[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Hey, welcome to church. I'm so glad that you're here. I'm glad you may be watching online. So High Ridge family, give a big warm round of applause. All of our friends watching from home, from work, from all around the world. Our missionaries located all across the globe. Hey, come on, let's welcome them in.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. We're glad that you could be here. Grab your Bibles and follow along. Acts Chapter one is where we're going today. We're starting a brand new series and as you turn over to Acts Chapter one, I want to say thank you so much. For those of you that have chosen to financially support us, it is a big deal what we're able to do and just this past week we were able to do to partner with our city to help get Homeless Resource Debt Day, help that to become an even bigger reality. So the city has asked for about 4 to 500 resource bags for many of our homeless Longview people. And so we were able to do 200 of those because you guys are so generous. So that's shampoo, that's soap, that's deodorant. All the, just the, the basic needs that a human being may have, we're able to do that. So that's happening this Thursday at Mod Cobb. If you want more information about that, longviewtexas.gov, you're more than welcome to get involved. As much as you'd like to get involved. For those of you that just love to serve in our city and for everyone else, thank you so much for being a generous church. It's a big deal that we're able to, to do that kind of stuff. Thank you so much for that. And so Acts Chapter one, I want to start a brand new message, a message series today called the Forgotten Fire.
The Forgotten Fire. This is all about the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. Depends on. If you're raised in white church, it's Holy Spirit. If you're raised assembly of God, Pentecostal or minority church, and Holy Ghost. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. We're going to use those terms interchangeably just for the sake of argument. No matter where you came, no where you came from and what church you grew up in. Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit. One and the same, right? It's all right.
But we're going to kind of talk about the forgotten fire, the parts of the Holy Spirit that people have forgotten or they chose to ignore, and kind of how that's affected the American church. And hopefully the Lord's going to show you some things that will help to kind of confront the ways that you were brought up to believe. And we. What the Lord is saying right now. And so that's Acts, chapter one. So, as a matter of fact, let's read all this together. We're going to put it on the screen for you. Acts, chapter one, verse eight. Let's say this together. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It says, you will receive what?
Power.
Power to be my witnesses.
It shows us very clearly that Jesus is speaking to his disciples in a time where they. They don't want him to leave.
Why? Because just like many of us, we fear change. We fear things that we don't understand unless we can control them. Then it's different.
But they did not want Jesus to leave. And so Jesus had just come out of the grave. Things were just hopping all across Jerusalem. And. And then Jesus said, it's time for me to go. And they're like, you're. What are you doing? Like, you just came out of the grave. This is the moment. This is. This is everything we waited for. You have good. You have good publicity. Like, you've got a real good aura right about now. This is the time to push it. And he says, no, no, no, this. And this is crazy. Jesus says, better I should go.
It's better for you that I go. They're like, that's crazy, Jesus. It is not better that you ever go. We want you here with us. He said, no, no, no, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit. Like, we don't want that.
Or they were. They were probably more assembly of God. We're going to send you the Holy Ghost. But either way, like, no, no, no, just you stay. We want. We want you. He said, no, no, no, this is better for you. Why? Because he says, when the Holy Spirit shows up, you're going to receive power to be my witnesses. Those are two wonderful words, power and witness that we find translated from the Greek language into the English language. For us today, that word power is the Greek word dunamis, which is where we kind of get our word. Dynamite.
Dynamite. If you were raised in the 70s, 80s, you don't remember.
Y' all don't know nothing about none of that.
You're gonna receive power.
So the Holy Spirit is power.
Jesus makes that distinction very clearly. And remember who he's speaking to here. His disciples are not the most highly educated people. They're not the wealthiest people in society. They're not the most powerful people. They are just ordinary citizens like me and you that had an extraordinary experience with the King of Kings. Jesus showed up and changed their life radically. And he says, I've got a gift for you. Power.
And I imagine for them, they would say, but you, Lord, it better be a lot of power. Because we're just ordinary people. What are you expecting us to do? He said, I'm expecting you to go to the ends of the earth and tell the entire story. The like. Well, that's going to take a lot of money. It's going to take a lot of. You know, it's about who you know. Longview's especially run by. It's who you know. Come on, somebody. It's who you know. You want something done around here, it's who you know.
