Experiencing More of the Holy Spirit

Sermon Transcript

Lord, we give You praise and glory and honor for Your work. And Lord, we believe that every time Your Word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that You speak and so Lord, our invitation is speak, Lord, for we're ready to hear what You have to say. Lord, do a work in and through each one of us today, individually and corporately as a church, so that we would more reflect the glory of Jesus Christ. And for all You're going to do in advance, we give you praise. And now for all who are gathered, who desire to hear the Word of God, who will believe what God says, and who will, by faith, put into practice what God shows you, will you very loudly agree with me this morning by saying the word, "Amen." Amen.

Last week, as Pastor Cal was preaching and I was sitting down there, getting to listen to the message twice, I was really encouraged by his message on the Holy Spirit. The challenge was for me, as we were putting this series together, that's the one message I wanted to do more than any other message that we had. And so, as I kept praying this week, I said, you know what, I have to speak on the Holy Spirit. And the reason for that is I know there's people that when they hear a message on the Holy Spirit by a guest speaker - Pastor Cal did a great job, by the way - they walk away, and they say, "Yes, more of that, please. When are we going to get him back and be a guest preacher?"

And then there's other people that are like, "No, don't want that. I'm ready for Pastor Jeff to get back in the pulpit and preach the Word, man. We're about the Word here at BRAVE." And then there's hybrids of people somewhere in the middle that are saying, "I'm somewhat open to it, but I'm kind of confused about this and I'm not so sure as to what I should or shouldn't believe, and what does it really look like?" So I want to talk about experiencing more of the person of the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. There's no way that even in two weeks we can tell you everything there is to know about the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is more than a force. The Holy Spirit is a person.

Oftentimes, when I hear people at a conference talk about the Holy Spirit, they refer to the Holy Spirit almost like a force. They refer to the Holy Spirit as "it," oftentimes. "Holy Spirit, you're welcome here. Let it fill this place, let it fill us. Let it do its work among us." The Holy Spirit is not an "it." The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. And if you study the life of Jesus Christ, you will see that in the work of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit of Jesus's baptism came and descended upon Jesus and remained with him, every good thing you saw Jesus Christ do, whether it was healing people, whether it was restoring sight to the blind, whether it was raising people from the dead, that was the work of the Holy Spirit through the person of Jesus.

And everything we read about in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that we say Glory to God, that was the Holy Spirit doing a present ministry through Jesus. During Jesus's ministry, He said, "It is good for you that I'm going away. If I go away, I will send you another, the Holy Spirit, who will be with you forever. He will guide you into all truth." And so what Jesus did was after He ascended into heaven, days later, the Holy Spirit was sent and poured out upon His disciples. What we read about through the book of Acts is the same Holy Spirit doing the same miraculous works, but instead of doing them through Jesus, He did them through his followers. Friends, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Holy Spirit has not changed His ministry. The Holy Spirit still wants to accomplish everything we read about in God's Word today.

So the question is, when we say we want more of the Holy Spirit, what am I asking for? What does it look like? What can we do? Today's more of a systematic theology instead of just one text, because there's no way I could cover everything in just one message. But I want you to become aware that the Holy Spirit has a ministry in your life and there's things that He wants to do in and through each one of you individually, and us corporately, so that Jesus Christ still accomplishes His work on the planet. There are some traditions that don't take the Holy Spirit seriously enough, but we're not one of them. Because the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity and because of that, I want you to experience more of the Holy Spirit.

So today, we're going to talk about four things you can experience more of when we talk about what it looks like to experience more of the Holy Spirit. And the first is this. The Holy Spirit wants you to personally experience more of God's peace, because you are His child. The Holy Spirit wants you to experience more of God's peace, because you're His child. In John 14:26 and 27, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. He says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor let it be fearful."

One of the things that the Holy Spirit wants to bring is more peace. Who here could use a little more peace in their life? So don't be afraid. I'm giving you peace. The peace I'm giving you is not a peace like the world gives peace. The world's peace is a false promise of peace. The world falsely promises that if you get married, you can have peace. If you have kids, you can have peace. If you get the right job, you can have peace. If you have the right money, you can have peace. If you have the right hobbies, you can have peace. In this world, the only place you can experience peace is in a person, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves you so much that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ laid down His life on the cross.

He shed His blood and three days later, He rose from the dead, authenticating that He was indeed God's one and only Son. And by turning from your sins and by trusting in Jesus and in Jesus alone, you can have the Prince of Peace in your heart. God wants you to experience more peace. Some of you today would say, I could use a little more of that right now. That's one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit and what He wants to bring into your life.

In Romans 5, we read about this piece of what happens through the Gospel. In Romans 5:1, here's what we read. "Therefore, having been justified by faith that's made right with God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." So how do we have that? By becoming children of God. In John 1:12, he says this. John 1:12, "But as many as received Him," that's accepting Christ, "to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." Did you know God wants you to be His child? You are His child. Some of us as Christians don't like this imagery. We like to think of ourselves as grownups. But even for those of you who are older, who have grown children, they never stop being your children, do they?

God wants us to mature but we never stop being His kids. God loves us unconditionally. We don't have to figure it all out. God never releases us and says, "I'm not your father anymore. Go figure out the world." God is always our Father. God sees us as His children. And God wants us to have peace in the relationship that we have with the Father. So through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the good news that we have, we have been established in a relationship of peace with God. And here's the truth, however much peace you have with God, you can have more peace. You can experience more peace.

