The Power We Lack: Understanding the Holy Spirit

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:05] Thank you everybody for being with me this morning. And I'm going to continue in the series that I started last weekend called Essential Foundations from Hebrews 6.
[00:00:18] And Hebrews 6 says, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
[00:00:29] That's what we talked about last week. Those are the first two. Of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
[00:00:38] and this we will do if god permits and so today i'm going to talk about baptisms you notice it says plural baptisms not just one plural there but the writer of hebrews here says you want to
[00:00:50] go on to perfection that just means maturity and he says but before you do that you have to lay these foundations these six foundations these are the essential foundations of the christian faith and he says and you can do that if god permits you can go on to perfection if god permits and
[00:01:07] said to you last week you know when you lay a foundation there has to be an inspector that comes and inspects that foundation to make sure that it's strong enough for something to be built on
[00:01:16] it and if it isn't they give you a red tag if it is they give you a green tag what this is talking about here is god wants us to mature he wants us to be everything he created us to be but we can't
[00:01:29] get there without these foundations and so if we will lay these foundations in our life god will allow us to go on to maturity so this message is called power connection and i want to talk about
[00:01:39] the baptism of the holy spirit and i know some of you here you've been baptized in the holy spirit for many years i've been baptized in the holy spirit for 50 years and so karen and i got
[00:01:49] baptized the holy spirit about 1975 something like that and so but it's always good to know this and just be reminded of the importance of the holy spirit for some of you you have not been baptized
[00:02:01] the holy spirit i'm praying that through this message you'll be able to experience that because it's an incredible blessing so this is acts chapter 1 it says and being assembled together with them jesus commanded them not to depart from jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the
[00:02:16] father which he said you have heard from me but john truly baptized with water but you should be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now therefore when he had when they had come
[00:02:27] together they asked him saying lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to israel he said to them it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the father has put in by his own
[00:02:37] authority but you shall receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in jerusalem and in all judea and to the end of the earth now this is 40 days after
[00:02:48] jesus was resurrected after jesus was resurrected he appeared to many many people and so at the end of 40 days he's about to ascend into heaven and he commands the saved disciples now the all the
[00:03:02] disciples remember he had been crucified buried and resurrected this is 40 days after the resurrection so the disciples are all saved but he's commanding the saved disciples don't leave jerusalem until you've been filled with power of the holy spirit and then you will be my witnesses
[00:03:20] you are not ready to do what i've called you to do until you've received the power of the holy spirit so let me talk about four important truths about the holy spirit in our lives number one the
[00:03:30] holy spirit is god now a great number of christians don't believe the holy spirit is a person they believe the holy spirit is just a kind of an impersonal power source the holy spirit is
[00:03:42] god genesis 1 2 says the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, face of the waters.
[00:03:54] The Holy Spirit is very God of very God, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son.
[00:04:00] And you see in Matthew chapter three, this scene where Jesus is being baptized and Jesus is being baptized and Jesus is in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove and the Father says,
[00:04:12] this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
[00:04:15] There you see the Father, Son, and the holy spirit all together right there so the holy spirit is god and he's a person and he speaks and he wants to relate to us as a person number two we're born again of the spirit at the
[00:04:28] moment of salvation okay and so this is john chapter 3 this is jesus jesus answered most assuredly i say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of god
[00:04:40] that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit of spirit do not marvel that i said to you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear
[00:04:49] the sound of it but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes so is everyone who's born of the spirit so you you'll hear some people say well i've got the holy spirit in my life i'm a
[00:05:00] believer that's true and so adam and eve sinned in the garden of eden and see when god created adam and he breathed life into his nostrils that wasn't just oxygen that was the spirit of god
[00:05:13] and when God told Adam and Eve in the day you eat of that fruit you'll die they lived I think Adam died like 930 years old they didn't die that day physically they died spiritually that day when we're when we're born of the flesh out of our mother's womb we're born
[00:05:31] with the dead spirit we have to be born again and so when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts and to be our Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit breathes the breath of life into us and now we're
[00:05:43] born again of the Spirit. And so every believer has the Holy Spirit, but it's not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Number three, truth about the Holy Spirit. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is a separate and subsequent experience to salvation. Now, it shouldn't be very long