And Jesus is like, no, no, no. I'm going to give you the power to do that. But we're weak people, Lord. We're weak people. It better be a lot. No, no, no. And it shows us that the Holy Spirit doesn't take away their weakness. He inhabits it.
And later on, the apostle Paul says, in your weakness, he. He is strong.
It's not that you had to be strong to go to the ends of the earth. He said, no, no, I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. He is gonna be your strength. It's better that I should go, because what I'm sending you is gonna give you the power to become who I've called you to become and to accomplish what I've. What I've called you to accomplish. He says, I'm giving you power. Then he says to be. To be my witnesses. Now, this is a great legal term before it's a religious term. And when Jesus is using it here, a witness is. I mean, you understand this. It's. If you get called into court to be a witness on somebody's behalf, you are expected to put your hand on the Bible, to raise your hand and to say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And a witness that Jesus is describing here is someone that he's saying, I need you to tell the truth.
The gospel is the truth. It's the good news. It's the truth that Jesus Christ has come to save the world. They said the Holy Spirit is gonna give you the power to do exactly that, to go into your world with courage that you didn't think that you had, with boldness.
And he says, now you have what no one can argue with. You have an experience.
Isn't that good? Because people will argue with you about your opinion on anything. Come on. Some of you are married to them.
But you can't argue with me about my experience. Why? Because I was there. I seen it. And the witnesses expected to say, with all truth, with all honesty, this is what I saw. This is what I heard. This is what I know to be true. This is what I felt. This is what I experienced. I'm telling you. I'm telling you the truth. And Jesus says, the Holy Spirit gives you the power to be his witness to proclaim the truth. And by the way, that word witness is the Greek word martyrs, which is where we get our word martyr from.
So Jesus is essentially saying, I'm giving you the power to go and to lay your life down for the cost of the truth. How many people know that the truth is going to cost you something?
He's saying, you're going to proclaim the truth. It's going to cost you your very life.
And he says it's better I should go. Because the strength to do that, to give away the rest of your life for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it's going to take the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost, depending on which church you were raised in.
Jesus says, better I should go.
The Holy Spirit is coming. So why is it so different from what happened in Acts chapter two to what is happening in 2026 in the American Church? For that, let's give a brief American history. Because many of you were taught things about the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit that were passed down from a long time ago, from the 1600s all the way till now. And I'll tell you why as well. So when the Puritans come over to this country, they want the ability to be able to worship. But at that time, they had to put really, really strong objections and boxes around what the Holy Spirit could and could not do. Why? Because they associated dancing with lust.
There's a reason why many Christians have outlawed dancing. There is no dance. You can't dance. I went to Baylor University. Let me just tell you, it is strange Going to a dance that's 30 miles off of campus and a secret, just so we could have a formal dance. That was kind of strange. But you don't understand this, Baylor. No dancing.
Everything is allowed except for dancing.
So strange. But that started in the 1600s with the Puritans.
And then, by the way, when you get into the 1700s and the early 1800s, you find the. The great awakenings happening across America. And. And people were getting really, really moved by the Holy Spirit. And they're like, we need to put some parameters on this, because this could get out of control real quick. People started shaking a little bit, they started shouting a little bit. They started lifting their hands. And people were like, that's weird.
Let's not do that. And so they began to preach against it once again. We cannot dance. You can't move.
You can be alive on the inside, but you better be really, really still on the outside.
That's the American church now. Once 1920 hit, things began to get a real turnt up, let's just say, because the power got hit. Azusa street in California. And let me just tell you, a bunch of just ordinary people experience the power and presence of God. And that's the beginning of Pentecostalism. And very, very quickly.
Whoo.
Nuts.
Now, of course, when that hit the country, it just kind of swept across like wildfire. People were going nuts.
And then right about the 30s and 40s with the temperance movement and with the prohibition on alcohol, Christians made strong, strong, strong objections to no dancing, no alcohol, and no Holy Ghost because it looks like you're drunk.
