, have you received the Holy Spirit in your life?
[15:27] John 1, 12 to 13 says, To as many as believe on His name, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God?
[15:40] My question this morning, have you been born of God? Have you become this child of God? I want to look at a verse in Ezekiel, or a couple of verses. Ezekiel chapter 36.
[15:54] Speaking of the coming of the, it's a prophecy of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 36, 26, 27. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
[16:05] I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk on my statutes and you will keep them.
[16:17] Has this happened to you? Has Jesus Christ placed a new heart in you? Has He placed in you a heart of flesh and taken out that heart of stone, that rebellious heart that was in us from birth? Do you have a desire to keep His statutes?
[16:32] As it says here in verse 27. You will walk on my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will do the works of God.
[16:45] Have you been to the point where the religious leaders were in Acts 2, 38, where Peter is preaching to them? And they were cut to the heart, the Scripture says. They knew they had done wrong.
[16:56] They knew they had killed the Son of God. And they said, Men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter tells them, Repent and be saved. And that's the same for us today.
[17:07] Have you been cut to the heart? Have you come to that place where you have repented of your sin and given your life to Jesus Christ? And at this point, I just want to speak to anyone that might be struggling with assurance of salvation.
[17:21] I know a lot of young believers, including myself, have gone through that. And as I've matured in my walk, I've realized some things and I've come up with two tests.
[17:32] And while I haven't come up, I've heard other preachers talk about them. Test number one, to see if we truly are a man or if we truly are a child of God, if we truly have the Holy Spirit within us.
[17:43] Number one, do you love the things of Christ? Romans 8, 16 says, the Spirit itself, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
[17:56] I was talking to a young man a couple years ago and he was struggling with assurance and he was, he had an early childhood conversion, I don't know, probably 10 to 12. And he was in his later teenage years now.
[18:09] And he was struggling. Had that been a genuine conversion? Did he truly have the Holy Spirit within him? And I told him, this is the test that I like to take for myself. The Spirit himself, I told him, bears witness that we are the children of God.
[18:24] Do we feel the Holy Spirit within us? And what do I mean by that? Often I will come to a baptism and listen to a testimony.
[18:35] And I'm just so blessed by that testimony. Or I will listen to a song, a song of salvation. It just happened a few weeks ago. I was listening to a song on my way to work and it was talking about us being saved.
[18:49] Not because we're worthy, but all because of mercy. And the tears were flowing down my face. I just felt the Spirit resonating within me. Or when we hear the Gospel message, when the preacher is preaching, in a testimony, or on the radio, or in a song, do you feel the Holy Spirit within you?
[19:12] Kind of, I don't know how to describe it, almost leaping for joy within you, bearing witness within you, resonating within you, proving to you, telling you that you are truly a child of God.
[19:23] The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And like I mentioned from Ezekiel, do we have a desire to keep His stature? Do we love the things of Christ?
[19:34] Do we love to come to church on Sunday morning and listen to His Word being preached? Do we love to listen to music that has the beautiful lyrics of salvation written in them? Do we love to hear testimonies?
[19:46] Do we love to hear the news of people that have been born again and have been saved? Perhaps people we've been praying for for years. I know I have some siblings that we prayed for for so many years and it seemed like it would be hopeless.
[19:56] They would never come to the faith and then one day you get that phone call. It's such a blessing to hear that. Do you love the things of Christ? Test number two, do you hate sin?
[20:11] What happens when maybe you're in church listening to a message or you're reading your personal devotions in the morning and all of a sudden the Spirit strikes you?
[20:23] You've sinned. You did wrong. You need to repent. Do you hate that? Do you go like, why did I do that again?
[20:34] I didn't want to do that again. I didn't want to give in to that flesh again and here I am. I've sinned again. I hate it when I do that. Do you cry out with the Apostle Paul, oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
[20:53] Do you hate sin? Do you hate it when you give in to your fleshly desires? There's a song I was listening to and the lyrics just stood out to me and it says, because I can't bear to see the man I've been come rising up in me again.