[00:05:59] after salvation, but you'll see scriptures that I'll read here in just a minute that show you it's a very separate issue. Salvation is about Jesus. When you get saved, it's not about the spirit you can be saved and never hear of the holy spirit so i grew up in a church uh when i was
[00:06:15] growing we in my family we had to go to church until we were 13 years old now my parents never went to church i never saw my parents in church but we had to go to church until we were 13. i
[00:06:24] have two older brothers damien and lucifer i've told you about them before and so when they turned 13 they didn't go to church anymore and so when i turned 13 i thought well i'm not going to church
[00:06:34] anymore well listen the church i grew up in i never heard the name of jesus i never i did not know who jesus christ was then a friend of mine invited me to go to a summer camp with him he was
[00:06:46] in a different denomination and uh this young preacher gets up at summer camp and starts talking about jesus and i thought who in the world is that and finally i realized you know who he was i thought
[00:06:58] wow that's great i never heard the words holy spirit until i was 19 years old i had no idea other was holy spirit and it's a grievous thing that churches wouldn't mention jesus obviously or the holy spirit but it's a very common thing but baptism in the holy spirit is a separate
[00:07:17] experience salvation is about eternal life baptism the holy spirit is about an empowered life here it's about having the power jesus said you'll receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you so it's about power he wants to empower us to live here and so it's a very important thing
[00:07:36] Acts chapter 1, again, the saved disciples, 40 days after the resurrection, are commanded to wait until they're filled with power from on high, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The other thing, let me read a couple of scriptures here. Here's the New Testament pattern
[00:07:52] of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So these are the Sumerians. This is Acts chapter 8.
[00:07:58] When they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of jesus christ both men and women were baptized then simon himself also believed and when he was baptized he continued with philip and was amazed seeing miracles and signs which were done now when
[00:08:14] the apostles who were at jerusalem heard that samaria had received the word of god they sent peter and john to them who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the
[00:08:24] holy spirit for as yet he had fallen upon none of them they had only been baptized in the name of lord jesus then they laid hands on them and they received the holy spirit after they believed and
[00:08:35] they were baptized they had already been baptized now when it says they had only been baptized in the name of lord jesus this is very important because several times in the book of acts it says
[00:08:44] they were baptized they had they were baptized in the baptism of jesus or in the name of jesus in matthew 28 jesus said go into all the world make disciples of all the nations baptizing them
[00:08:54] in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit well when you're interpreting the bible there's a very important rule and that is the words of jesus are the most important words in
[00:09:04] the bible the words of jesus define all the other words in the bible and if there's any conflict jesus words settle the conflict okay so when it's saying here they had only been baptized in the
[00:09:15] name of jesus it's distinguishing that from the baptism of john it was not a bad it was not a a baptism of repentance before jesus was crucified and resurrected they believed in the gospel they
[00:09:26] were baptized in the name of the father son and holy spirit but they had not received the baptism of the holy spirit so they laid hands on them and they were baptized the holy spirit after they had
[00:09:36] been saved these are the ephesians here acts chapter 19. it happened while apollos was at corinth that paul having passed through the upper regions came to ephesus and finding some disciples he said to them did you receive the holy spirit when you believed now why in the world was he
[00:09:55] asking that question because they were preaching the gospel and not leading people in the baptism of the holy spirit and this is a common occurrence now and so he shows up and says now did did you
[00:10:05] receive the baptism holy spirit here's their answer we have not so much as heard whether there is a holy spirit and he said to them into what then were you baptized they said into john's
[00:10:17] baptism paul said john indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him that is on christ jesus when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus okay father son holy spirit but now this is
[00:10:32] the baptism after salvation and when paul had laid hands on them the holy spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied see when we get saved they just got saved and baptized
[00:10:45] now they had already believed but they're now being baptized and then he lays hands on them they're baptized in the holy spirit in leviticus chapter 23 the lord commanded seven feasts for israel and they're very important feasts because they show us the future in advance and so he said
[00:11:01] i want you to have the first three feasts is in the first month of their religious year it's in the spring of the year or their religious calendar and so it's the feast of passover
[00:11:11] where they sacrifice the passover lamb the feast of unleavened bread the day after that the feast of unleavened bread started the day after that was the feast of first fruits where they waved the first fruits before the priests wave the first fruits before the lord passover
[00:11:26] is the death of jesus unleavened bread is the burial of jesus and first fruits is the resurrection of jesus and so jesus fulfilled all three of the first feast through his death burial and resurrection 50 days later was the feast of pentecost where the holy spirit fell