And so the part started putting really, really strong parameters on what you could and could not do in church services until the 60s. And then hippies started getting saved. And then it's like, I don't even know where we are anymore. We are. I don't know. I mean, people are coming in, they barely got clothes on, There is no shoes. And it's just like they're wandering around dancing. Like these people are coming off lsd like, let them. Just leave them alone. They'll be fine.
But that's what happens. 60s, 70s, and that begins the peak of kind of not just charismatic Pentecostalism. That becomes the peak of Charismania. Then it went from just receiving people, watching them get set free, watching the power of the Holy Ghost move to now we have to manufacture a move of God because church services are no longer successful unless everybody falls out.
And then it became about, let's take the Holy Spirit and abuse it and misuse it and use it to manipulate people.
And of course, the pendulum swings back the other way with the 90s. And by the time that gets there with the late 90s, it's like, you know what? The church should be corporate America.
We should be in suits and we should run it with system structure, policies, procedures.
Stay over there, Holy Ghost. We got this. We're going to teach the Bible and have really, really short, compact services and everyone will just be nice.
And what happens is the church gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and more shallow and more shallow and more shallow.
I don't believe that churches rejected the Holy Spirit because they hated him. No, no, no. They rejected the fact that he was being misused and abused and used to manipulate people.
They rejected chaos.
But in the process of rejecting the Holy Spirit and chaos, they accidentally abandoned power, which is where we find the majority of the state of the American church today.
Lots of believers gathering together, maybe studying their word, but really taught to be afraid of power.
That Jesus says is the point of why I'm going away.
The power to become who God has called you to be.
So the Holy Spirit has been misunderstood in a lot of ways. The Holy Ghost has been misused and misunderstood and used to manipulate people in a lot of ways. It has made people afraid. It has made people completely reject that part of Christianity. And there's something to be said for.
Let me take a look at this and ask myself, why? Why was I taught that?
Why was it that in the middle of the prohibition that they take wine out of churches and replace it with grape juice?
Why is that food for thought?
Let's keep going. Forgotten Fire, Part one.
Here's what I want you to see. Here's the first or three things that I think are important for us to start this series on. When it comes to things of the Holy Spirit. Number one, abuse never nullifies God's design.
Just because people have abused it does not take the fact that God designed it for a spirit for a specific purpose. God gives his Holy Spirit for a specific purpose. And just because people abuse it or manipulate people with it because they take it in their own hands and hey, they're going to be responsible to God for that. But that does not nullify the design that God has for not just the person of the Holy Spirit, but for the gifts of, of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk more about that in depth as we go through this series. But understand this. You can take fire and use it to in your fireplace to warm your home today, or you can take that same fire and burn your house down. That's up to you.
But just because you misuse it doesn't mean that there's not a great use for fire. It ain't designed to burn down your house.
So let's try stewardship, not rejection.
Try discernment, not getting away from it.
He says, you'll receive power to be my witnesses. Here's what we know. Misuse does not cancel purpose.
We know this in other parts of our lives. You understand that even if I've been abused and people have hurt me, even if I've walked through dark, dark days in my life, that does not cancel God's purpose for my life. There's a purpose for me. And no matter what happens to me, there's still a godly design. I was. I was designed to bring him glory. There's purpose for me.
We understand redemption. We believe that God can save and use anybody, that there's purpose for them. We would say it. We would. Amen that. But yet when it comes to the person of the Holy Spirit because he's been misused and abused, we say, no, thanks, that's going to get weird.
Let me show you this scripture. In First Corinthians, chapter 14, Paul says this to the church. Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts. And he says this especially the gift of prophecy.
Has prophecy been misused and abused? Absolutely. People say, thus saith the Lord, give me your money. Like, no, I don't discern that. That's probably the Lord number one. I don't have any.
But that doesn't mean that God doesn't speak and doesn't use people to do it. By the way, we've had an incredible week of the prophetic gifting on display within great parameters.
Why? Why do we have to put parameters on that? Because people misuse it. People do dumb things.