[21:09] How often does that happen? Do you hate sin? Do you hate it when you give in to the fleshly desires that are still within us?
[21:26] Next. Next application. Are you obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit? Are you obedient to His voice? We read John 16, 13 to 15 where Jesus says the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.
[21:41] He will guide us. He will direct us. He will not let us down if we obey His voice. He will not lead us astray. He will lead us into all truth and we will do the things of God and bear fruit for God.
[21:52] I want to look at Galatians chapter 5, 16 to 25 where it lists the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit and it gives us two lists and I want to look at those.
[22:06] Galatians 5, 16. I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[22:18] For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
[22:29] Now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in times past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such there is no law.
[23:09] And this next verse, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
[23:21] Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh. How crucified is our flesh? How dead is our flesh this morning? If we take a list of these things, works of the flesh, fruits of the Holy Spirit, which list weighs out?
[23:40] And I'm not saying we can be saved by doing these things better than the other things, but it's just a way to examine our lives, examine ourselves as Paul encouraged us to do. Well, you look at this list and you might think, well, we don't serve idols.
[23:53] We're good there. We're not sorcerers. We're not murderers. We're not drunkards. We're doing pretty good. Okay, how about jealousies?
[24:05] Are we jealous? Do we covet? Do we look at our neighbor and say, man, I wish I had a holiday trailer like that. Man, I wish I had a truck like that.
[24:16] He always has the best stuff. I wish I could afford that. Do we do that? Is that a fruit of the Spirit or a work of the flesh? What about selfish ambitions?
[24:27] Kind of ties into that. How many times do we get caught up in striving for money, striving for things? Maybe just trying to save up so we can pay off some debt even.
[24:38] I know I've been there. I've been so involved in trying to save money and pay off debt. And all of a sudden, a few weeks or months into this journey of let's go get it. Let's go pay off some debt.
[24:49] Let's make a lot of money. All of a sudden, I realize, whew, my spiritual life is dry. There's nothing there. What happened? And then I realize, uh-oh, I let my selfish ambitions take over.
[25:04] Instead of working towards the things of Christ and building His kingdom, we look at building our own kingdom. What else?
[25:17] Envies fits right into that. Contentions. Are we contentious? Do we cause, like to fight? Do we like to argue? There are so many things that aren't the big major sins that we would list and say, oh, we're good.
[25:35] But these, I shouldn't say smaller sins, but sins that we are more likely to commit, they are all there. Or let's look at the fruits of the Spirit.
[25:45] Maybe we're doing good with the fruits of the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. How are we doing on those?
[25:59] Are we gentle? I know as a father, there's many times when my wife has had to remind me, Bill, calm down when I'm dealing with the kids. I'm not very gentle sometimes.
[26:12] And as men, we tend to be more, more rough or more angry. And the wives are more tenderhearted. But we all need to be tenderhearted. We all need to be loving and patient and kind.
[26:23] And not just to our kids, but to the people around us. Do they see us? Do they see the fruits of the Holy Spirit within us? How much fruit are we actually growing?
[26:38] In John 15, and I think John 14 to 16, those chapters are probably my favorite chapters in the Bible where Christ is talking to the disciples. There's so many treasures and nuggets in there.
[26:51] John 15, 8, he says, By this my Father is glorified if ye bear much fruit. How much of these fruits of the Spirit are we bearing in our lives?
[27:02] Or are we grieving the Holy Spirit of God? Ephesians 4, 30 says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
[27:17] And once again, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Every time we break one of these things, every time we're bitter, every time we're angry, every time we let our selfish desires take over, we grieve the Holy Spirit of God within us.
[27:40] Or every time we're not tenderhearted, every time we're not loving, we're grieving the Holy Spirit of God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19 says, Do not quench the Spirit.