[00:11:45] and they were baptized in the holy spirit and the church began 50 days later a completely separate feast 50 days later and that feast was fulfilled by the holy spirit the next three feasts that are
[00:11:57] going to happen in israel just celebrating those right now is trumpets atonement and tabernacles and those are yet to be fulfilled but we know they will be fulfilled because the first four were fulfilled and so what i'm saying is the pattern of the bible just simply tells us
[00:12:12] that there is a separate experience the baptism of holy spirit is a separate experience here's the fourth truth about the holy spirit in our lives it's impossible to fulfill god's will for our lives without the fullness of the holy spirit's power it simply can't be done jesus was baptized
[00:12:30] did you know he was baptized in the holy spirit so jesus was filled with holy spirit the the bible continually references the fact that jesus operated the power of the holy spirit and so when i was 19 i got saved a week before we got married and and i was very rebellious very wild
[00:12:48] and uh i got saved and i got truly saved i mean i got radically saved and i told uh you know i i was just a bad person growing up and i was a bad boyfriend for karen and before a week before
[00:13:04] we got married i did something horrible she told me she wouldn't marry me and and i was in my friend's bathroom hung over after a night of partying and this was a week before our wedding
[00:13:14] and i remember i walked into and i'd heard the gospel and you know and i'd heard the gospel but i'd never said yes and the reason i didn't say yes is i didn't want to change i knew if i said
[00:13:24] jesus you're the lord of my life i had to stop partying and doing all this kind of stuff i didn't want to do that so i walked in my friend's bathroom and uh and i looked in the mirror
[00:13:34] and i said jesus i'll follow you for the rest of my life and i'll never turn back and let me tell you why i gave my life to jesus i gave my life to jesus because sin is a lie
[00:13:45] i sinned and sinned and sinned and sinned believing that it would make me happy and would fulfill me but what i found out is i became more and more empty and i was popular and i mean i woke i woke up in the morning to sin and i wasn't an amateur i turned pro
[00:14:04] i was a professional sinner and i would go to bed after partying and being with all my friends and doing all these things and i felt empty and lonely and i had a bible by my bed growing up it
[00:14:17] was called good news for modern man and someone had given it to me and i'm embarrassed by this but i only read it when i was drunk and so i would come in drunk and i would pick up this good news
[00:14:30] for modern man and just basically read it till i passed out and i would read this good news for modern man and i always had the same thought before i passed out you know jesus is really nice
[00:14:40] jesus is just a nice person then i pass out and so i gave my life to jesus and i told karen actually karen told me she would marry me after that but she saw the change in me over the next
[00:14:53] several days and so we went ahead and got married and um started going to church we bought a bible someone told me i started reading need to read the bible i tried to read the bible it was just
[00:15:04] an impossible i mean just impossible book to read for me and i but i was committed and i'd wake up in the morning and read it just because i thought i needed to but it was just a dead book to me uh
[00:15:15] someone told me i needed to pray and i'd pray for two or three minutes and i'd just run out of things to say you know i just i don't even know what i'm saying here so it was just dead and so
[00:15:24] i had never heard the words holy spirit and so i was watching tv one day and pat robertson was on tv and um he said holy he talked about the holy spirit i felt trapped as a believer i felt trapped
[00:15:38] i didn't want to go back into sin because i didn't i knew what sin was but i just thought i've got to live this way the rest of my life i just feel powerless to live for god i just feel
[00:15:51] powerless you know i wake up every day wanting to do the right things and i don't do them i don't want to do the wrong things and i do them i just feel powerful i just felt trapped and so pat
[00:16:00] robertson started talking about the baptism of holy spirit in speaking in tongues and things like that and I was fascinated by it and so I picked up my Bible and I found out you know where he was reading and I started reading it when I went to church that
[00:16:13] Sunday and I made the mistake Karen and I were in a couple Sunday school class and they had a time for questions the teacher would teach for a while and there's a time for questions and they said anybody have any questions that
[00:16:26] this was a denominational church which and I said could you tell me about speaking in tongues and the baptism of Holy Spirit well it was the most awkward moment of my life and so I just they didn't answer it he turned purple they
[00:16:43] got and just turned away from me and everybody in the class was like real I thought did I I thought did I cuss because I haven't I hadn't stopped cussing for that long we left the class I turned Karen said that cuss she said
[00:16:58] no I said what did I say wrong well the girl walked up to me and and they became very close friends of ours and she said this church does not believe in them i said believe
[00:17:06] in what and i said i said because she said baptism holy spirit speaking and things i said well it's in the bible and she said no she said but my husband and i are spirit filled we speak in tongues
[00:17:16] so they started taking us to this camp down see the canyon called camp farthest out it was a method is a bunch of tongue-talking methodists and we went out well where we said we see the
[00:17:27] Holy Spirit. So one night they prayed for me and they prayed for Karen and me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so, um, we went home after that and Karen went to bed and I stayed
[00:17:40] in the living room and I just got down on my knees and I just said, Lord, I want everything you have.