You don't just let anybody grab a mic. That was something that happened in the 80s, man. Open mic night. Like, do you have any idea the things that came across an open mic night? You don't need to share that in church. Don't even say it to anybody. Take that to your grave.
God would not have told us to eagerly desire more if he wanted to scare you or hurt you. This is the attack of the enemy to keep you from being powerful.
So here's what we see. The Holy Spirit is not weird, outdated, or dangerous. Please hear me. He is God.
He is God.
The Trinity. By the way, the Trinity is not that. God the Father, God the Son and God The Holy Bible.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And when you take away the Holy Spirit, you've taken away the power to live the life that God has called you to live.
And I understand why churches do it, because they're afraid.
It's weird.
What if people leave?
Let them leave.
We're called to be witnesses. And what do witnesses do? They tell the truth, even at a cost.
Notice this in 1st Corinthians 14, verse 3. But the one who prophesies speaks to people, and this is how it should be used, correctly, for their strengthening, for their encouraging, and for their comfort.
So when you see prophecy, you're going to see it in Old Testament and New Testament. There's an Old Testament covenant where God would speak through his prophets and say, thus saith the Lord, you better turn or burn. Judgment's coming.
But New Testament prophecy is a brand new covenant. And God says when you prophesy, do it for people's strengthening and their encouragement and for their comfort. It's a completely different tone, different filter, same God, same spirit. But God says, now you're doing it this way. So when you hear the gift of that's prophetic. If it's not for your strengthening, if it's not encouraging you, if it's not comforting, you say, I'm going to discern that that might not be the right covenant that you're speaking out of.
You have to have a biblical understanding of what he's talking about here so very clearly. The Holy Spirit, he is our counselor. He's our strengthener, he's our convictor. He's or He. He's our comforter. He. And he is real.
He's very real.
And he is proof to a world that's looking for something real that God is the answer. Let me say it this way. In a world hungry for authenticity and for something deeper, nothing could be more relevant than the Holy Spirit.
It's a beautiful. It's a powerful thing. And you're called to have communion and fellowship with him every day.
You want to be able to hear his voice.
He'll speak to you.
He'll help you.
He is real.
Here's number two.
The Holy Spirit is not optional.
And this is how the Church has treated the Holy Spirit, as if it was an option. We love God. We love Jesus, Holy Spirit. Stay over there.
It's not a thing. Why? Because the moment that you're saved, and I'm going to show you this next week, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. He is there at the Moment that you accept Christ, when you believe that God sent his Son to forgive you of sins, let me just tell you. You received the Holy Spirit. God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit, they are there. The moment that you said yes to Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit. That's not optional. It's a package deal.
Now, whether or not you listen to the Holy Spirit, that's optional.
Whether or not you yield to the Holy Spirit, that's optional. Whether or not you ever walk in those gifts, that's optional. They're there.
Can you have them? Yes. Can you do what the Holy Spirit says you could do? Absolutely. Will you? That's up to you.
The gifts of the Spirit, it ain't Burger King. You can't have it your way.
This ain't no Golden Corral. I'll take a little bit of this. I really like this. I like this. I love that generosity gift. Let me do. Let me do that. That's. That's awesome. I want to be rich so I can, you know, fund the kingdom. Like. But, you know, as far as that other stuff, no thanks. Like, there are gifts that the Holy Spirit has for you.
Do I have to do those things? No, you get to.
You get to.
But God, the Holy Spirit is not optional. He's there.
What you do with him, that's up to you. And I'm just telling you, he has. He alone has the power that you need to accomplish the God given purpose for your life. It is impossible without yielding to the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He's not going to force himself on you.
He's not going to force you to get weird.
That's not him.
He wants to help you. He wants you to receive power.
So what happens if you. If you just teach the Word, but you skip over all the scriptures on the Holy Spirit.
Can I still receive a lot of good things? Sure. Absolutely. There's a lot of great things in the Bible, wonderful principles. But here's the thing. Jesus promised power, not principles.
Power to be my witnesses, not just the principles. Because he didn't tell his disciples, hey, with the power of the Holy Spirit to be my witnesses, you're going to win every argument.
