Pastor Jeff emphasized the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life during his sermon. He encouraged the congregation to actively seek a deeper relationship with God through prayer, fasting, and by being filled with the Spirit. By understanding their identity in Christ, renouncing sin, yielding to the Holy Spirit, and spending time with Jesus, believers can experience true growth and manifest Christ's love to others. The message highlighted that this ongoing process of being filled with the Spirit leads to genuine worship, thankfulness, and a preference for serving others.
Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning. Will you help me welcome all of our brave campuses who have gathered to worship today? So great to worship with all of you. As a reminder, we're in the middle of our 21 days of prayer and fasting. This is day eight on Mondays through Fridays.
We meet on all of our campuses from 6:30 to 7:30. And it on Saturdays we meet from 8:00 to 9:00. You're invited to come be a part of it. It's been rich all week. I've enjoyed every single time we've gathered together.
Look forward to this week as well. And let's continue to journey with the Lord and fall more in love with him. And with that, let's go before the Lord and let's seek his face today. Father in heaven, we do thank you so much to be a praying church. To be a church that seeks you, listens for your voice and hears you.
Because Lord, we know when we're in relationship with you, everything changes. Lord, continue to bless this 21 days of prayer and fasting. As a church. May you be pleased with the way that we seek you and may be, may we fall more in love with Jesus as a result. Father, we thank you for your church.
We thank you for what you have established over 2000 years ago and what continues to prevail and what will always prevail, your bride. And so, Lord, today we ask, as we get ready to hear your living and active word, that you would have your way with us. Because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning, Lord, is speak, for we are ready to hear what you have to say. Say.
And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen? Amen. This morning I want to talk about the filling of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit. And out of all the messages I could preach about the Holy Spirit, this may be the one I'm most excited about.
Because for many Christians that come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they grow in an understanding of who he is and how he works. And as we go through this series of Jesus, like I didn't know all that, that's great, I love him even more. And then we talk about the Holy Spirit. And last week we talked about the advantage that we have with the Holy Spirit and what difference he makes in our lives and what he does when he comes into our life and some of the ministries that he does. However, the question then becomes, how do I keep journeying with Christ?
How do I keep growing with Christ? What does it look like for me as a believer? Because for so many believers, even believers that would say, I've come to Christ, but I've been a believer for a month or six months or two years, and I don't seem to be growing at all, what's going on with me. Oftentimes it's a misunderstanding of how to be filled with the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit can do in your life. Because one of the main ministries we talked about of the Holy Spirit is to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because you're his temple, what he wants to do is he wants to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ in you. And what does that look like? And how do you stop resisting him from doing that? And the question becomes, how do you partner with him in walking out your Christian faith? So if you've ever been in a situation where you know the truth of the Word, but the application of it doesn't seem to be coming, this is a message for you.
And it's an important message. Because if you listen to messages but you don't apply them over time, you'll say things like this, it's not working for me. Church is no good. I don't need to go to church. I just need to be the church.
And what you're really saying when you say that is it's not working in my life. And what you mean by it is not it, because we talked about it last week, is the Holy Spirit, who is a he and he is not activated in your life, is really what's going on. So if you want to know how to be filled with the Spirit, that's what today's message is all about. So I invite you to turn to ephesians. Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 18 to 21.
This is going to be our basis as a launching point for what we're going to talk about. We spoke on this a little bit last week, but today we're going to dig a little deeper into it so that you can understand how this works. Now, I'll tell you this in the framework of this, in the book of Ephesians, the first three chapters are really spelled out theologically of what God does in his saving work. And the next four chapters are really practical ministry of how to apply everything God does in salvation. And it's interesting.
Listen, listen, listen. If you're about to get married, you ever want to get married or you're married, it's really interesting that being filled with the Holy Spirit is right before all the teaching on marriage. So if you want. If you came here today and said, I don't want to hear about the Holy Spirit. I want to hear how to fix my marriage.
Hey, great news. This is a marriage tune up too. All right? So you can apply this in any area of your life. But I find it really interesting.
It's right before the teaching on marriage. Notice what he says starting in verse 18. He said, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation. But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. So this is where we'll start today by talking about the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
And we'll start by talking about this filling of the Holy Spirit. Like, what is the filling of the Holy spirit? Notice verse 18 when he says, and do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, we spoke on this a little bit last week, that being filled with the Spirit and he's talking about it, do not be drunk on wine, for that's dissipation. Your Bible may read, debilitation, debauchery.
It's really wastefulness, stupid decisions, not living the way that the Lord wants. That's what it means. And he's saying in the same way that if you consume too much wine, if you seen somebody that's drunk or you've ever been drunk before, you realize that it's no longer the person who's in control. It's the alcohol that's taken over. They're.
They're filled with something else. They're under the influence. It's the reason why when a car is swerving on the road late at night and going all over the place, they get pulled over by a police officer. They ask, are you under the influence? And then they do tests to see if you're under the influence.
And really, they're not asking, how you know. They ask, how much did you drink? And, you know, they had 13 drinks. But they'll say, I think I had a beer. You know, something like this, they're consumed by something, right?
And the question the Lord is asking is, are you consumed? Are you being controlled by the Spirit in this way? Are you filled with Him? Now, the Spirit is not spatial. He's God.
He's everywhere. So it's not like we're a balloon and he's filling us up. The question is, are we continuing to walk with Jesus in such a way that the Holy Spirit has His way with us, that we are being consumed by him, that we're being controlled by Him? And being filled with the Spirit means that we're controlled. Just a quick reminder from last week.
We talked about four ministries and they weren't an exhaustive list of what happens at your salvation, that the Spirit of God regenerates you. You were dead, he made you alive. We talked about how he baptized you into the family of God. You're baptized into Christ and into his universal church. We talked about how you're sealed or marked as a down payment for the day of redemption.
And then we talked about his indwelling presence, that it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And here's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. I've said it all the time from this pulpit. When Jesus comes into your life, he doesn't come in to be resident, he comes in to be what? Tell me president.
He comes to take over. He comes to say, I'm in charge. And being filled with the Spirit means I'm controlled by the Spirit. It means I'm letting Jesus have his way in all the aspects of my life. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
And just like there would be evidence for a person who's under the influence, the question becomes, is there evidence in your life that you're under the influence of the Holy Spirit? If there are people who know you, would you be under the influence? Now here's what I would say. Much like regeneration, baptism, sealing, indwelling, that's all a one time thing. Filling is an ongoing thing.