Jesus said this. He said, in this life, you will have trouble but take heart, I've overcome the world. In this life, you're going to have trouble. Did you hear what I said? That's authoritative from the Word of God. You're going to have some challenge. Peace means regardless of your circumstances, you can have peace in your heart. Peace is not the absence of turmoil. Peace is the inner joy of knowing that you belong to God. And I've watched people over and over and I've seen it in my life, when I'm rightly rooted with Christ, and the Holy Spirit is active in my life, I can experience peace regardless of what the circumstance is. And God wants you to experience that too. God wants you to have more peace in your life than what you currently have. That's who our Lord is.

Now, let's talk about the Holy Spirit a little bit. Like what takes place when the Holy Spirit comes into a person's life? Because there's a lot of confusion on this issue. So I just want to talk about some of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. Now, before we talk about the Holy Spirit, let me say one other thing about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's a good gift. Some people in churches get a little upset when you talk about the Holy Spirit, and they freak out like, "Oh, I can't believe we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit. That's weird." Let me tell you, for those of you who are triggered by people talking about the Holy Spirit, let me tell you what you're triggered by. You're not triggered by the Holy Spirit, you're not bothered by the Holy Spirit. Here's what you're bothered by. You're bothered by a spiritually immature person or an emotionally immature person that talked about who the Holy Spirit was in a way where you said, "I don't want to be anything like them." That's not who the Holy Spirit is.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. And He's a good gift. Jesus talking about earthly father said this in Luke 11. He says, now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, he will not give them a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he will not give them a scorpion, will he? In other words, when your kids ask for good gifts, you don't give them bad things. And here's what He says in Luke 11:13. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

The greatest gift that's ever been given to this world is God's one and only Son, Jesus Christ. The second greatest gift is the Holy Spirit for those who believe in Him. So I want to talk about some of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. This is not an exhaustive list, but you need to be aware of what takes place when a person's converted. These first four I'm going to talk about take place in the life of every single believer at the moment of their conversion. And the first is this, regeneration. Regeneration. That means to be made alive.

Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing by the Holy Spirit." Here's what the Bible says. We are all born dead in our transgressions and sins. Salvation is when the Holy Spirit makes you alive in Christ. The only way you can be born again is for the Spirit of God to regenerate your dead soul. That's it. So, some people would say, "Well, I've never seen the Holy Spirit raise people from the dead." Every time you see someone converted from death to life, you watch somebody go from being dead to being resurrected. It's a miracle, amen? That's the Holy Spirit's job. If you're born again, you've been regenerated by the Spirit. You've been made alive. You've been renewed. You've been created to be something different. That's His ministry. It's regeneration, happens to every single believer at the moment of conversion.

Number two is this, the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit. Sealing or being marked. It says, in Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, when you heard the fact that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who has given us a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory. It means you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. You are marked by the Holy Spirit. It means the Holy Spirit gave you ownership and identity. The Holy Spirit is a down payment guaranteeing your inheritance in the saints.

Put simply, you can't lose your salvation. Put simply, God holds you in His hands and no one can snatch you away. Put simply, you can't send your way out of this relationship. Put simply, God loves you and is preserving you and sealing you for the day of redemption, when He can present you faultless with great joy before the Father. That happens at the moment of salvation for every single person who turns from their sin and believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Is that awesome or what? Praise God for His Holy Spirit's work.

Third is this, the baptizing ministry of the Holy Spirit. The baptizing ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let me show you biblically what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. First Corinthians 12:13 says, "For by one Spirit, we were all baptized." How many Christians are baptized? All. All of us were baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. The baptizing ministry of the Holy Spirit is at the moment of conversion. God places you into the family of God. We all become brothers and sisters in Christ. The immersion or the baptism of the Spirit means you are once without a family, now you have a family.

God is our Father, and all of us are brothers and sisters in Christ. And everybody everywhere at any time that they've been regenerated by the Spirit and sealed by the Spirit have been baptized into the body of Christ. Which means if you live in India, or Israel, or Singapore, or America, or wherever it is that you are when you get saved, you are placed into the family of God, into the invisible Church, the global church. That's why God wants you, if you're saved, to be part of a local church, so that you can be and experience the visible manifestation of Jesus Christ on this earth, Amen. All these things happen at the moment of conversion.

Number four is this, the indwelling presence of the Spirit. The indwelling ministry of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live in you. Listen to what Romans 8:9 says. It says, "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." In other words, every single person that gets saved, the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells you. Whether you feel it or not. Some of you, when you were converted, were like me and very emotional.

When I got saved, I cried for two hours after I got saved. Some of you when you got saved, it just clicked, and you thought, "You know what, I'm apart from Christ and I'm going to hell and I need Jesus and I want him." And there was no emotion, but there was joy. Everybody who is saved has the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in their life. If you don't have the Holy Spirit in your life, you're not saved. That's what the Bible says. You say, well, how do I know I have the Holy Spirit in me? Because I've repented of my sins and trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That's how I know.

Now all these things happen simultaneously, and there's other things that happen too, but these are major ministries of the Holy Spirit and what He does in a life of a person that goes from death to life. But there's a fifth ministry, and we talked a little bit about it last week, and it's the ministry of the filling of the Spirit. This ministry, the filling of the Spirit, can happen at conversion, but it's also ongoing and ongoing and ongoing and can happen at different times throughout your life as a believer. Ephesians 5:18 says this, "And do not get drunk on wine, for that is dissipation or wastefulness or debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." Now, what does it mean to be drunk on wine?