[00:17:44] And I want the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Cause when, when they were praying for me, I didn't necessarily feel much, you know, but, but I went home and I just thought I want, i want to receive this so when when i said those words to jesus i said lord and everybody's
[00:17:58] experience is different by the way there are commonalities but you'll have your own experience it was when i prayed that prayer two things happened the first thing it was like someone someone was pouring hot oil over the top of my head like a big barrel it was just hot just all
[00:18:14] over me the second thing is i saw jesus this is the only time in my life i've seen jesus and i saw him on the cross and when i saw him i knew that my sins had put him there
[00:18:25] but the love in his eyes penetrated my soul and i have never experienced the love of god like i did in that moment i mean it was just this i couldn't believe how much he loved me and and i felt power
[00:18:41] so i went to bed that night and i spoke in tongues so it was it was uh i just felt like i needed to say something. And so I started talking. It was like caveman talk. It wasn't fluent. It became
[00:18:52] fluent the more I did it, but I began to speak in tongues. And so I went to bed, woke up the next morning. And when I woke up the next morning, I picked up my Bible to read it. I thought, well,
[00:19:05] I know these people. And I started reading. I thought, I understand that. You know, there's a big difference when the author of the book is sitting there with you. And all of a sudden, the Bible just became this open book to me. I didn't understand everything perfectly,
[00:19:22] but i'm saying it it was a living book to me which i loved to read prayer changed but here but what but what changed was power i felt like i had so i said i would wake up in the morning i'd want to
[00:19:34] not do this but i'd do it i want to want to do this but i wouldn't do it that all changed with the holy spirit i wasn't perfect by any means i was able to live for god i was excited to live
[00:19:47] for god i wanted to live my life for god and i no longer felt trapped god never intended for us to live our lives in this planet without the power of the holy spirit in our lives every day you wait
[00:20:00] you but you're not ready i know you're saved but you're not ready you wait until you've been filled with power from on high and so i'm saying i'd never heard the holy spirit and when i first
[00:20:11] heard the holy spirit you know went to church they didn't believe in it but we started we kept going until we both can also receive the baptism in the holy spirit so i want to talk to you about how to
[00:20:21] receive the baptism of the holy spirit just just practically how do you receive it and just i'm going to lead you through some steps here the first is purity you begin by repenting of known
[00:20:31] sins and we all have sins and so one of the most grievous sins for the lord that prevents the baptism of the holy spirit and the flow of the holy spirit in our lives is unforgiveness
[00:20:43] and bitterness when we have unforgiveness and bitterness it's just simply the holy spirit won't feel a bitter person and if we are already baptized in holy spirit then we become bitter it restricts his flow in our lives and so if there's a person or persons that's done you
[00:21:02] wrong let me tell you something i know about every single person listening to me right now somebody's done you wrong and in some cases you want you want them paid back back uh romans 10 hebrews 12 says vengeance is mine i will repay says lord did you know
[00:21:21] vengeance belongs to god and when we take vengeance we're stealing from god did you know that number two did you know i will repay as a promise if you'll forgive and let god handle it
[00:21:34] he's a master at paying people back he knows exactly how to do it but if you take matters in your own hands and you won't forgive you're forfeiting the fullness of god and so if you have
[00:21:47] known sin in your life you say lord i repent you don't have to be perfect and don't let the devil condemn you but just begin that way second is humility um i need you why would i receive the
[00:21:59] baptism of holy spirit because i've tried life without him and it doesn't work and i need you holy spirit that's the prayer that god loves is when we come to him and say i need you i talked
[00:22:10] to you last week about being sheep or sheep or weak we need the holy spirit so i need you the number three is faith in god's grace this is a very important scripture text this is galatians
[00:22:20] 3. the church at galatia had started out under grace and faith and now they were going back into legalism and the law and paul is trying to correct them from this galatians 3 he's going to ask a
[00:22:33] question here therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you does he do it by the works of the law or hearing of faith and paul is asking this question do you do you think
[00:22:47] you people deserve miracles in the holy spirit do you think somehow through the law you have earned the right for the holy spirit to be among you is he doing what he's doing among you because of your