The Greek text would read, be being filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words, keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one time thing. Filling with the Holy Spirit is an ongoing process throughout the day, every single day. It means, am I going to allow the Holy Spirit to be in control of this situation in my life?
Now some people will tell you and teach you. Many Pentecostal churches will teach this way that there's a second baptism called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, where you speak in tongues. And all these things happen. I don't believe that. The Bible teaches that.
I believe that's a filling of the Holy Spirit. We'll talk about gifts in the coming weeks and that some of the gifts that come out can be those gifts. But filling is all the time. And there's different times in your life as a Christian where you may have a special moment with the Lord and you're like, that was so powerful. It was such a feeling.
I felt his presence so well. And you may have different things like that that happen, but the feeling of the Spirit is not a feeling. It's an ongoing work of letting the Spirit of God have control over every aspect of your life. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. So I'm going to be being filled with the Spirit so I can be a believer.
I can be regenerated, born again, sealed, indwelled, marked all those different things and not filled and not doing what the Holy Spirit wants me to do. And I'm genuinely saved. And so God didn't save you only so you could go to heaven. God saved you because you're his temple. We're going to talk about the gifts that he gives in the coming weeks so that you can live as the manifest presence of Christ in this world, in every single relationship that you have.
And in order to do that, you have to be filled or controlled with the Spirit. And when you have this Spirit, you need to understand he doesn't control you in a way that goes against your temperament or personality. You're in control, too. I pray that I'm being filled with the Spirit this morning as I'm preaching, but I'm still in control of my words. Just like we can't say, the Devil made me do it, when we sin, we can't say, well, the Holy Spirit just took over and he made me do it.
No, the Holy Spirit prompts us, guides us, leads us. But we still get to make choices. It's why in First Corinthians 14:32, it says, and the spirits of the prophets are still subject to the prophets. Right? So that's what he's talking about here.
And so being filled with the Holy Spirit's being under his influence, you still have all the choices that you need, but you can follow Him. And when you have the Spirit, Romans 8:16 comes alive, which says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit, that we are children of God. There are some people who are saved who ask the question all the time, am I saved? Am I really saved? Am I saved?
Did I do it right? Did I pray the prayer right? Tell me again. Walk me through the process. Some of them aren't saved, but some of them are saved.
And the reason they ask the question is. Cause they're not filled with the Spirit. They're not under the control of the Spirit. They're not yielding to the Spirit. And so because they're not, these things that have happened are not being manifest in their life.
And so they're not experiencing the power of God. Amen. And here's what the power of God looks like. Romans 14:17 says, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy. The Holy Ghost.
What I'm going to tell you are supernatural things this morning that happen. And when you're filled with the Spirit, you'll experience righteousness, you'll experience Christ's peace. And there will be joy in your life in the Holy Spirit. Amen. So I'm going to ask two questions this morning and hopefully those will be helpful to us.
The first question is, what is the result of being filled with the Spirit? And the second question is, then how can I be filled with the Spirit? Those are the two questions I want to ask and answer this morning. What is the result of being filled with the Spirit? I'll give you three answers right from this text and then we'll launch from there as to how I can be filled with the Spirit.
So what's the result of being filled with the Spirit? If I'm filled with the Spirit, what would be going on in my life? And the first is this. I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit when I possess an expression for worship. Notice what the text said this morning.
He said, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. That's what's going on in your life. When you love the Lord Jesus. There's. There's an expression of worship.
Whether it's psalms like the psalms in the Bible, whether it's reading written God given inerrant words that give us worship to God. Whether it's hymns that have been written by men out of the Bible, whether it's spiritual choruses that we're singing. We're making melody of the Lord in our heart. Here's what it means. When there's a filling of the Spirit in your life and his job is to magnify and manifest the resurrected Christ in your life, everything in your life will want to give glory to God.
Singing is a part of that, right? There's nowhere in the Bible where we see angels singing. Demons don't sing. Dogs and cats don't sing. God gave us the ability as humans to sing.
Some he gave greater measure than others. But he tells us, even if we don't have great measure, to make a joyful noise. There's something different about singing something than there is about saying something. I used to make up songs when I was dating my wife and leave her voice messages where I would sing to her. Hopefully she hasn't saved any of them.
Do you know what I'm saying? There's a different depth of communication when we sing. The reason that we have a praise team on a platform is so that we can engage, worship and give us an opportunity as a congregation to sing to the Lord. There's something in our heart when we're filled with the Holy Spirit that we want to sing. Or there's something powerful about being in a congregation where there's voices going up to the same God that I believe in, giving praise and worship to his name.
Amen. So there's an expression of worship, and we see this throughout the Scriptures. When David said in Psalm 122 and verse one, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. When you're filled with the Spirit, going to church is not a chore, it's a desire. Let me say it again.
When you're filled with the Spirit, going to church is not a chore. It's a desire like, I gotta be there. I gotta be there. Now I realize sometimes we're on vacation. My family takes vacations.
Oftentimes on vacation, we'll go to church. There's other signs we can't get to church. But if I've gone a week or two without going to church, I feel it. I don't like it. And even though my family's still praying, we're still doing devotions.
I miss it. And I remember when we didn't have church for a period of weeks during COVID And we came in and the first week back, we had 72 people. My wife and I sat in the front and wept. And I said, I'll never close the doors ever again. Never.
Because my heart, I craved being with people. I didn't care how many people were there. I wanted to be around God's people and worship his name. Amen. And there's a desire when you're filled with the Spirit to do that.
It's just like he says in Psalm 34. When David says, it's just bursting out of him. When he begins to speak to the people, and he says this, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord.
The humble will hear it and rejoice. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. When you're filled with the spirit, there's a desire like, let's go to church. Let's get in the presence of God.
Hey, let's worship together. Let's praise his name. Amen. Knowing God is in control. Therefore, I'm worshiping him and I'm experiencing his joy.
There's an expression for worship. Number two is this. When you're filled with the spirit, there's a posture of thankfulness. There's a posture of thankfulness. Notice what he says in verse 20 of Ephesians 5.
He says, Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to the Father. Now, we've read different passages here in church. I preached on in 1st Thessalonians 5, first part of verse 18. In everything, give thanks. In everything, give thanks.
This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Or Philippians 4. 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say it.