We're in church, no, I don't know what you're talking about, pastor. All right. Being drunk on wine means you're being controlled by something other than you. It means you're being controlled by a substance other than you. When we see people who are drunk and they're talking, we say they're belligerent. They're not really speaking, it's the wine doing the talking, or some sort of alcohol in them that's doing the talk. And we tell them, don't operate machinery, don't drive a car. Why? Because you're not in full control of your capacity. Don't be controlled by wine. Don't be controlled by another substance, but what? Be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit means you want to be controlled by the Spirit. And by the way, the Holy Spirit won't control you. Because some of you, "I don't want Him controlling me. I'm in charge of my own life." Then he won't. The controlling of the Holy Spirit is for those that are yielded to Him where He can guide your steps and guide your path. And it's what you really want to experience the deepest freedom, joy and hope that you can possibly have in your life. And the filling of the Spirit is ongoing, both now and forever. There can be different fillings of the Spirit. And just so you know, we're not talking spatially like the filling of a balloon. We're talking about when the Holy Spirit's in control of every aspect of your life. That's what it looks like. And it's really interesting for me because I know a lot of Christians that are saved, but they're not experiencing peace. I know a lot of Christians that are saved and don't experience a lot of joy. And I know a lot of Christians that are saved and don't have any freedom in their life.

Second Corinthians 3:17 says, "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." There is freedom. It means this, if you want to experience peace, you can experience peace in this world. Some Christians believe the lie of the enemy and they say this, "I've struggled with this sin for years, ever since I've become a Christian. I guess that's just my lot in life. One day when I get to heaven, I know I'll never struggle with that anymore. Praise God." And you're partially right. When you get to Heaven, you will not struggle with sin anymore. But I'm here to tell you, on the authority of God's Word, you don't have to struggle with it now. That the Holy Spirit wants you to magnify the resurrected Christ.

Here's the number one ministry of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of your background, tradition, or how you read the Bible, the Holy Spirit's ministry is to magnify Jesus. That's all He wants to do. He wants to make Jesus look good. And guess what? Because He indwells you now, He wants you to make Jesus look good. That's His ministry in your life. And by the way, you can experience freedom, joy, hope, and peace in the Lord, not because of who you are and what you're doing, but because of the fact that the Holy Spirit wants you to experience the fullness of Jesus Christ. Isn't that good news today?

He wants you to be controlled by Him. He wants to know that you are empowered by Him. He wants you to know that you can experience the fullness of Him. And I meet Christians that are excited about their salvation but are bored with their walk. They think to themselves, I know one day when I get to heaven, it's going to be good. But man, is it really hard to be a Christian here? Being a Christian can be hard. It can be challenging. But I can tell you this, you can also live that hard, challenging Christian life with a deep seat of peace and joy and freedom in your heart.

See, people make a lot of weird statements in church sometimes and when it comes to demonic activity in their lives, and they'll say things like this, a Christian can't be possessed by a demon, and I would agree. Because if you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, there's no room for a demon to come inside of you. I agree with that. But you can be oppressed by a demon. You can be totally oppressed. And they'll make statements like this. "Well, I'm a Christian, I can't be possessed by a demon. I can only be oppressed." I'm like, okay, that's still bad. Like, why do you want that? I mean, God wants you to live free, and God wants you to have hope, and God wants you to have joy. And God wants you to be able to put away your sin and experience the fullness of the person of Jesus Christ. And that's one of the ministries of the Spirit. That's why he's actively at work in this world.

Now, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit is active in this world, even among non-believers, right? He's convicting non-believers of sin. He's convicting them that Jesus is righteous and He's convicting them of future judgment. It's why even those of you who now are Christians will remember what it was like when you sinned before you became a Christian, you felt conviction in your heart. I mean, even as a little kid, a five-year-old whose parents say "Don't cross the street," and that kid goes scooting across the street, there's something that goes off in their heart like you just did what you shouldn't have done. Well, where did that come from? That's the Holy Spirit convicting them. Why is it that many unbelievers who are hardened atheist still believe in their heart? I hope I know what the answer for this, there's judgment coming. Why was it when I was an unbeliever, I always hope to have died on a good day?

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is outside of us until we become a believer. He's always actively at work in this world. But when we become a believer, His ministry starts working from the inside out. He regenerates us, He baptizes us into the family of God, right? He does work inside of us. He begins to seal us and indwell us and then He wants to fill us. You say, what's the filling look like? We'll talk about it here at the end, but the filling of the Spirit is basically when you tell the Holy Spirit you can have every part of my life. I want all of you.

I remember praying a bold prayer right after I finished playing football in college and it went something like this at a camp that I was at, where I was feeling prompted by the Lord to go into full-time ministry. And I remember I was on the 11th floor of a hotel in Indianapolis and I knelt down by the toilet and prayed because my roommate was giving me so much grief. I went into the bathroom because I knew he wouldn't follow me in there and I prayed this bold prayer. I said, "Lord, I will do anything you want with my life, except for full-time ministry. Amen." And that was my prayer. And it worked for about six months. But I was feeling worse and worse. And the better I did at work, the worse I felt.

I remember, it was a Monday and I went to the Methodist church I grew up in and nobody was there. And I sat right down here in the front row. And I was recalling things in my life of all that the Lord was showing me. And I remember being a little kid at a Lutheran grade school, at age five, watching these people come in from the mission field, eating iguana and showing overhead presentations about what it was like to live in New Guinea. And I remember even as a five-year-old thinking to myself, don't pray too hard or you'll end up in New Guinea. But in that moment, for whatever reason that God brought it to my mind, because I thought that was the worst thing anybody could ever do. I remember telling the Lord, I don't care what you want me to do, I am done fighting you.

Whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life, I'm completely yours. And if you want me to get on a plane today, and never say goodbye to my family, and fly to New Guinea for the rest of my life, I'm going. And in that moment, I felt a presence like I've never felt in my life that lingered for some time. And when that presence left, I thought to myself, I want that presence again. That was the filling of the Spirit. I gave my testimony before that happened to me. But when I gave my testimony after that happened to me, I saw greater results. Was that the last time God's ever come upon me and done that? No. Because he's with me forever.

We live in a dispensation when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, he's with you forever. In the Old Testament, that wasn't the case. You'll read through the Old Testament, you'll see the Spirit come upon people and leave people. It's why when David send with Bathsheba, he said in Psalm 51, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me." Because David knew in the Old Testament, he wasn't being invoked by the Spirit. And if he wasn't obedient, the Spirit was going to leave.

I've got good news for you. "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you," says the Lord. The Spirit comes and remains with you forever. Isn't that good news? We live in the greatest dispensation in the world. The Holy Spirit wants you to personally experience more of His peace because you're God's child. Secondly is this, the Holy Spirit wants you to personally experience more of God's presence. He wants you to experience more of His presence because you're Christ's ambassador. We talked about this verse a couple of weeks ago in Second Corinthians 5, and I just want to read you one of the verses, Second Corinthians 5:20. It says, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

Now let me ask you a question. Does God need us to save people? Can God save people without us? But what is His plan? God can save anybody without us. He doesn't need us, but He chooses to use us. He says, you're my ambassador to get my work done. Can God feed the poor without us? Yes. But what does He often choose to do? Use us and our resources and our time and our energy to do it. God is constantly wanting to use His people and He wants His presence to show up in and through you.

We don't just gather on Sunday morning because if we gather a lot of people then the Holy Spirit shows up. The Holy Spirit is resident inside every single believer. Sometimes, falsely, we quote Matthew 16 that says, "Where there are two or three gathered in my name, there I am." And that's really a verse on church discipline that God is agreeing with leadership in the church. The fact is, if you're a believer, wherever you go, there God is. You go to work tomorrow, guess who's going with you, the Lord. You go to school tomorrow, guess who's going with you, the Lord. You're in a marriage, guess who's going with you, the Lord. You go on a date, guess who's going with you, the Lord.

I mean everywhere you go, there God goes. Why? Because you're indwelled by the Spirit and you're His ambassador, which means this. Everything the Spirit wanted to do through Jesus, He now wants to do through you. He wants to make Jesus look good through you. He wants you to experience more of His presence, not just His peace, but His presence, so that you're not asking the question, "God, where are you? How come you're not around?" "I'm here. I'm in you. I want to come through you. I want to do more than you ever ask or could think."

It's interesting in Ephesians 2:10, it says this, "For we are His workmanship." Who's we? It's us. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them." So what's God's purpose? God saved you not just so He gets you to heaven, God saved you so He could do great things in and through you. Did you know that? And when we get to Ephesians 3:20, we love the quote, Ephesians 3:20. "Now to Him who is able to do far more than we ask or think, according to His glorious power, that is what at work within us."

Friends, don't believe the lie that you're just average. Don't believe the lie that God can't do anything through you. Don't believe the lie, "I don't know why I'm here." God placed you here, He came for you, He wants to save you, and if you're saved, He didn't want to just get you to heaven, he wants to use you for mighty works, which would blow you away if you only knew what He wanted to do through you. And that's not just a few people in the Body of Christ. That's everybody in the Body of Christ. Why do you think the enemy lies so much to tell you how awful and worthless you are? Or why does the enemy lie to you and get you upset? Like, how come they're not asking you to do that? And how come you're not? Because he doesn't want to see the presence of God unleashed in and through you. You want more of His presence? God wants to give you more of His presence.

It's interesting to me, one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, which I hear people botch all the time. In John 14:12. You say, well, it doesn't really mean that. I believe the Bible means what it means. This is Jesus talking. Just to refresh your memory, He's the Son of God. He's the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. He has all authority. Here's what He says to His disciples. John 14:12, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father." Did you hear what Jesus told 12 knuckleheads? He's like you've seen what I do. I've heard what Jesus did. He raised the dead, He healed the sick. He gave recovery of sight to the blind.

Jesus said this, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also." Wait a second. You mean God wants to do the same works through us that He did through Jesus? Yes. Well, how come I'm thinking you can't? Because the devil has been lying to you. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is no scripture in the Bible that says once the 12 apostles died off, the power of God and the presence of God are no longer available to God's people. Nor does it say that the Holy Spirit slowed down his work.

Jesus said, "You're doing greater things that these because I'm going to the Father." This verse, I've been thinking about for a long, long time. And I've been thinking about it because I think in organizations, how things get set up, and especially when it comes to the church, this is the one reason I never wanted to become a pastor, I love doing evangelism. It's because so often in church, what we have is a pyramid structure of leadership. You know how a pyramid structure of leadership works?