He didn't even say you're going to be successful.
He didn't say you're going to be safe.
He said you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all the way to Longview, Texas, in America.
And they did it. Please hear me. Not because they were full of charisma, not because they were super smart.
Not because they had wonderful corporate strategy on how to get the gospel all the way to the ends of the earth. What do they have? They had the Holy Spirit. That's it.
They just had the Holy Ghost. And that was power to make ordinary people bold enough to go, I wonder, what could God do with. With you?
But unfortunately, the American church has gotten really afraid of the Holy Spirit and they've rejected him accidentally, not intentionally, but they've pushed him out.
Other places have said, oh, Holy Spirit is all that we have and it's all that we need. And they rejected things like God's word, be careful with that.
They rejected anything like order, be careful with that.
They told people, all you need is just these gifts.
To do what? To have really awesome church services.
They're going to get really small, but really awesome for you.
Here's. Here's what we see.
Removing the Holy Spirit from church life leaves believers informed but underpowered.
The information that you need is clarity on the Holy Ghost, clarity on the Holy Spirit.
What is this?
Because some of us were taught that the Holy Ghost is the bronze medalist of the Trinity. He's over there. You know, he participated.
But that's not true. And some of us, we're told he's weird. Don't encounter any of that because he'll make you dance. And we're Baptist.
First Corinthians 12. The apostle Paul says to the church now about the gifts of the Spirit. I don't want you to be uninformed. I want you to be curious. I want you to have a relationship with him. Ask him, dive into it. He said, eagerly desire these gifts. God's not going to tell you to eagerly desire something that's wrong, that's demonic.
That's not. Come on, that sounds a lot like the enemy.
I don't want you to be uninformed.
Here's the third and final point I want to give you today in this new series, the Holy Spirit is proof of the new covenant.
Now, for those of you that weren't raised in church or haven't studied much Old Testament stuff, that word, covenant, something that we don't use very, very much. But.
But God throughout the Old Testament especially, makes covenants with certain people.
And a covenant is different than a promise. A covenant is different than a contract.
Let me say it this way. A contract says, I will if you will. Right?
But a covenant says, I will, even if you won't.
And God makes covenants with his people, promises, I will, even if. Even if you turn away. This is what I promise to Do. I'm going to give you a sign to prove that you can always trust me and the promise that I made here today. So people like Moses. Moses gets the law.
Moses has a covenant made between him and God and the Hebrew people, and God gives him the law as a sign of that new covenant.
You might remember the most famous covenant of all time is when God promises Noah, I will never again flood the earth. When a huge, catastrophic, worldwide flood hit our planet, and only Noah and his family were saved. At the end of that, God pulls him out, said, I will never do this again. How will I know you'll never do it again? I'm giving you a rainbow in the sky. And for the rest of all time, anytime that people look and see that rainbow, they're seeing proof of the covenant of God, promising that his word still stands true.
Even people like Noah are long gone.
Then people like Abraham come along, and God calls him out of his life of comfort. And God says, I'm gonna make a covenant with you. I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna prosper you. You're gonna become the Israelite people, the country of Israel. It's all gonna come from you. Even though you think you're super old and you don't think you could ever do this, if you trust me, you're gonna be a friend to me, and I'm gonna make you a huge nation. I'm gonna make you an amazing covenant today. And Abraham says, what's the sign that I receive a covenant from you? And he says, I'm giving you circumcision. That's weird.
Noah gets a rainbow.
Like, wow. Like we. We went off the deep. Like, Moses got some stone tablets.
So Moses gets the law.
And each of those are covenants that God makes with his people. Come on. Covenants that God makes with his people. And he gives a sign as proof of his word that I will, even if you won't.
And then Jesus comes down. He says, I'm not here to abolish the law. I'm here to fulfill it.
And I'm here to give you a new covenant. A covenant of my blood.
Well, what's the sign that we're living underneath? The new covenant? Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is living inside of your heart. From the moment that you're saved, you receive the Holy Spirit. That's the new covenant.