[00:23:01] righteous acts in your performance or is it simply that you just put faith in him in faith in his grace just as abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness therefore no only those who are of faith are the sons of abraham and the scripture foreseeing that
[00:23:16] god would justify the gentiles by faith preached the gospel to abraham beforehand saying in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed so then those who are of faith are blessed with believing abraham for as many of the works of the law are under curse for it is written cursed is
[00:23:33] everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them in other words if you're going to live based on the law you have to do the whole law and you can't do
[00:23:41] it okay but that no one is justified by the law and the sight of god is evident for the just shall live by faith yet the law is not a faith but the man who does them shall live by them christ
[00:23:54] redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of abraham might come on the gentiles in christ
[00:24:04] jesus listen that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith okay what am i saying you receive the holy spirit exactly the way you receive jesus is a free gift of grace we
[00:24:17] absolutely don't deserve him and here's the dilemma the dilemma is we're messed up we're just all meant we're weak and we're messed up we all are we're in the same situation and here's what the devil does he's a master he comes to us to condemn us because we're messed up and here's
[00:24:33] what he says to us you need to get straightened up and then god will accept you hebrews 4 says come boldly before the throne of grace and you'll obtain mercy and help in your time of need come
[00:24:48] boldly before the throne of what merit grace you know grace means it means we don't deserve it it means we're a mess and the devil said the devil condemns us for all of our mistakes
[00:25:01] and then he says you know something god god would do this for other people but he won't do it for you because all the bad stuff you've done okay well he's a liar did you know that we cannot get
[00:25:12] our act together until we get to god and because we're messed up the only way we can get to god is to put faith in his grace faith in his good nature he wants to give us this gift jesus said
[00:25:27] if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask all we have to do is believe by faith we don't have to we
[00:25:37] don't have to perform to make this happen okay so we put faith in god's grace here's another step in receiving the holy spirit ask jesus to baptize you in the holy spirit and we're going to pray
[00:25:48] this prayer here in just a minute and john 1 john bore witness saying i saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and he remained on jesus i did not know him but he sent me to baptize with
[00:26:00] water and said to me on upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit and i have seen and testified that this is the son of god
[00:26:12] and so we pray and say jesus i want to be baptized in the holy spirit i want everything you have and i want your holy spirit the next step be sensitive to the presence of the holy spirit and to his
[00:26:25] promptings to speak in tongues according to the bible the initial evidence of being baptized in the holy spirit is speaking in tongues now there's many other manifestations but that's the initial one this is acts 10. while peter was still speaking these words the holy spirit fell upon
[00:26:40] all those who heard the word and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished and as many as came with peter because the gift of the holy spirit had been poured out on the gentiles
[00:26:51] also for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify god then peter answered can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the holy spirit just as we have and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of lord jesus then they asked him to stay a few
[00:27:05] days now this is the reverse they received the baptism of holy spirit first and water baptized second but both baptisms are very very important so let me answer some questions okay so here's here's a question do i have to speak in tongues to be water back to be holy spirit baptized well
[00:27:22] let me say i know a lot of people who are wonderful christians who don't speak in tongues or don't claim to speak in tongues i also know some of the weirdest people on earth that do
[00:27:32] speak in tongues and so i don't think you can say i'm a spirit-filled believer in right standing because i speak in tongues having said that i want to say speaking in tongues is an incredibly
[00:27:44] powerful gift that i believe god wants to give every believer okay and so paul said the apostle paul said in first corinthians 14 18 i thank my god i speak in tongues more than you all
[00:27:56] now when we say speaking in tongues there's the miracle of languages that was done on the day of pentecost where all these people heard everybody talking in their own language that's called the miracle of languages okay that's one kind of speaking in tongues the other kind of speaking
[00:28:08] in tongues is first corinthians 12 and 14 where it talks about there's a tongue with an interpretation like you would be in a church meeting and someone would have a tongue in his interpretation.