A pyramid structure of leadership looks something like that. And at the top, you put the senior pastor, maybe you have some elders. And then as the church grows in number, numerically, you add people, whether you add five or 5,000, you add a little more staff. And then you take care of a congregation. And the bigger the pyramid gets, the higher the senior pastor becomes and the elders, and the more authority they have to tell God's people what they need to do and whether they fit in or not at our church. I hate that. I didn't like it before I became a pastor, and I certainly don't like it now. I'm about the kingdom.

So when I studied through the New Testament, I don't see church looking like that. Now, certainly, Jesus appointed leadership in the church, certainly there's authority in the church, certainly there's people responsible and answering to God for how the church is being led, but the purpose of good leadership is to shepherd the church to get God's team on the kingdom field to do what God's people are called to do. Amen. So when I read through the New Testament, I see an inverted pyramid. I see this.

Jesus, after He rose from the dead, told his disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." How much authority is that? It means nobody else has any. All authority has been given to Him, therefore go. You make disciples of all nations, you baptize people, you teach them to obey everything, go do that. Jesus said this, if you want to be great, you'll be a servant. If you want to be greatest, you'll be slave of all. What did Jesus do? Who was in charge of everything? He put himself at the bottom of the pyramid and then what'd he do? He unleashed the church to go do stuff. It's why in the heart of every single believer, they're looking to be part of a church that says, "Just turn me loose to be who the Holy Spirit created me to be for Christ's sake." And at BRAVE Church, we're saying, "Go do it." Amen? That's the presence of the Lord.

The presence of the Lord is in your own sphere of influence with whoever God's called you to do. You live the fullness of Jesus Christ wherever He calls you to go live it. That's being the church. That's what it looks like to be part of the family of God, where we're equipping people to go out and do those things. We're the team. I play a role on that team. But what excites me most about this team, this BRAVE Church team is hearing stories about how God's using each and every one of you, and collectively us, to go out and reach people for the Kingdom.

In a couple of weeks and months to follow, you'll sit in a service and you'll ask this question, "How can we have all these empty seats?" And here will be my answer, how come you haven't been leading people to Christ? And how come you haven't been inviting them to grow in the fullness of Jesus? And how come you haven't been sending more people out? That's the question. Because God wants to reach our city with the Gospel. There are hundreds of thousands of people, if the world ended today, right in your neighborhoods that don't know Jesus. And who is He raised up? You all. And what does He do? He empowers you. And how does He do that? He gives you gifts.

You can write these verses down. I won't have time to get into them all this week. First Corinthians 12:4-11, First Corinthians 12:4-11. Romans 12:6-8. First Peter 4:10-11. You read about gifts like this - prophecy, service or helps, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, showing mercy, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. Now why does God give those gifts? Because He uses all of them in the body of Christ to bring people to Himself.

The Gospel is sufficient. We can teach the Gospel. We can tell people that Jesus Christ died for their sins and rose from the dead. And through repentance and faith, you can have life in His name. Teaching's a great gift. God uses that. You know sometimes God uses healing of another person to bring people to faith in Christ? You know sometimes God uses miracles? God uses whatever He wants to use. You say, well, what gifts does he use today? They're all in operation. They're all in operation. It's just that some of the supernatural, inexplicable gifts, we have a harder time with.

Teaching is a spiritual gift. Did you know that? I mean, I find it amazing that I can stand up here and open the Bible knowing who I am, how depraved I am, how much God has grown me, and He can use His Holy Spirit through the Word to change your life. That's a miracle to me, right? And yet we don't think of it that way. Well, that's teaching. We look at some of the supernatural gifts and then we start getting a little weird about them. Like, what about that tongues thing? We're not going to do tongues here, are we? You know what the Bible says about tongues? Do not forbid the speaking of tongues.

There's two different types of tongues I read about in the New Testament. One I read about in Acts 2, works languages, whereas the disciples are praising God, people are hearing it in their own language. They don't need an interpreter. It would be as if I was standing up here speaking flawless Mandarin, and there were Mandarin Chinese people here listening to me like, how does he know that? Well, that was the spirit, right? But then when I get to First Corinthians 14, I read about a prayer language, where Paul talks about how he prays in a tongue and his mind is unfruitful but his spirit is filled up. So what's he going to do? He's going to continue to pray in tongues, he's going to continue to pray with his mind.

What do we believe about tongues here? I believe all the gifts are in operation. I believe some of you have the ability to speak in tongues as a prayer language. I believe some of you don't. And by the way, every gift is given by the Spirit for the purpose of unity and for building the Body of Christ. They are not a sign of maturity. I know some people who get the gift of tongues right after they become a believer, it does not make you mature. I know some people have the gift of teaching, that does not make you mature. The Holy Spirit grows you and makes you mature. But it's okay to pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts.

Because when we pray for gifts, here's what we're praying for, "God, I want to see more unity in Your church. And I want to be able to help people that are in need. And, Lord, I want to be able to be used by You in the world to advance Your gospel, and that's what I want. So Lord, gift me as You see fit." Do I believe in healings for today? 100%. We had a healing time at first Tuesday. This last month, I got to pray over a couple of people. Both of them came up and told me how God had healed them. Now, I didn't heal them. God just used me as a conduit to pray for them.

Does that mean that every time Pastor Jeff prays for somebody, they get healed? No, I pray for people that have died. God gets to choose what He's going to do when He's going to do it. When I pray, I pray every week that people will get saved. I don't say, Lord, if it's Your will, save people. Lord, save people. But it's on God to do all the saving. When I pray for you to be healed, if I pray for my family, I pray that you get healed and then it's God's desire as to what He's going to choose to do, whether He's going to heal them on this side of heaven or not. That's God's job. But God gives all the gifts for the purpose of building unity in the body so that people see His presence on display in the world. Amen?