Rejoice. Why? Because God is the one unfolding all things. And when you know that, you know that you know. Hey, listen, if you're a believer, no matter what happens or at any other time in your life, your future for eternity is totally secure.
It's completely blessed. It's unbelievable. It's beyond anything that you could ever imagine. And if you could see what it is, that's the only thing that you would think about all day long. And all the troubles and worries of this world, you would set us up.
That's just a blip. That's just a miss. That's nothing. All those big anxious things that are hanging on your shoulders this morning, they wouldn't be a big deal if we really understood what was coming. And when you're filled with the spirit, there's this posture of thankfulness.
Even when circumstances in your life are not that thrilling, even when they're less than good, even when they're lower than mediocre. And it's awful and it's horrible, and these circumstances happen. A good friend of mine called me this week. His brother, who's his best friend, tragically fell off a roof, hit his head and died, leaving 10 kids, ages 5 to 22, knows the Lord. And I'm watching his testimony online as he's sharing with all his friends.
And he's weeping. He's like, I know my brother's in a great place. I love him. I know he's happy, but I miss him. But I'm rejoicing in the Lord.
And when he was doing that, it was filling my heart with joy because I was saying, there's a saint filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Amen. And that's what it means. I'm not rejoicing about my circumstances. This isn't what I would have chosen, but I'm rejoicing that the Lord's in the middle of all of them.
And when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, there's a posture of thankfulness for all things. And then finally there's this. There's a preference of others. There's a preference of others. We'll talk more about this later.
Notice what it says. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. We're called to preference each other. You know in Philippians, chapter two, verses three and four, right? As it's talking about the humility of Christ, it says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind.
Regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own interests, but, excuse me, but also for the interests of others. We prefer others. We preference others. It means in our life, it's not about what you can do for me.
It's not about that. You know my needs. It's not about how you can meet my needs. It's not man, they. They're not good in my life because they don't help me.
It's, I'm in your life, so how can I help you? I'm not at the restaurant saying it's your job to wait on me. I'm saying we've come into contact. Is there anything I can do for you? When you start looking that way, it's very different.
And you think about this as a married couple or one that wants to get married or is thinking about getting married in your oneness, think about this. If you view your marriage as an expression of worship, as a posture of thankfulness for one another, and preferencing one another in everything you do, that's a nice little marriage tip for you today. Because most of the time, when people get in trouble in their marriage, they don't see their oneness as an expression of worship to God. They think that they're there to change the Other person, and the other person is not meeting their needs. They don't have a posture of thankfulness in their heart where they're thanking God for their spouse, they're mad at their spouse, that bitterness towards their spouse, and then the preference of others.
Well, I'll do it for him when he does it for me, or I'll do it for her when she does. No, no, no. It's all about the other one, right? And before you get into marriage, you have to realize without the Holy Spirit, you can't have a Christ centered marriage. You can't do marriage the way God designed to do.
And God's the designer of marriage. So you can't have a marriage the way marriage was designed without Christ. Amen. And so it's really interesting to me that these three things are so simple. So if you have, if you're growing in your expression of worship and you're growing in a posture of thankfulness and you're growing in your preference of others, those are markers that God is at work in your life.
I've told you many times, I remember when I got born again, when God saved me when I was 18, there was initially this feeling in my life that everything changed. I saw people differently. I only hung out with the people I hung out with. And you know, I only hung out with guys on my football team and people that did certain things. I didn't like these groups and I had people I called these kind of people like.
And what happened as soon as I got saved is I started to see people as people that God loved. And I began to have a love for people outside my little niche. And I knew something had changed in me because I was seeing the world differently. I had a desire to love other people differently. And I knew that he was in me because of that.
Amen. And as we've talked about before, we're not done. When I was 18, I'm like, I didn't arrive. I'm 54 now. I still haven't arrived.
I'm still growing in my ability to preference others, right? As are you. Jesus was the model of that. Although being the very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptying himself and became the form of a slave, right? He modeled for us.
Even the Son of Man did not come to serve, but to or to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And so when we're filled with the Spirit, we're gonna look more like Jesus. That's what it means. So Those are the results of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Here becomes the question, how can I be filled with the Spirit?
What's it look like? Now, this is really, really important because I think sometimes when we talk about the person of the Holy Spirit, he's not a force. I talked about that last week. He's not a force, he's not an energy. He's not an it.
He's a he. He's the third person of the Trinity. He's God. And he indwells every single person who's believed in Christ. And if you do not have the spirit of Christ, you're not of Christ.
If you don't have the Holy Spirit in you, you're not a believer, right? And so here's the reason we need to talk about how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, because for many people, the way they think being filled with the Holy Spirit is going to some conference and acting nutty and crazy and having some ecstatic experience, and then they're baptized in the Spirit and then they're filled and then everything's good. That's not what it means. That's not what it means. We'll talk about some experiences over time that people can have that may look a little weird.
But as I said last week, when the Holy Spirit's job is to manifest the resurrected Christ, then you have to read your Word and you have to know the word to say, is this something that Jesus Christ would be excited about? So when I see people laughing all over the place, uncontrollable, and they can't even control themselves, or they're on the ground barking like dogs rolling around, and somebody's saying, the Spirit's moving. I'm like, there's a spirit moving, but it's not the Holy Spirit. I mean, that's the same Spirit that's at clubs after they close at 2 in the morning. Do you understand what I'm saying?
And so some of the reason why people are like, I'm kind of nervous to talk about this topic is because I don't want us to go down that road. We're not going down any road that the Bible doesn't take us down that manifests and magnifies the resurrected Christ. So you don't need to be scared to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but you need to know how so that you can experience the joy of the Lord in an ongoing way in your life. Amen. So then the question becomes, okay, how do I do this?
And some of the stuff I'm teaching today comes out of my own experience over years of walking with the Lord. And this is, I'm gonna give you four ways to do it. It may not be an exhaustive list, but if you can put these into practice, I promise you, you'll begin to see more and more of the Lord show up in your life. You'll begin to experience more joy and peace in your heart. And so the question becomes, I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit when I do this.
Number one, when I champion my identity in Christ. When you champion your identity in Christ, that's how you can begin to be filled with Christ. Let me give you a couple verses. You can write these down. These will be helpful to you.
But 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, new has come. So the Bible makes very clear at the moment that you trust Christ, something fundamentally different has taken place. You are not the same as what you once were. You were this and now you're that.