[00:28:18] But the main type of speaking in tongues is just a private prayer language.
[00:28:22] It's not something we do publicly.
[00:28:23] It's just something we do privately.
[00:28:25] And I'll talk to you in just a minute about why the Lord wants to give us that gift and how powerful it is in our lives.
[00:28:32] Some people fear.
[00:28:34] My mother, her bedroom window looked out onto a church full of crazy people, church people.
[00:28:42] and they just they just did stuff that scared her to death and she was afraid of god and pray the holy spirit because of their behavior self-control is a fruit of the holy spirit and this is first corinthians 14 32 paul says the spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets
[00:29:01] for god is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the saints and so you're when you some people fear well if i give myself over to the holy spirit i'm just going to
[00:29:11] be dancing down the street or something and all this kind of crazy stuff, you will never be more in control than when you're under the control of the Holy Spirit. Self-control is you don't have
[00:29:23] to fear him. He's the best thing that will ever happen to you. And so you can't do crazy stuff and blame it on the Holy Spirit. That's what I'm trying to say. The other thing I would say is this,
[00:29:35] Proverbs 18 says, the power of life and death is in your tongue. James says, of all the members of our body this right here does more damage than anything else see a lot of people say lord i
[00:29:45] surrender my life to you good does that include your tongue is your tongue surrendered to jesus is your tongue spirit filled because when you're surrendering to god one of the things you're doing and when you're asking the holy spirit to baptize you one thing we're doing is we're surrendering
[00:30:06] our our mouths the power of life and death is right here this gets us into more trouble than anything else but it also has more potential in our lives to bless us and others than any other
[00:30:16] part of our lives and so we're surrendering our tongues to him why do i need to pray in tongues it's another question it's for two reasons mainly the first is it vastly expands our ability to
[00:30:31] pray here's romans 8. likewise the spirit also helps us in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings
[00:30:43] which cannot be uttered that's speaking in tongues the holy spirit helps us in our weakness okay well let me let me ask you a question a few questions here do you know everything that's going to happen
[00:30:52] to you today do you never know everything's going to happen to you this week do you know everything you're going to happen to you for the rest of your life do you know everything that's happening to
[00:31:02] every person you care about right now do you know those things of course you don't he does he knows everything when you're praying when you're letting the holy spirit pray through you what you're saying is my intellect knows certain things i need to be praying for if you only pray
[00:31:20] for what you know you should be praying for you're limiting your prayers to your intellect and i know you're a smart person but your intellect is very limited and so is mine when i'm saying holy spirit would you pray through me you know you're really going through a tough
[00:31:34] time you know you're just really grieved you're just you're going through a really tough time and here's what you can say holy spirit would you pray through me right now because i really need a professional praying this prayer and you're god you know everything you control everything
[00:31:50] would you pray the perfect prayer through me right now every time he prays it's the perfect prayer why do we pray in tongues because we need someone to help us in our weakness none of us knows how to pray as we ought we do know some things but we don't know everything
[00:32:10] and so first corinthians 14 2 he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to god for no one understands him however in the spirit he speaks mysteries you're speaking directly to god
[00:32:24] in a heavenly language first corinthians 14 14 if i pray in the tongue my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful what is the conclusion then i will pray with the spirit but also will pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit and I'll also sing with
[00:32:41] understanding. And so Paul says, you know, my spirit is praying, but my mind is unfruitful.