Covenant, Reality. Living inside of every believer. You're under a new covenant called grace.
Grace.
Mercy.
How do we know that? Look at this. In Second Corinthians, chapter three, he being God, has made us competent as ministers of a. Somebody say the next two words.
New covenant.
A brand new one. He says not. Not of the letter, not of. Not of the law. That's not our. That's not our new covenant. That's the old covenant.
What is it? He said but of the. Say the next word, Spirit. He said, for the letter kills, but the Spirit, look at this. Gives life.
Life. The Holy Spirit is proof that there's a brand new covenant. And this is where abundant life comes from. From embracing the power and the gift and the person of the Holy Spirit. He is God. So remove the Spirit. What happens? We collapse back into religious performance and willpower. And this is unfortunately where we find the majority of believers stuck at today.
You give me the rules. Give me the rules. You're not living up to the rules. Oh, I saw you. And you had this and you had this and you did this and you went there and you're with this person. You're drinking, smoking, chewing, whatever. Like, follow the rules. Follow the rules. Follow the rules.
Let me just tell you.
I grew up in a Pentecostal church full of the Holy Ghost, but he was treated as a spirit, a spirit that makes you emotional.
Not a person, but a spirit.
And we were given hyper legalism, a list of rules that you better follow.
And they never connected the two.
What happens when you give people rules without relationship?
You get rebellion.
This is the reason why the majority of people that are my age rejected your rules, rejected Christianity. Why?
Because you never gave us the how.
How do we do this?
How do I live up to the expectations that you're putting on me? How do I deal with what's happening inside of my own mind? What's happening inside of my own body? How do I process that in a biblically healthy and sound way? You're not giving me the power of the Holy Spirit. You're giving me rules.
And I don't understand the why. Why? Because you guys had experiences with the Holy Spirit, but by the time it came around to me, I get corporate church, I get systems, policies, procedures, attorneys.
You never gave me the how.
Do you see it if all we do is present the word of God and you never give our children the. The how to live this out, the. The abundant life, the. The power that God's given.
You've missed the point.
And we drift right back into rules.
Let me tell you, your world is done with that.
Our children and our grandchildren are. They're done with that. They're looking for something that's real.
They're looking for the Holy Spirit.
And he's here.
He's here, and he's inviting them to come.
But if we have these barriers on our hearts, then you're going to continue to give your children rules and wonder why they rebel. Let me just tell you it's not a joke. Because I wish I had time to go case by case with the people that I grew up in youth group with.
And you would be shocked that the majority of those people, I'm talking like less than a handful, are doing okay.
All of the rest of them are in three places.
They're in the ground. You would not believe how many suicides.
We had another attempt last week.
It's a long, long history of my friends.
Why?
Because of that doctrine that tells you you're never going to be enough.
You better live up to these rules. You better straighten up and fly right. I can't. I don't know how.
Well, it's the Holy Ghost. What does that mean? Just make me emotional. Am I supposed to jump around? How's that going to help me?
But the amount of them that have killed themselves that are in the ground, you would not believe. The amount of them that are in psychiatric institutions, you would not believe me.
The amount of them that are in prison for murdering other people, you wouldn't believe me. But it's not a joke.
So I understand what happens when you push one extreme to the other extreme.
And I recognize what's happening in the American church.
But God says this. In the last days, I'm going to pour out my spirit on all flesh. God says I'm pouring it out. And he says, your sons and your daughters are going to do something. What are they going to do? They're going to prophesy. They're going to hear my words and they're going to prophesy. They're going to speak. They're going to have the wisdom to be my witnesses. They're going to tell the stories of what they've seen and what they've heard and what they've experienced. They're going to tell the stories of being in the presence of God and what the Lord is beginning to do in their life. They're having the boldness to do it at a cost to them. Because it's not popular to tell the truth. It's not popular to represent Christ. But this is what's happening last days. They're not afraid anymore. And I love it.
Don't take away the Holy Spirit. Don't take away the Holy Ghost just because you saw him abused or misused or used to manipulate people. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that.
Instead, use some wisdom.