One of the reasons why some new believers and even seasoned people that have been walking with Christ for a long time don't realize it takes them a while to get moving is because they don't realize at the time that you're born again. You're totally different. You are dead. You're an enemy of God, You're a rebel. You're on your way to hell.
You're saved. Now, guess what? You're a friend. You're unconditionally loved. You're marked, you're sealed, you're regenerated.
You're redeemed. You belong to God. He can't love you anymore ever again. I mean, and your whole eternity set, you're totally different. Now here's the thing.
Physical changes don't necessarily happen when you're born again. I mean, wouldn't it be interesting if everybody that was unsaved looked dead? Just look old and haggard. They'd be like a 10 year old. They just look ugly.
And then they get saved and they look totally redeemed, like you got Jesus, didn't you? Right. We look the same on the outside, but that is the fundamental change that's happening on the inside. Right? So in Galatians 2:20, where Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.
The life I live in this body, I'm now living by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So Paul's saying I was Dead. Now I'm alive, but the life I'm living is not Paul. The life I'm living is Jesus in Paul, doing the work by faith. Amen.
And we see this all throughout the New Testament. The New Testament apostles are screaming this truth through the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, when he's talking, in Colossians chapter one, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Or in Colossians 3, where it says, for you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. Think about this.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he said, it's paid in full. It was done. He. He didn't kind of die. He didn't just get really sick and get laid in the.
He died dead, right? What the Bible says is that you have been crucified with Christ when you're born again. So this life that you lived up until the time that you came to know Jesus, you're a football player, you're a actor, you're a singer, you're a musician, you're an accountant. You're all you walk into, Christ that all just died. Now, here's what you are.
First and foremost, I'm a child of God, I'm a son of God, or I'm a daughter of the king who happens to have done these things. Now, some of those things God may continue. So maybe you played football before you got saved. You're still playing football, but before you got saved. I'm a football player now.
I'm a Christian who happens to play football as long as the Lord would like me to. You see the difference? I'm an accountant. No, I'm a Christian who happens to have skills in accounting for as long as the Lord would like to use him in that area. And what we forget is that our old self died.
And so many times what we try to do is we try to drag our fleshy past into our relationship with Christ in hopes that we can become what he wants. And he's like, that's dead. I'm not trying to redeem your deadness. I gave you an entire new life in my spirit so that you can walk with me. And Jesus gives us a whole new identity.
He's a whole new identity. What we used to be, we're totally not. As we read Last week in 1 Corinthians, we learned that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that you're a temple of the Holy Spirit? So when you are born again, now the Holy Spirit's making his home in you so that you can be his temple.
Meaning that everywhere you go, you're an influencer for the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And here's the deal. Here's the way I'd say it. I mean, the analogy is used often, is the caterpillar and butterfly illustration.
You've heard this, so I won't belabor the point. But you understand when a caterpillar goes into a chrysalis or cocoon and comes out, it comes out as something fundamentally different. It's a butterfly, right? But if the butterfly decided, I don't know, these wings are a little ostentatious, I don't know, flapping them is a little too much. It was easier to crawl on the ground.
I'll just go back and hang out with all my caterpillar friends. That butterfly would be absolutely miserable. And perhaps over time, that butterfly would be angry at the one that gave him the wings. Like, my life was so much easier before you gave me these wings. My friends don't even hang out with me anymore.
What's going on? And using that same analogy, that's how some of us are. We think we got born again just so we can go to heaven, but then we can continue to live our same life. No, God gave you those that new identity, much like the butterfly, got the wings so that you could begin to fly different ways. You can't soar with the caterpillars.
Another way of saying it, you know, as you've heard say, you can't live with the chickens and soar with the eagles. You know what I'm saying? You can't live among non Christians and expect to be your fullest potential for the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't. It doesn't mean you can't love them, but they can't be your circle of influence anymore.
And for many of us, when we came to know Christ, we didn't know this truth. I didn't know this truth. I still hung out with all my other friends, trying to do what God wanted. But you know what? Bad company corrupts good morals, so they'll win out every time.
And then you'll be miserable, wondering, why am I not growing? I love Jesus, but I'm living like this. And many of us have experienced that. Here's why. Because that died.
It's over. It's dead. You're a new creation. Start living alive. Amen.
And so then, how do we do that? How do we do that? It's interesting that Paul wrote to the Galatians and was telling them the same Thing. When he wrote to the Galatian Church in Galatians, chapter three, he was frustrated with them because Paul realized that the purpose of the law was to bring people to Christ. Not so that you come to Christ and continue to live by the law.
The purpose was that you'd live by the Spirit. And he said, you foolish Galatians in chapter three, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? The only thing I want to find out from you is did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? In other words, the law never dispensed the Spirit of God. It's faith that gives the Spirit.
And so he said this. Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Here's what happens sometimes in the church. I couldn't keep the law.
I couldn't keep the law. I mean, you know how every salvation story looks something like this. I was going along, I was thinking I was a pretty good person or I wasn't a good person. And then, bam. My whole life fell out of control.
And I was desperate and I found Jesus. But when you find Jesus, then there's this tendency that the devil wants to make you religious. And what he wants to do is, now you gotta do this, and now you gotta do that, and now you gotta do this, and now you gotta keep the law. Now you gotta have a Bible study at this time every day, and you gotta pray this way, and you gotta do this thing, all this to do list stuff. And we think that's righteousness, that's legalism.
The spirit of God wants you to manifest Christ in your life. And many times when we become believers, we kind of leave that old life. But then we're like, no, I grew up in the church. I know I'm supposed to go to church. I know I'm supposed to join a group.
We try going through the motions rather than pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't live free because we don't champion our new identity. Now, what's our new identity? I had the privilege the other day of talking with two. I'm gonna say this word very, very carefully.
Former alcoholics. Now, I'm not against aa. Know several people that have gone through that, been helpful to them and all that stuff. And that's great, but I wanna tell you this. AA will tell you I'm an alcoholic.
I'm an alcoholic. If you're a Christian, you're not an alcoholic. You're not that's what you were. If you're a Christian, you're not a bulimic. If you're a Christian, you're not an anorexic.
If you're a Christian, you're not an angry person. That's not who you are. Now, you may demonstrate that behavior, but that's not who you are. And if you go around calling yourself by the names that you're not, you'll live out those things. Because the most powerful message is the message that you preach to yourself.