Do you want to see more presence of the Lord? I do. I want every gift that He possibly has for me anytime that I need it. Sometimes, it's in counseling and you're sitting there and you're like, "Lord, give me wisdom. I got to know what to say." Or "Lord, I wish I knew more about their background so I could help them." Or "Lord, I'm getting ready to speak. I hope You give me a word from on high to share with Your people so they really hear You." Prophecy. What is the gift that you need? Usually, it's the area that you lack. If somebody calls you to the hospital to pray over them, like, I never prayed over a sick but I don't know how to ... Then pray for the gift. "Lord, just help me today pray by faith that You would heal this person and I'm going to trust You with the result." It's that simple.

Friends, we're not going to get weird here. I promise you we're not. I was a Christian for about 20 years before I received the prayer language in my life. The day I received the prayer language, I was no more spiritual than I was 20 years earlier when I became a believer. But God's used that gift in my life. I love to use that gift when I worship. I use it here in church all the time. But have you ever heard me speak in the tongue? No, and you never will, unless God prompts me. Friends, I've been in churches my whole life. I've only seen tongues used well one time in an entire church setting, where somebody had a tongue and somebody interpreted it.

Usually, somebody's got a tongue and everybody's freaking out and like, "Oh, that's the weirdest thing I ever saw." Nobody's saying anything. But we want to shepherd those things. We don't want to shut them down. We want to grow in gifts. It means this, when I'm in a private prayer setting and somebody starts speaking in the tongue, I don't look at them and say, "Hey, is there an interpreter there? What are you saying?" I like the idea that they're praying to our Father in a way I don't understand. I like that. But in a public setting, the Bible gives us strong instructions. There's only three per service, and it's all interpreted so that every single person in the congregation understands exactly what just happened. That's what the Bible says.

Friends, we're not going to get weird. You don't need to worry about coming to BRAVE Church and like, "Oh, they're one of these Holy Roller churches now." No, we want the fullness of the Spirit in any way that He would have so we can experience more of His presence and we can experience more of His peace. Third, I'll give you this. The Holy Spirit wants you to experience personally more of His power because you're His witness. His power because you're His witness. Ever wonder what Jesus's last words were? I mean, I think of famous last words. John Wesley, the famous evangelist that died, on his last morning before he died, he was laying in his bed. People were asking if he's okay. He couldn't really speak. And at one point in the morning, he sat up in his bed and he said these words, "The greatest news of all is that God is with us." And he laid back down and died. How cool is that?

You know Jesus's last words were? He said that John baptized you with water, but many days from now you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And you know what the disciples start asking Him? Listen to this. So when they come together, they were asking Him saying, Lord, is that at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? They're just like us. "Hey, Lord, when's the end coming?" "Lord, what are the dates and the times? We got to know all the end time stuff." And what did Jesus say? It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father is fixed by His own authority. Those are already set. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you should be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth.

It means this. Gifts are given for us to advance the Kingdom of God. Gifts are not given to individuals so we show off our gifts. Nobody cares. I mean, think about if we were on a construction crew and we were building a new building, and somebody was out there first and they were there with jackhammers, like getting the concrete all broken up so it could be taken off, and then other people came with shovels to get all the concrete out, and then certain carpenters came in and started building the frame with hammer and nails. And then as the walls went up, certain people came in with a trowel to get all the drywall done just right. And came the painters and they painted it all. And then came in the trim work. You wouldn't see those guys standing around and be like, "I'm the jackhammer guy, ha-ha. Look at my jackhammer. It's awesome." You wouldn't see trowelers like "Man, wish you were a troweler like me. We're the best." You wouldn't see people with hammers bragging about their hammer. Nobody cares. It was about the building getting done.

In the same way, however God gifts you, it's not for you to walk around and show off, here's who I am and here's what I can do. It's about you using the gift that the Holy Spirit gave you to build the Body of Christ and advance the Kingdom of God on the planet, amen? And that's what He wants you to do. But He's gifting you to do that. So when people tell you, "Hey, thank you so much for your encouragement," or "Hey, how did you know that? That was great wisdom," or a great knowledge about me, or "Hey, thank you for praying over me, I'm healed," let me just tell you, you don't need to be false flatterers. You don't need to say this, "It wasn't me, it was the Lord." We all know that. What you can just say is "Thanks. I'm glad the Lord used me." That's humble, right?

I mean, isn't it crazy to think that God would want to empower us and gift us in a way that He could use us to reach the world for Himself? He doesn't need us. And yet He chose us. You were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. He picked you. And he picked you, and you and you and you and every single one of you to do great things for Him. So much so that when you do them, you will know it wasn't me, it was the Lord. But you'll also know you're participating in the advancement of His Kingdom. And what would happen at a church if a church really believed, hey, it's not about me, it's about the Lord. But I want Him to do whatever He wants to do in and through me for His glory because we want to see more people reached, more people set free, and more people turned loose on mission. Wow. Isn't that what you want? It's what the Lord wants.

And this is why it's so important. I mean, the Bible says in Second Corinthians 12:9, where we are weak, there he is strong. It's not about your strength of your gift, it's about the strength of your Savior that's giving you the gifts. It's about the power of the Holy Spirit that works through you. He chooses the foolish things of the world that confound the wise. If you'd have met me in college and met all my friends in college, you would have said, "That's the least likely pastor we would ever sit under." God knew, right? That's what He's doing. And it's important that we notice because everything has a spiritual route. I was thinking about this this week. I officiated a wedding this week. I was thinking about this passage as I was thinking about what God was doing and being His witnesses and having power. I want to let you know something. God showed me, in the history of BRAVE Church, we've never had a marriage problem. And we don't have any right now.