[00:32:49] What happens then? I'm going to, I'm going to do both. I'm going to pray and sing with my understanding and in the spirit. First Corinthians 14, 18. I thank my God, I speak in tongues more
[00:32:59] you all so the the first reason is because it greatly expands our ability to pray as we should okay the second reason is intimacy with god so you know i've prayed in tongues for 50 years
[00:33:14] and so i'm just telling you when i'm praying in a tongue i feel closer to god when i'm praying in a tongue it's like i'm making a spiritual connection on a deeper level he's always with
[00:33:26] me the lord is always with me but there's something that happens when i enter into the supernatural realm and i begin to pray in the spirit and so i'll riding in the car in the bathroom
[00:33:39] sit in my office something like that i just start praying in tongues and when i'm praying i know even though my mind isn't engaged my spirit is engaged and every single time i finish speaking
[00:33:51] in tongues i feel closer to god than when i started there's just a connection that happens there intimacy with god is a major major reason that we speak in tongues or pray in tongues another question here is the baptism of holy spirit a one-time experience or something i
[00:34:06] must do often but the baptism of holy spirit is one-time experience but ephesians chapter 5 tells us be constantly being filled with holy spirit why are we constantly being filled with the holy spirit because we leak because life is hard it's just like drinking water you know i i
[00:34:23] have to constantly be drinking drinking water why because i'm expending energy and it's hot i'm sweating and and i leak and so we're constantly being filled with the holy spirit okay but the baptism of holy spirit is a one-time experience okay one more question here do i have to feel
[00:34:40] something in order to be baptized in the holy spirit no i mean everyone has a different experience we do it by faith by the way we don't do it based on emotion we do it by faith we ask
[00:34:50] by faith we receive by faith and if we pray in tongues we pray in tongues by faith and then any other thing that we do after that we do by faith here's three things i think that you should feel
[00:35:01] one is love the second is peace and the third is power when you're receiving the baptism of holy spirit you should feel loved you should be at peace and you should feel a sense of power but
[00:35:14] you don't have to have you know some great uh emotional experience maybe like somebody else did in my case and i'm not mr emotion but in my case i did experience something that was supernatural
[00:35:27] and then karen had a different experience when she had received hers so let me review here real quick and then we're going to pray purity just if there's something when i say that if there's
[00:35:38] something there you just say lord forgive me and he will humility i can't do this without you i can't do life without you i need you holy spirit faith in god's grace we just don't deserve it
[00:35:53] even even if if we have asked god for forgiveness and repentant of sins we still don't forgive it we just for we don't we don't deserve it it is something that god does is a free gift to those
[00:36:06] people who ask ask jesus to baptize you in the holy spirit we're going to do that here in just a minute be sensitive the presence of the holy spirit his promptings to speak in tongues now
[00:36:14] Now we're going to, we're going to pray here in just a minute for those of you who want to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And it could be that, you know, you just kind of quietly start
[00:36:23] speaking in tongues right now, or it could be that you just go home and get alone and just say, Lord, I want this gift if you want me to have it and I'll receive it. Now the Lord's not going to
[00:36:31] make you speak in tongues. Okay. It's just kind of an unction. It's just kind of something that you feel is there and you have to begin to speak again by faith. Here's one more thing.