So if I walk around and say, I'm an alcoholic, I'm an alcoholic, but I'm trying to be better, your body's gonna be like, we're alcoholic. And if I'm an alcoholic, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna act like an alcoholic. But if I'm a child of God who has been redeemed, who was dead, I was an alcoholic, but now I'm a child of God. But guess what?
My behavior hasn't caught up to my identity yet, then there's freedom in that. And I'm telling you the truth. When you begin to call yourself by the names that God calls you, you will change. When I was 24, I learned this truth. And instead of trying to become something, work harder, get better.
I just started telling the Lord, this is who you say I am. I want to be it, but I don't see it. When I look in the mirror, I see somebody different than what you're saying about me. But I'm going to call myself by what you call me now. We took these from one of Neil Anderson's book, Victory over the Darkness.
We created this at Brave. I think our care ministry has these if you want to pick one up. They're powerful. I've recited these over the years over and over and over again. Let me just pick a couple out.
You know, I'm a child of God. I'm Christ's friend. I'm part of the body of Christ. I am a saint, a holy person. I am part of Christ.
I share his life. I am free from the punishment that my sin deserves. Do you understand that when you sin, what the devil does is he lies to you and tells you you're lousy. Don't listen to Pastor Jeff. He might be talking to other people that aren't alcoholic.
You know you're an alcoholic. He may be talking to those other people, you know you're an adulterer. No, no, no. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you've been redeemed all of these things, everything in the Word that God says about Jesus, because the Holy Spirit, it lives in you, is true of you.
And when you begin to call yourself by your new identity, everything will begin to change. I lived in shame for a number of years as a Christian because I couldn't make this thing work. I didn't know how to get out of it. Like, I'm trying, it's just not working right. And for many of us, we have the same struggle.
I'm trying to get over my anger issue. I'm trying to make my marriage work. I'm trying to do better with my finances. I'm trying, I'm trying. I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying.
Hey, give up trying. It won't work. You know why? Because it hasn't worked for you yet. And God's giving you indication.
So if you walk around all the time saying, I'm a loser, I stink, I fail. I hate church, I'll never get this. This doesn't work for me. Other Christians do better. Guess what?
That won't be manifest in your life. But even when you sin and you sin boldly, and there's guilt for that, which there should be guilt, just not shame. Guilt is I did wrong. Shame is I am wrong. See the difference?
So when there's guilt, I still stand before the Lord. We're gonna talk about confessing sin here in a moment. But I'm not. I'm not identifying with it. Lord, just use the analogy.
I'm a butterfly, but I acted like a caterpillar. Forgive me, that's not my identity. But I started acting like that again. My behavior tried to be like that, but that's not who I am. I'm this.
Make me this. Does that make sense? And many Christians try to still live among the caterpillars. And then, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that.
All this kind of stuff. No, call out your identity. And I'm telling you, when you start, it'll feel really, really uncomfortable. When you sin and you're looking at yourself in the mirror and said, I'm a holy person. I'm righteous.
God's love for me is unconditional. It will feel awkward because it'll be like, that seems arrogant. No, it's not arrogant. It's humble. Because I'm believing what God actually says about me rather than believing the lie of the devil who tells me I'll never be when I already am.
Those things. Do you understand how you call your identity in Christ? Is Huge. And so many people in the body of Christ. The.
The major weapon the enemy has is to lie to you. And he's going to lie to you all the time and tell you that you're less than, you're no good. So that you live in shame, doubt, guilt, remorse, fear, all these other things. And you don't have to. If you choose that, that's your choice.
But you can also own the identity in Christ of I'm totally forgiven, but I don't want to live that way anymore. So champion your identity. That's why we got to be careful with our words and what we say to people in the church. You're his saints, you're holy. Christ died for you.
He loves you. The devil can't touch you. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. All those things are true of you because the Holy Spirit indwells you. Amen.
So champion your identity. Number two is this. We've started talking about it already. Renounce your sins. Renounce your sins.
Now, on this one, I would say it's more than just confession. We're going to talk about confessing our sins. But it's more than that. It's renouncing. I want to be done with this.
I don't want this anymore. Say, how do we know what my sin is? Well, the great news is the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, which means his nature is pure, which means he's perfect, which means there's nothing wrong with him. So if he's living in you and you pray a psalm like Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, it says, and you seriously mean it? Search me, O God, and know my heart.
See if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me into the way everlasting. In other words, God, if there's anything I'm not doing to glorify Christ, would you please show that to me? Here's what I find. The Holy Spirit is more than willing to answer that prayer, right? And he can do for you what no other person can do.
You can have friends and accountability partners and pastors tell you for seasons or even years, this is wrong. You should be doing it this way. This is wrong. You should be doing it this way. But if you're posturing yourself in humility and saying, lord, is there anything in me that doesn't manifest Christ?
Because I want to make sure that I glorify Jesus, if there is, in that moment, the Holy Spirit will tell you. He'll show you, and then you can confess that sin. Because the Bible says in First John, chapter one, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, that means we agree that it's sin. God will cleanse us from sin, forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He's forgiven everything at the cross, but we confess so that we can keep an ongoing relationship with him. That's the purpose of confession. So there is a place for it, but we got to agree with what it is. Proverbs 28, verse 13, Old Testament, verse, he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. You cannot live in sin and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, what I mean by that is you're going to sin every day. I don't believe in entire sanctification here on earth like some denominations do, which would say, I haven't sinned since 1985. I mean, come on, we sin every day. That's not what I'm saying. It means when those sins come up, if you're walking in sensitivity and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll be aware that that was sin.
He'll prompt your conscience, he'll say, that was wrong. And then what do I do in that moment? Confess it? Forsake it, Renounce it. I don't want to be that.
I want to be the fullness of who you want me to be. That's what it means. But it means we gotta get really, really, really authentic. It means we have to be authentic with what we're announcing and call it sin. You know, the A in brave stands for being authentic in community.
And sometimes what I find in church, not every church, and not all people in every church, but sometimes in church, it's one of the most inauthentic places in the world. People walk. How you doing? Fine. Great.
Awesome. I don't think so every single week that you walk in here. But that's what we say. And then. How are you?
Great. Okay, thanks. Bye. Authenticity requires calling things what they are. Perhaps when you're having prayer time, instead of praying this prayer like all of us have prayed at some point in time.
God, if you get me out of this, I promise you I'll never do this again. Lord, I don't want to commit this sin anymore. And while you're praying that you're thinking about how you're gonna sin that sin that day, Right? If you've ever struggled with a sin of the flesh, be it immorality or substance abuse or anger or greed or whatever. And you tell the Lord, I don't wanna do this anymore.