Use some discernment.
Speak to your children.
You're the pastor of your family. Speak to your children. It's important that they understand this. Why? Because Christianity without the Holy Spirit is just modern legalism.
It's the truth.
And no doubt, some of you may leave. I understand. I get it. But somebody has to tell you the truth.
Because the American version of Christianity is not the truth. That's not true. It's a watered down shallow version that has either turned out the Holy Spirit into a different direction than he's ever intended. If you get back to the source, Jesus says it's better I should go. The Holy Spirit has come, has given you power to be my witnesses, the ability to accomplish the Spirit led life, only found and submitting to what the Holy Spirit is doing.
So what are you asking of me? What are you saying? Over the next few weeks, we're going to go more in depth with what it means to encounter the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit once again, depending on which church you grew up in.
And I want to just ask you to be curious.
Don't shut me out.
Be curious.
He's not here to ruin your life. He's here to give you life. He is our life.
And it's the life you were meant and purposed to live.
I love what the apostle Paul tells young Timothy. He says this. Chapter one, verse six, second Timothy. For this reason I remind you. Look at this. To fan into flame the gift of God.
That gift that Holy Spirit says, feed it, feed it, fan it into flame.
Well, where is he? He said he's. He's inside of you. How do I know that? He said, because the moment that you were saved and I laid my hands on you, when you received what Christ did for you on the cross, the Holy Spirit was placed inside of you. He's there now. It's up to you to let him take over, to let that. Let that single spark become a roar.
For this is where we find the strength to accomplish God's purpose by learning to yield to the Holy Spirit.
By saying, just like Jesus said, lord, not my will, but your will be done.
It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to go to the cross. That's not normal. It's not natural.
And the Holy Spirit is here for you.
He's asking you to let him speak to you once again. We've had a powerful week of praying and fasting and watching people get closer to the Lord, drawing near to him and encountering the Holy Spirit in some wonderful ways. And it's been beautiful to see. And I'm just curious, is that enough for you? Because I want to take you deeper, as deep as you're willing to go.
But everything starts with your ability to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit. That's where real depth comes from, real life.
He says, fan of the flame. The gift of God, which is in you through the laying on my hands for the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self discipline.
Just that scripture alone could have saved a lot of my friend's life.
That the Spirit is not here to make you weird. He's here to give you power and love and self discipline.
Learning to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit is where I get the ability to say no to my flesh.
But he must increase and I must decrease.
There's something new for you. There's something that God wants to walk you into. And I believe it starts with listening to the power of the Holy Spirit.
So over the next few weeks, I want to take us even deeper. I'm going to show you the gifts of the Spirit. I want to show you all the things that, by the way, these are not unclear things. There's multiple scriptures.
If you want to exclude the Holy Spirit from the Bible, that's completely on you. But you're going to have to redact a lot of pages because he is there and it's very, very clear. He's for you. And he's here right now. He's inside of you. If you're a believer, he's there and he wants you to listen to Him. He's there. And so we're going to take you deeper over the next few weeks and believe that what God shows you is it'll never leave you the same.
It's for the better.
It's for the better.
That Spirit led life is your future.
Should you choose to accept it. That's up to you. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? I want to finish up right there. I want to pray over you and just ask that in the next few moments you just be open to what the Holy Spirit might be saying. I think inside some of you, you're gonna start having some thoughts and you're gonna start remembering back to what you've been taught about the Holy Spirit or not been taught about the Holy Ghost. You're gonna try to kind of drift back to that. But I wanna just Ask you, as you're spending these next few moments in prayer, just say, holy Spirit, would you show me the truth?
Just invite him to show you the truth.
So with heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm going to pray that over you right now.
Father, we come into your presence thanking you for this day, thanking you for your word, thanking you for what your word says about this great gift that you've promised us, the person of the Holy Spirit.
Father, there's a lot of confusion, a lot of things we don't understand.
And we recognize that churches have done some strange things in the name of the Holy Spirit.
Father, would you show us what's the truth?
Holy Spirit, we invite you to come.
We want to fan into flame this great gift that you are.