[27:53] What does that mean? I always think of a campfire. Let's say you're out camping and there's a campfire, you have a campfire going and the wind starts picking up, and you say, Oh, we better put that out before that spreads.
[28:04] So you take a bucket of water and you pour it over the fire. All you see is steam and smoke rising up and the fire's gone. Do we do that to the Holy Spirit?
[28:16] Do we ever feel that fire of the Holy Spirit within us, telling us, You've sinned. You need to make that right. No, Lord. You should have seen what the other guy did.
[28:28] Quenching the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit tells us, Go talk to that person. He needs to hear. Oh, no, Lord. That would be embarrassing.
[28:39] What would he think of me? Quenching the Holy Spirit. Bill, go help that person. Maybe there's an older person that needs help.
[28:50] Go help them. Oh, that would look weird. I don't want to do that. Quenching the Holy Spirit. How often do we do that? We feel that fire within us, telling us to go forward and talk and witness to this person perhaps.
[29:04] I've done this so many times. I've been so guilty of this many times in my life where I just press down and quench the Holy Spirit. It's not good.
[29:16] Do not quench the Spirit. I'd just like to tell a story of a gentleman that I ran into a few years ago. I was working at a trucking company during the time that the hospital kicked me out, whatever you want to call it, you know.
[29:32] And I was working for this trucking company for a couple months. And I've told some of you this story. One of my first days on the job, I'm working with this guy and we're kind of just shooting the breeze and talking about, telling him some places that I'd applied for work.
[29:47] And he says, that place? Don't go work for that guy, a guy that I mentioned or workplace that I mentioned. Oh, I said, why? What's wrong? I work for him? He ripped me off?
[29:58] He didn't pay me what he told me? He told me he would give me a certain amount of hours and he didn't. And he said he was a Christian. That's why I hate Christians, he told me outright. And I was, whoa. Okay.
[30:11] He didn't know that I was a Christian because we'd just met. And the Holy Spirit was already prompting me. He said, Bill, you need to tell this guy that you're a Christian and you need to be a light to this guy. And I had a burden in my heart.
[30:23] This guy was bitter over this Christian. I don't even know who this guy is. I don't know if he is a true Christian or if he actually did what this guy was accusing him of. But if it was true, he was grieving the Spirit.
[30:35] He was quenching the Spirit. And this guy, this non-believer, had a bad outlook on Christians because of how one Christian had treated him. And the Spirit was prompting me and telling me, you need to show this guy that there's a different side.
[30:49] There's Christians that aren't like that. And so, the next day, I was talking to another guy who was a believer and I told him, you know what Daryl told me?
[31:02] He said, I hate Christians. Oh, and he's, oh wow, really? Okay, yeah. And we just kind of talked about it. And the next day, Daryl, he's that first guy that hates Christians, he came up to me and he said, Bill, why did you tell him that I hate Christians?
[31:18] He just challenged me outright and I thought, oh, here I want to be a light to this guy and right away, I've been gossiping about him and he hears about it and now look, he's challenging me.
[31:29] What do I do? And right at that point, I didn't know exactly what to say but of course, the Spirit was convicting me telling me, you got to go talk to him. You got to go apologize.
[31:41] So I don't know if it was the next day or later on that day, we were in the trailer unloading and I said, Daryl, I'm sorry, I was wrong. I shouldn't have talked to that other guy about our conversation and he was fine.
[31:56] He forgave me and he said, it's good and we became friends and this guy, he was the type of guy, nobody liked him, not even the bosses. The bosses would gossip about him and say things about him.
[32:08] He wasn't good at this, he wasn't good at that. They gave him, he was really good on the dock, he was an excellent dock worker but they put him on a truck because he didn't want to drive trucks so they put him on a truck and it's not a, I'm not trying to knock those bosses but that's just how he was treated there and I was trying to be a light to him for that, I think 10 weeks I worked there and to this day, when I see him, I still see him once in a while and we talk and we're like friends.