That's a good start. But if you're telling him that while you're wanting to do it, guess what you are? You're a liar. Does God listen to liars? Does God bless liars?
No. So you have to pray authentically. And this is where Christians get really uncomfortable. Now, here's what you need to know. God knows everything about everything you've already done.
And by the way, when he died on the cross, he already knew you were going to do it. He died for that. It's not a surprise to him. It's a surprise to you, but it's not to him. So how about this?
Why don't you tell God why you love doing that sin?
Instead of saying, God, I'll never drink again, say, God, I promise you that I want to drink even while I'm praying this prayer. God, I want to look at porn even while I'm praying that I don't want to look at porn anymore. And God, here's why. I love it. And I don't even know why I love it, but I know you hate it.
But I love it. Will you help me hate this the way that you hate it? Because I can't change me that's authentic. Not, Lord, I'm wrong because I looked at porn. Don't let me do it again.
That won't change you. Tell him why you want it gone. And then tell him why you can't do it without it. Tell him why you can't do this without him. Well, I think I can.
How's it worked so far? Jesus said in John 15:5, Apart from me, you can do nothing. You can't get over your sin by your hard works. You can't get over your sin by your effort. You can only get over your sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is truth. Jesus is truth. Thy word is truth. He can only handle truthful people speaking about the truth. So when you confess your sins, I'm not saying, oh, I struggle with looking at images, Lord, I'm looking at pornography.
And your Word says that when I look lustfully upon someone that's not my spouse, I'm an adulterer, so I'm committing spiritual adultery. That's what I've done. But I know that's not my identity. But I have a desire to live that way. Would you please change that Desire in my life.
I don't wanna live that way anymore. But I can't change me or God. Instead of promising you I don't wanna drink anymore, I'm telling you, even as I pray this prayer, I know my friends are going out tonight. I wanna go get drunk with them. I probably will go get drunk with them, but I know that's not my identity and not what I wanna do.
So would you please take away that desire? And would you help me hate alcohol and drunkenness the way that you hate it? And would you help me love you the way you want me to love you? Would you please take over? Cause I can't change me.
That's authentic. Anything shy of that is fake and it's lying. And that's why you don't see change in your life. So when you say, here's my question, when's the last time you really confessed your sins and renounced them? If you look back at your salvation encounter, it's been too long.
It should be an ongoing daily basis. Lord, cleanse me, refresh me, Lord, show me any area of my life that's not like you. And Lord, I want to be like you, but I know I can't without your help. So, Lord, would you help me become what you want me to be? And again, listen, say it from this pulpit all the time.
God doesn't want you to change instantaneously necessary. But he wants you to grow progressively, not perfectly. Increasingly not perfectly. And so what we intend to put on other people is you're more seasoned in the faith or this is a sin you haven't struggled with. And then you wonder why it's taken them so long to get there.
But you have sins in your life that they're ahead of in you, and they're wondering why it's taking you so long to get there. And so accountability is not bashing other people so we feel better about ourselves. Oh, yeah, I used to struggle with that brother. You ever been around that guy? I hate that guy.
I like being around the people that say, you know what? God's been redeeming me in that area. Let me tell you a story about how he's doing that. But I know today, apart from his grace, I would still be there. But let me tell you some other things in my life that he's doing because he's redeeming me of this, much like he's redeeming you of that.
And maybe we can partner together in this. Is that more Christ like I think it is? And I want to be around people like that. I want to be around people that want to grow. I want to be around people that exhort me to be my best.
But we got to be honest. And let me tell you another sin that has to be dealt with in the church. It's, I think, potentially one of the biggest hindrances to walking into fullness and being filled with the Spirit. You know what that is? It's unforgiveness.
It's unforgiveness. You cannot have unforgiveness in your life and be filled with the Spirit. Why? Because the whole tenet of the Christian faith was built on the fact Jesus died for the sins of the world. So the only reason you're in Christ is because he forgave all your sins, like all of them, which is far more egregious than any sin anybody's ever going to sin against you.
So you, as one who's had all your sins forgiven, can't hold a grudge against somebody that doesn't. And here's how you know you have unforgiveness in your heart. If you have a grudge, if you have bitterness, hurt, resentment, frustrated, every time you're around a person, that's called unforgiveness, you need to release them. We pray in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our sins as, or in the same way that we forgive each other's. So, Lord, here's what I want you to do.
I want you to forgive all my sins in the same way you watch me forgive everybody's sins around me. That's what I'm asking. How you doing? Because one of the reasons we don't experience the joy of the Holy Spirit in our lives is because we have unforgiveness. Well, she did that 20 years ago, and I can never.
If you're a Christian, of course you can forgive her, because Jesus forgave you. How can you not forgive somebody? You're releasing them to God. That's what forgiveness is. It doesn't mean you're giving an okay for what they did.
That's not forgiveness. Forgiveness is not giving a stamp of approval for what they did wrong. Forgiveness is saying, I'm tired of being hindered and held back from being the fullness of God. Because unforgiveness is like a bungee cord tied around your waist, and you're a new creation. You've died with Christ, and you're on this journey and it's so good.
And then all the time you're snapping back and you're Snapping back. And why? Cause you're unforgiven. Cut the cord. Untether yourself, Lord.
They're yours. I don't want to think about that ever again. I want to be the fullness of what you wanted me to be. Forgive them. And some of you are like, I want to pray about that.
No, just do it today. And I'm not even talking about calling them on the phone and saying, you know, I just want you to know something. I was in church today and I realized what a jerk you were. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about from your own heart, saying, you know what, Lord?
Right here in this moment and being authentic, I don't know that I have the power to forgive them. It's really hard. I don't want to, but I know it's an act of my will. And so, Lord, I want to forgive them. And to the measure, I can do that today.
Would you help me? And would you help me do that more and more? Because I really do want to be untethered from them, but it's really, really hard. Would you walk with me in this? He will.
I promise you he will. Because if you have unforgiveness, here's what you end up doing. You blame other people, and you become a victim. And you spend your whole life, instead of moving forward to the kingdom of God, you look backward at a hurt from your past. So instead of blaming others and being a victim, look at yourself and say, God, what do I need to do to get out of this?
And God can redeem me from that. Amen. And here's what you also need to know. Here's the beauty of bad things that have happened to you. And if you live long enough, there are bad things that have happened to you, I promise you.