You are the help that we need.
You are the how to living an abundant life.
You are the missing ingredient in a lot of religion.
So we just open ourselves to you right now and ask that you would come.
Lord, speak words of encouragement and comfort and hope. That's how we know it's you.
Encouragement, comfort, hope.
Lord, correct us where we've missed it and encourage us where we're on the right track in Jesus name and with heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe, my friend, maybe you came here today and you say, pastor, if I'm going to be honest, I don't have a relationship with Jesus. I'm new to all this stuff. I just came here today and to give this church thing a shot. My friend, I am so glad you're here. You came at the perfect day and God wants to meet you. He has a plan for your life.
He wants to fill you with his spirit and create a new you, a born again you.
For others, you might say, pastor, I came to this church today and I'm so far from God right now. I was raised in church like you, but I've gotten away from God and I need to come home. My friend, yes, you do.
God has a plan for you too.
Well, how do I do that, Pastor? How do I start a relationship with Jesus? How do I come back to him? My friend, it all starts with a prayer, a prayer of repentance and asking him to forgive you.
So with heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to lead you in the same prayer that somebody led me in one time. Somebody loved me enough to witness to me, and it changed my life.
And if you're ready for a life change, if you're ready for.
If you're ready for Jesus, then I want you to repeat this prayer after me. And as a matter of fact, all of us are going to say this out loud together, so you're not embarrassed in any way. But. But take this step of faith. Take it. Take a step. Pray this prayer with me. Saints, let's pray this together. Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.
I believe that you came and died, and I believe you rose from the grave.
So I ask you to forgive me of all my sins.
I have messed up.
Please forgive me, and I'll give you the rest of my life.
Holy Spirit, I invite you in in the name of Jesus with heads bowed and eyes closed. My friend, if that was you, if you prayed that prayer with me, if you meant that prayer, if you started a relationship with Jesus today, or if you're coming back to him today, can I just see your hand all across this place? Would you lift it up nice and high and proud? Good, good. Good for you. Yes, young lady, I'll see you up there in the balcony. Good for you. Good. Yes, sir. Yes, young man. Good.
Good for you.
You guys can put your hands down. And if that was you and you prayed that prayer, you might even be watching online. I want you to know that there's a number appearing behind me on a screen. That number is for you.
Would you text me? Text the words I prayed to that number. What's gonna happen is I'm gonna send you back the link to some things that I prepared just for you. It'll help you understand what just happened inside of your heart and what to do next. It is the greatest honor of my life to help people meet Jesus.
I'm so proud of you. Good for you. How rich family, Go ahead and look up at me if you would, and let's stand to our feet as we finish our service up today. I'm going to ask our elders and their wives to step forward, and these guys are going to be available to pray for you should you need it. If you're walking through any sort of crisis, if you're in a difficult situation, if you have friends that you say, man, I wish somebody would pray for them, well, this is that moment. These guys will stay right here as the service ends to pray for any and all needs that you might have then. Also, I want to remind you what's happening across our church. Groups are launching, and we believe God has wonderful things for you as you move from sitting in pews and rows to sitting in a circle. This is a beautiful, beautiful next step for many of you. We want you to get involved in groups so group signups are open. Lots of groups are full. I'm sorry. You waited till it's too late. Late. I told you last week, it's on you.
But we want you to get into a group if at all possible. It's a. It's a beautiful and wonderful thing. Also, our Homeless Resource Day is coming up on Thursday. Longviewtexas.gov is where you should go to get more information about that then. For everyone else, I want to just pray for you and bless you as we finish up today.
So would you bow your heads, let me bless you. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for my friends. Would you bless them with an incredible week? Lord, I pray that you would watch over them, that you would protect them.
You send your angels around them, Lord, I pray that you would bless their homes, bless their marriages, Lord, bless their jobs, bless their children. Lord, I pray that you bless their finances. I pray that every part of them would be blessed, Lord, as they have honored you today to give you the first part of their week. Bless them, Lord. I pray in Jesus mighty name and all of us said together. Amen. God bless you as you go. Have a wonderful week.
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