Some of you are looking at me like a cow at a new gate, like what are you talking about? We don't. You don't have marriage problems. Now there's spiritual problems that you have that are deep rooted that will show themselves in your marriage. We don't have any single problems, dating problems. But some of you singles have some deep rooted things in your singleness that's showing up in your dating relationships. We don't have any parenting problems. We don't have any problem with our kids. Some of you laughed. But we got some things inside of us that are showing up that cause problems in those things. See, everything has a spiritual root. That's why the Holy Spirit wants to root them out. Because in a marriage, when you have a husband who is willing to admit his sin and a wife who is willing to admit her sin, and they come together because they don't want that, they want what the Holy Spirit wants, you don't have a marriage problem.

When you have two singles that want to honor God in the relationship, you don't have a relationship problem. You don't have employee and employer problems when both people are filled with the Spirit. What does God want to do? He wants to fill you with the Spirit so that you can be the fullness of what Jesus Christ wants you to be in any given relationship anywhere. You can be eating at a restaurant, you can be standing in a checkout line, you can be at your neighbor's house, God wants the fullness of the Spirit to be on display in your life.

Let me give you this final one. Not only does God want you to experience His power and His presence and His peace, but He wants you to experience the fullness of His purity. He wants you to experience the fullness of His purity because you are His temple. You are His temple. Listen to this word in First Corinthians 6:19 and 20. First Corinthians 6:19 and 20. "Or do you not know, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body." Now we say things sometimes when it comes to church, like don't act like that at church. Don't talk like that at church. We tell our kids sometimes, don't say that at church, right?

Why at church? Everywhere you go, you're a temple for the Holy Spirit. He's in you. So, don't talk like that. Don't act like that. Why, because you're a temple for the Holy Spirit. Where does God reside today? In the Old Testament, He was in the tabernacle, and then in the temple. Where is He at now? Where do I see God? He's in every single believer on the planet. You say, well, I'm not experiencing Him to the full. Here's why. One of two reasons. Ephesians 4:30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." Some of you have grieved the Holy Spirit. See, the Bible gives us commands on how to live and what to do and says don't do these things. Don't do this. Don't act like that. And we say, I'm going to do it anyway.

Somebody ever done that, besides me? Where God shows you not to do something, you do it anyway, anybody ever done that before? That's called grieving the Spirit. When you grieve the Spirit, you miss the fullness of His power in your life. That's grieving the Spirit. Here's what quenching the Spirit is. Quenching the Spirit in First Thessalonians 5:19 is when God's saying this is who I am and this is what I'm doing. And you're like, I don't believe that. That's not God. That's quenching the Spirit. When you grieve or quench the Spirit, you can't experience the fullness of the Spirit. And God wants you to experience the fullness of the Spirit. That's why in Ephesians 5:18, it says, "Be filled with the Spirit," right? Because that's what God wants.

Now we say things like this in church. Sometimes we'll say, "Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit." I think words matter. I know what people mean when they say "Come, Holy Spirit." But it's hard to come up with words that are just right. Because when we say "Come, Holy Spirit," what we're not saying is, "You're not here. You're out in the hallway, in the lobby. Come, Holy Spirit, come in." We're not saying You're not around us because we know He is. He's inside of us. He's everywhere. Where can I flee from your presence? Here's what we're saying. I think a better word than "Come, Holy Spirit" is "More, Holy Spirit, more." More peace, more presence, more power, more purity.

I married my wife a number of years ago. And when we go on a date, I'm not like, "Hey, come, Kim, come. Come closer." But I am thinking, I want to get to know you better. I want to know you more. I want to have deeper intimacy with you. I want to know you better. I want to hear about you. And she wants to know me. I want more. I want more in this relationship. However far along you are in your relationship with Christ, I'm going to tell you something, there's more. You can experience Christ more. The Holy Spirit wants you to experience Christ more. But He doesn't want you to grieve Him and He doesn't want you to quench Him. So there's a lot of things that we can talk about, different prayers we can pray.

I remember when I was in college, I read a prayer from Campus Crusade for Christ on how to be filled with the Spirit. And I prayed it fervently for like days and nothing happened. And I was ready to call Bill Bright and some of the people at Campus Crusade, like your prayer is broken. I mean, I didn't experience any of it. But I realized that while the prayer was true, and the Word of God is true, and by the way, nothing changes this Word, right? This is the written Word which reveals the Living Word, which gives us the ability to speak the Word, but guess who wrote the Word, the Holy Spirit, who's better than just having the Word.

I mean I grew up in a day where you had to have a map to go places. Remember that? You're on a vacation, you got a map or a TripTik from AAA, you had to flip the pages. Now, they have GPS and you'll hear somebody talking to you. "Make a U-turn at the next intersection," and then you miss that. "Make a U-turn at the next intersection." And then you silence it, right? We have something better than GPS. We have the Spirit inside of us, not outside of us, talking. That's why you feel prompting sometimes. That's why you feel you should call your mom. You should call them and just tell them you're praying for me. Where did that come from? That's the Holy Spirit inside of you, prompting you to do something. You say, well, how can I experience more of that? I say be filled with the Spirit. It's ongoing. It's something we want to do.