And if you're young enough that there haven't been, keep breathing, right? But every bad thing that's happened to you is designed as part of your future ministry. It's all part of God's curriculum in your life, whether it's your own bad choices or whether it's somebody that hurt you. That's all part of what God's developed as your curriculum. If you can forgive and let go and let God redeem you.
I'm so strong on marriage because I didn't know how to date growing up. I didn't do it well at all. And even when I met my wife, she would tell you I didn't date her very well. And when we got married, I knew Ephesians 5. I thought I was a great leader, but I thought leading meant telling her everything she needed to do.
It took about a year and a half until I realized being a leader is a servant and preferencing her and doing that. When I started doing that, guess what? She thought I was a good leader. Right. I didn't know how.
And I always think when people are ready to get divorced, I'm like, if Kim and I are still married and love each other and have passion for each other, you can get it back too. Because it's been my experience. So I'm passionate about that. I'm passionate about identity because identity in Christ changed my life. I grew up in the church trying to be all these things, and after coming to Christ, I tried to be all these.
I can't do it. I still can't do it. I'm not good enough to do it. I'm not good enough to look at. Here's what a great pastor is.
I'm trying to become. I'm not trying to become anything other than what Christ wants me to be. And I'm free in that. And I want you to be free in that. You see what I'm saying?
And all the hurts and pains in your life because you've gone through them can be a huge blessing to other people. Amen. You don't need to be shamed if you were a former alcoholic, because I promise you here, there's people here. I had somebody tell me this week, I've come to brave drunk before, and I'm like, praise God. You're here because we have former alcoholics in our church who would love to meet with you and tell you how you can move beyond that.
Amen. We have former adulterers that were here. Quit calling yourself by the name that Satan calls you. You're a child of God. You're deeply loved.
You understand that? That's what he's trying to say. So renounce your sins. Amen.
I'm just telling you it's a big deal because I think for many people, I was one of them. I can't go into ministry because I've sinned too much. No. I can be the fullness of everything God wants me to be. You can be the fullness of everything God wants you to be.
Your sin does not hinder your future if you will confess it and forsake it. Amen. Doesn't. All right, let me give you a third one. This is where you yield to Christ.
It's where you yield to Christ. This is where you ask The Holy Spirit to take over for a day. Now, a yield sign is not a stop sign. Sometimes it requires that you stop, sometimes it's saying, hey, pay attention here. Make sure you're gauging the area and seeing what's going on.
My son's not in this service, but he'll be in the next one. Yield signs tell you to slow down a little bit. Okay? But when we're yielding to Christ, here's why we're yielding to Christ. In Romans, chapter 12.
In Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, it says, Therefore I urge you, brothers, I'm exhorting you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. Which is a play on words, because every sacrifice is dead. But you're a living sacrifice. But you've died with Christ. But now you're alive because of the power of the spirit acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
But he says this, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, I find that when I fast, like I've been doing for the last eight days, I'm more sensitive to the things of God. And I told you last week, I don't have a TV in my house, but I've watched some football games this week at my father in law's house, and it's been interesting to me. While I'm fasting, every single commercial is food.
And the commercials that aren't food are for drugs that you should take because of the bad food that you've eaten. Have you noticed that? I mean, I just become more and more aware of that as I'm watching. And it's interesting. If you watch everything that the world does and everything they're promoting, chances are it's a different course than what the Lord wants you to take.
So don't. The reason we pray and fast, the reason we spend time alone with the Lord, is so that we can hear what the Lord is saying and we're not following the things of the world. We're going on the pathway that the Lord has for us. We're going on the narrow road. It looks different, right?
And we're not being conformed by this world, but we're being transformed by renewing our mind with Christ so that we can be all that God wants us to be, and we yield to him. And yielding to Christ means if you have the spirit of God in your life and you're championing your identity and you're renouncing your sins, you're gonna experience the Holy Spirit in your life prompting you. I'm very careful about what I say here. We'll talk about this in the coming. I'm not saying he spoke to you and gave you an audible voice and gave you word.
I'm saying he prompts you. Should I get married? Should I not get married? You go ahead and get engaged. And the Holy Spirit begins to prompt.
That felt really good. The Holy Spirit begins to prompt. What are you doing? You know, it can happen with dating. It can happen with taking a job.
Like. Cause we sometimes, like, how do I know? And here's how we know. We have to take steps in a direction to figure it out. So sometimes we sit too long and we're like, I just don't know.
I don't know. Thirty years from now, I don't know what I'm supposed. Just take a step in a direction. The Holy Spirit will be like, mm, not that way. Okay, I go this way.
And you start listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your life. That's how you get where God wants you to go. Amen. So there's no blueprint or map, like, which job should I take? This job.
You pray about it. And then as you start taking steps, you will feel prompts of the Holy Spirit. And here's what I found in my life. Sometimes the Lord takes you a pathway. They're like, this didn't feel good at all.
But it was part of the Lord's curriculum. He needed to take you through that season, and it's not a waste. And everything he's teaching you there was for something in the future. I remember when I worked for an insurance company, and I'd look back at my life very early on, like, why did I ever do that? Why don't I just go into ministry?
Two years older, why did I spend two years selling insurance instead of just going into ministry? But when I came to plant the church in Denver, do you know where I had the greatest training ever for church planting? Being a salesman from Northwestern Mutual Life. They taught me how to call strangers on the phone, how to tell them my vision, what I could do. I spent my whole time doing that.
I'm like, that was better than any church training school I'd ever been to. And God knew. So nothing's wasted that you do. Even if you're in. A season like this feels like such a waste.
Why am I here? Why do I have to live here? I didn't want to be. There's something God's building in you for what's coming down the road. It's part of the curriculum.
Amen. And so, as you yield to Christ, he will show you those things. And sometimes we're so afraid to offend the Lord. Let me tell you something. He loves you with an unconditional love.
I have a friend that told me when His. His daughters are all grown now, but he told me when they were little girls, they had a rule. You can't cook in the kitchen. There's no way you can cook in the kitchen. Because they knew they were gonna make a mess and all this stuff.
Well, one day on his birthday, guess what? They made him breakfast in bed. Brought pancakes, eggs, sausage. He looked down, he went downstairs and saw the kitchen was a disaster. And he said, jeff, do you think they got in trouble?