[00:36:42] if necessary ask a leader to pray for you if you notice several of those scriptures it says they laid hands on them and they received the holy spirit now you don't have to have hands laid on
[00:36:53] you to receive the holy spirit but one of the biblical patterns is i'm talking about laying on of hands in one of the future weeks of this series because it's one of the six foundations
[00:37:02] we have our leaders coming down here at the end of the service and uh if you feel like that you want a leader just to lay hands on you and just pray that you would receive the baptism holy
[00:37:12] spirit come down at the end of the service and let a leader pray with you okay so just bow your heads with me if you would lord we uh we just come to you this morning and we repent of anything in
[00:37:24] our lives that we know isn't right for the people that have hurt us and the people that we're mad at we make a decision to forgive them and to trust you with vengeance lord and we just don't want
[00:37:40] our hearts to be bitter and we're just committed to forgiving and keeping our hearts pure that way we need you Jesus we need you Holy Spirit we need you desperately to be able to live
[00:37:55] for Jesus and to overcome sin and to do the works of God and Lord we're not worthy we're just simply not worthy of you or any good thing you do in our lives and we just come to you right now Lord and pray
[00:38:11] Jesus as a gift of grace would you give us the Holy Spirit right now would you baptize us in the Holy Spirit would you just lift your hands would you just lift your hands up for if you feel comfortable would you just lift your hands
[00:38:24] forward right now just lift your hands up you say holy spirit come into my life i yield my mind to you i yield my body to you i yield my emotions to you i yield my spirit to you i yield my tongue to
[00:38:47] you i yield the giftings of my life to you jesus baptize us in the holy spirit and empower us to live our lives to accomplish your perfect will we pray for the gift of tongues we pray for the gift
[00:39:05] of healing we pray for the gift of prophecy we pray we pray for the gifts beginning with the gift of tongues but we pray for the gifts of the holy spirit to be energized in our lives that we
[00:39:17] can begin to operate on a supernatural level like we never have before according to your will thank you god for not leaving us alone and leaving us powerless thank you for this precious precious gift
[00:39:32] holy spirit thank you for being here and for loving us and being willing to come into our lives in jesus name amen amen amen yes we can praise god for that before we do communion

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:39:52] um i would love to lead us in a prayer of salvation if you've made it into the room um this morning and and you've never decided to make jesus the lord of your life we want to give
[00:40:01] you that opportunity here here's what the bible says it says for god so loved the world that he gave his only son so that we would not perish but have eternal life and so often we read that we're
[00:40:11] like well yeah it's the world but it's for god so loved you that he gave his son so that you would not perish but have eternal life and so if you're in the room this morning i want you to know that
[00:40:22] that God loves you and he sees you and he has a plan for you and he has great gifts for you as Pastor Jimmy was even sharing a little bit ago.
[00:40:30] And so if that's you in the room, I just want to lead us in a prayer.
[00:40:33] We can all pray this together and you can just pray it in your mind or quietly in your seat, but it just goes something like this.
[00:40:38] Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me.
[00:40:41] Thank you that you gave your life and you rose again, defeating death, hell, and a grave.
[00:40:46] I turn back from my old ways.
[00:40:48] I turn back from my sin.
[00:40:50] I repent and I turn towards you.
[00:40:52] would you be the savior and lord of my life and it's your name i pray amen amen if you are in the room and you made that decision i want to encourage you to pull out your smartphone and you can text
[00:41:04] the word decision to 88787 decision to 88787 all we want to do is we want to follow up with you we want to help you take some next steps get more plugged in here as a church and as pastor jimmy
[00:41:16] mentioned there will be prayer teams down here and so if you want to come down to get hands laid on you or if you just prayed that prayer for the first time we want to pray for you again down here
[00:41:25] up front um we're going to continue in our time together by taking communion the communion teams are making their way down to the front if you made it in to the room this morning without your
[00:41:35] communion elements just put your hand up in the air and they will get you that and we can start by pulling back that first layer that reveals the bread and when you get it if you'll hold it up with
[00:41:48] me. Jesus, we thank you for your body that was broken for us so that ours could be healed. We remember your sacrifice on the cross. Let's take and eat the bread. And you can flip that cup over
[00:42:05] revealing the juice. If you'll hold it up with me. What this juice represents is the blood of Jesus that was spilled that day on Calvary. And so Father, we thank you for your sacrifice. We thank
[00:42:20] you that it's your blood that makes us whole, that cleanses us. We thank you for your grace and your forgiveness and your mercy. I pray that you would wash us in your grace this morning. Let's take the
[00:42:30] cup. And when you get a free hand, if you don't mind just celebrating everything God's done this morning, it's been such a good morning at church with you. I have one announcement for you before
[00:42:44] I bless you. And it's this, that tomorrow night is women's night and it will be happening in this room. But I wanted to let you know that at six o'clock down in the coffee shop foyer, there's
[00:42:53] going to be a potato bar. There will be a meal for all of you ladies. So come early at six o'clock, enjoy a meal enjoy some community community and fellowship and then service will start at seven
[00:43:03] o'clock in this room i love to bless you so father thank you for who you are i pray that you would bless every single person in this room i pray that you would increase the favor wisdom and anointing
[00:43:13] on their life and it's in your name i pray amen amen amen prayer teams will be down front if you we need prayer.