So, let me give you four things that you can do to be filled with the Spirit. It's not a magic prayer, it's really a desire of your heart. Let me give you four. If you want to be filled with the Spirit, the first is this, there has to be a desire to want it. There almost needs to be a desperation for you to have it. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Do you want the Holy Spirit in His fullness in your life? Sometimes we'll say, "Yeah, if He wants to do that, go ahead. But I don't really want that. Because I don't know that I really want God being in control of my life." So there has to be a desire, a hunger, a thirst. Do you really want the Holy Spirit in His fullness?

Second is this, confess and forsake your sins. I say confess and forsake because sometimes I know, even in my own life, when it comes to sins the Lord is showing me, I'm like, "Okay, I'm wrong. I confess that. But I have no desire of changing that. I don't want to change that." Confess and forsake means this, "Lord, I know it's wrong. I don't want to sin anymore, but I don't even know how to fix me. But I renounce that, and I don't want it anymore in my life." So I'm desiring the Lord and I'm confessing my sin. First John 1:9 says, "If you confess your sin, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins, cleanse you from all unrighteousness." Proverbs 28:13 says, "He who confesses and forsakes his sin finds mercy." Confess and forsake sins. Now, this doesn't mean you just sit around, like do I have any sin, do I have any sin? I find that the Holy Spirit is really good at pointing that out if you have it. Lord, search me and try me. Is there anything in my life that's hindering you? Sometimes we don't want it.

Third is this. Once you desire and confess and forsake your sins, number three is this, surrender. You might like the word "yield" better. Surrender every area of your life to the Lord. Yield every area of your life to the Lord. It means this, some of us who know that we're saved say, "Lord, you can have every area of my life, but I get to choose where I live. But I get to choose who I marry. But I get to choose my job. But I get to choose how I spend my money. But I get to choose ..." We make up all these rules for the Lord. Are you really willing to tell Lord, "Lord, my life is Yours. Whatever You would have for me, whoever You would have for me, wherever You want me to go, whatever You want me to do, Lord, I'm yielded to You. You have my life, You take my life, let it be consecrated, Lord, today." Right? These are prerequisites for being filled with the Spirit. Because when we tell the Lord, "I'll do it all, but that," we hinder His work.

And then fourth is just by faith, just claim the fullness of the Spirit. By faith, I'm believing you're going to control my life. You may feel His presence in a unique way, you may not. It's okay. It's not about what you experience or feel. It's about the fact that the Holy Spirit wants to take you on a journey. Friends, I'm here to tell you, if you want more peace and power and presence and purity in your life, that's what you're going to pray. Lord, I desire that. Lord, I confess my sins and forsake them. Lord, I surrender every area of my life to You. I'm yielded. And by faith, I just want You to fill me. I want You to control my life. I want You to lead me where You want me to go.

And friends, here's the reality. He wants to do that with each and every one of you. He doesn't care about whether you're male or female. He doesn't care about your socio-economic background. He doesn't care about your history. He doesn't care about your past sins. He doesn't care about the color of your skin. He doesn't care. He just wants all of you. And when you're humbly before the Lord, saying "Holy Spirit, here's my life. You take it, You do whatever You want with me," that's when God begins to show up in a new measure in your life. And it's not like, okay, then I'm done.

Because I found at different times in my life when I've told the Lord, okay, You got it all now. I don't know what else I could possibly give You, and I was right. Only to find out six months later, there was a little more I was holding on to. Only to find out a couple years later, there's more I'm holding on to. And I'm still on this journey of trusting the Lord to take more and more of it. But I want to stay in a position where, Lord, to the best of my knowledge, You got it all now. I'm not holding on to this. Because things creep in where the enemy will tell us, no, you got to hold on to your kids right now. No, you got to hold on to your spouse right now. No, you got to hold on to your parents. You got to control, you got to control, you got to control. And wherever we feel that control, that's where we need to relinquish control and say, "Holy Spirit, You're in control. You got this. I want more of You. And I want less of me." And when you do that, that's where the filling continues and is ongoing and God will use each and every one of you.

BRAVE Church, I'm excited about what the Lord wants to do. I'm not looking to have weird things happen at BRAVE Church. I'm looking for an empowered group of people that attend BRAVE Church that are doing some pretty incredible things in our city, where people are saying, "I don't know who you are, and I don't know where you go to church, but I want exactly what you have." That's what I want to see. And all of us have a different sphere of influence to see God do those things, amen? Amen. We pray. Let's stand.

Father in heaven, we give You all the glory, honor and praise for who You are. And Lord, we just ask you in this moment to do a work in our lives. If you're here today and you never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, here's what you can say. Lord, I know that I'm dead apart from You, and I need You in my life. And I want to turn from my sin and I want to trust You alone as my Lord and Savior. Come into my life. And for those of you who are followers of Jesus Christ, who know that you're saved, who've experienced the ministry of the Holy Spirit making you alive, maybe today you pray like this. Lord, I desire more of You. I want the fullness of who You are. Lord, You pointed out this sin in my life, I confess that to You, I want to turn from it. I need Your help.

And Lord, I want to yield every area of my life to You. Fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit, Lord. Lord, do a work in all of us, that You would be pleased one day to see BRAVE Church being a church that You are able to work through in the fullness of who You are to bring unity to the Body of Christ, and advance Your Kingdom in this city, in this state, in this nation, and in this world for Your great name. We give You all the praise and honor, in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Can we give God some praise?