[32:32] I haven't had an opportunity to witness to him yet but I just pray that the Holy Spirit used me to plant a seed in him to show him that he doesn't need to hate Christians, that they're not all like that.
[32:51] So all that to say, I just want to encourage you, walk in the Spirit in verse 16, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you hate that sin within you, if you don't want to give in to the flesh anymore, walk in the Spirit, spend time in his Word, be obedient to the Spirit when he prompts you, don't quench him, don't grieve him because the more we grieve him, the more we quench him, the less he convicts.
[33:19] We don't want to come to that place in our lives. Lastly, are you allowing the full potential of his power to flow through you?
[33:32] Ephesians 1, 17 to 20. Ephesians 1, 17 to 20. Ephesians 1, 17 to 20.
[33:46] Ephesians 1, 17 to 20. Ephesians 1, 17 to 20. Ephesians 1, 17 to 21. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what, excuse me, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.
[34:17] First of all, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Do we have the discernment to make the right decisions? Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us and to lead us and to show us the right decisions?
[34:28] When we're at a crossroads, it was mentioned this morning, do we pray? That should be our first gut instinct. Pray for direction. Pray for direction when something comes our way, when there's a crossroads that we need to choose a side.
[34:40] Do we pray? Do we pray for that wisdom, that discernment? And then it goes on. Wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. The more we know Christ, the more we know who God is, I find for myself, the more we want to be like Him, the more we want to serve Him, the more we want to be obedient to Him.
[35:07] Do you know Him? Do we have a full knowledge of who God is? Has your understanding been enlightened?
[35:20] Do we fully understand what it means to have this spirit within us, this powerful spirit and the riches of being a child of God? Do we fully understand what this actually means?
[35:32] Do we let this motivate us and change our lives on a day-to-day basis? In the last part of that scripture, love this, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places?
[35:57] Romans 8, 11, But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you.
[36:08] Wow! The spirit that raised Christ from the dead or the power that raised Christ from the dead is in you. Do we tap into that full potential of that power?
[36:20] We do not need to give into sin. We don't need to give into flesh. We have the power of this Holy Spirit within us to pull us out, to give us the strength, to give us victory over sin as we move on.
[36:34] And I read the lyrics of that song a little earlier. Where did I have it? I can't bear to see the man I've been come rising up with me again.
[36:48] And at the end of the song, the writer changes those lyrics and he says, I don't have to see the man I've been come rising up in me again. We have victory in Christ.
[36:59] We have victory with the Holy Spirit within us and that amazing power that can work in us and through us. John 7, 38.
[37:19] This is Jesus talking, talking of the Holy Spirit. I'll start in 37.
[37:31] On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
[37:46] This was a reference to the Holy Spirit because it says right in verse 39, but this he spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in him would receive. It's a prophecy by Jesus of the Holy Spirit that will come.
[38:00] What does a river do? If we look at the banks of the river, what do we see? Barren, dry, dead trees? No. We see life. We see greenness.
[38:10] We see trees growing, big, tall, strong trees. We see animals coming to the river to drink for life-sustaining water. That's what the Holy Spirit should be in our lives.
[38:21] The rivers of the Holy Spirit should flow out of us and touch everything around us and give life to everything and everyone around us. In closing, I want to look at John 16, 14 once again.
[38:39] He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. As we allow the Holy Spirit of God to control our lives, we will bring glory to God.
[38:51] We will bear much fruit and the Father will be glorified in us. My prayer this morning for each one of us is that the people you meet in your day-to-day business, when you walk away from them, they will say, whoa, they have been with Jesus.
[39:11] let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for your rich promises. Thank you that your Bible stands a firm foundation that we can trust in the power of your word.
[39:27] Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit in each believer's life as we allow him to flow through us and work in us. May you be with each one here today as we go from here. Fill us, empower us.
[39:38] May we be like rivers of living water flowing out of this church and touching the communities around us and changing it to life. Thank you.
[39:49] In Jesus' precious name, amen. Amen.