I said, no. He said, why? I said, because they were trying to please their daddy's heart. And when you're trying to please your father's heart and you're stepping in that way and you're saying, lord, I want to yield to you, so if I'm not doing it right, would you please prompt me that I'm doing it wrong and you're stepping that way, that's very different than saying, I'm just going to go this way and if God wants to stop me, he'll stop me. That's not godly.
Godly is. I'm sensing this could be. And sometimes God gives you two choices that are good. I don't know which one. Pick one.
You start going that way, he'll show you. As you're listening to his voice, as you're reading his word, you'll be prompted in your spirit. Like, this doesn't feel good anymore. There's something going on here. I need to navigate this a little better.
Amen. This is where you love others. John 13:34, new commandment. I give you that love one another as I have loved you. That's yielding to Christ when you're preferencing one another.
And when you don't do that, here's what happens. We'll talk about grieving and quenching future. But I'll just mention it today. You know, Ephesians 4:30 says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, for whom you were sealed or marked for the day of redemption. We talked about the sealing ministry of The Holy Spirit, he put his mark on you.
When you don't live to the fullness of what the Holy Spirit wants you to be. You grieve him. Why? Because he has a personality. He has a mind, emotions and will.
And you hurt him. But it's not just that you hurt him. You hurt him because you're not being the fullness of what Christ put you on the earth to be. So if you're a Christian and you're living in sin, or if you're a Christian and you're not fulfilling your God given destiny, if you're a Christian and you're not feeling the freedom that you have in Christ, the Holy Spirit is saddened because that's not who you are and that's not what you were created for and that's not what Christ sent me in your life to accomplish. And I'm here to get us bigger things.
And so you can grieve the Holy Spirit of God. It's why when you're grieving the Holy Spirit of God, you'll hear Christians say this, people that truly believe in Christ, that are truly born again, they're just kind of. I'm just kind of tired of church. I just don't like to go. They get kind of soft.
It's because they've been grieving the Holy Spirit of God. And again, God is always prompting you for little things in your heart. He's always prompting you for what's next because he wants you to experience his joy. And the greatest joy you'll ever experience is, is walking in the fullness of what Christ designed you to do. And the Holy Spirit is guiding you to do that.
You'll notice in Jesus Christ's ministry, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. The Holy Spirit was on Jesus, with Jesus, through Jesus. The Holy Spirit did all of Jesus Christ's ministry. That's why blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was the only unforgivable sin. Which was what?
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was saying that the works of Christ were not of God. If you die in your sins saying I don't believe Jesus Christ is God, you will go to hell. That's a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit grieves the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit wants all non believers to repent and come to Christ.
He wants to do a work in them. The Holy Spirit wants to take every single believer that was designed and destined and gifted by Christ to be the full measure of what all those things are. And you'll Hear in the coming weeks just the different gifts God gives. And you have them in your life if you're a Christian, and if you're not using them to the full. It grieves the Holy Spirit, and that's why you're not experiencing the joy he wants.
So yield to Him. Yield to Him. And it's a lot like riding a bicycle. I couldn't teach a class on it. I couldn't teach with PowerPoint slides.
And those of you that were here in 2010, I probably couldn't teach you by experience either, because I fell off mine. But at the end of the day, you can't teach balance. You have to experience balance. I can't teach yielding to the Holy Spirit. You have to walk with God, and then you learn that as you go.
And sometimes you'll make good decisions and sometimes you won't. And that's how you're going to learn to navigate that. But here's what I'm telling you. Be free to seek Christ, but too many Christians that are afraid of, I gotta. If I make this decision, I might make a mistake.
My whole life's over. No, it's not. Not if you're seeking Christ. Not if you're seeking what God wants. Be freed up to seek Christ.
Amen. And then yield to the Spirit. If you really want to do that. He'll give you his wisdom. And then let me give you a final one, and we'll go over it somewhat quickly, which is ironic because it's the one you need to spend the most time with.
And the fourth area, I would tell you, in order to experience these three, in order to really champion your identity and renounce your sins and yield to Christ, you have to do this fourth one. You have to linger with Christ. You have to linger with him. You have to spend time with him. You can't just hear a sermon and be like, I got it.
You can't spend two to five minutes in prayer and say, I'm ready. You have to linger with him. I mean, ministry is all about relationships. Relationships that go deep are because you've spent the most time with those people. Relationships that you're supposed to have that are good, that are strained, it's because you haven't spent enough time with those people.
Right at the end of the day. Relationships take time. Relationships are inefficient. A walk with Jesus Christ is not efficient. You can't just set your clock and say, from 5 to 5:15, I'm going to pray.
Read my Bible from 5:15 to 5:30. And then I'm set. It doesn't work like that. There may be times that God takes you to your face at one in the afternoon or three in the morning that you need to get up and spend time with him, but you want to linger with him. Because again, it's not about time.
When I go on a date with my wife, I don't say, hey, let's go out on Thursday night. I'll give you 45 minutes from 6 to 6. 45. That wouldn't feel very loving. Because it's not about the relationship.
It's about time. When I say, let's go out, let's go out. Let's just see what happens. Let's go spend time together, let's talk, let's do these things. And when we have those times when we linger in each other's presence and she can hear me and I can hear her, and everything's shut down and we're growing, that's how we grow.
Same is true with Christ. If it's a relationship, you have to spend time with him. The reason why, as your pastor, I'm guiding us in 21 days of prayer and fasting is not so that you learn new spiritual disciplines. It's so you linger longer with Christ. And if you spend more time with Jesus, your life will begin to change.
Why? Because when you're spending time with Jesus, even the Holy Spirit comes into your life and cries out and prays and helps. And we'll talk about that as we go along too. I mean, the Holy Spirit's doing a ministry all the time to let Christ be manifest in your life. So linger with him.
I mean, we see this with Jesus. Mark 1:35. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went to solitary places where there he prayed. You see Jesus and his whole ministry tarrying off and going, master, everybody's looking for you. Well, good.
Well, I needed to spend time with my father. Where you been? Been praying all night. He was always trying to get away from the crowds to spend time with his dad. You would think that the night he knew he was gonna get crucified, he'd been rallying his disciples like, let's get ready for the.
No. He's like, would you guys come pray with me? I wanna spend time with my dad on the cross. He was praying to his dad. And you can tell when somebody spends time with the Lord.
Cause you can just tell they've been with the Lord. You know what I'm saying? In Acts 14, I'm sorry. In Acts 4, verse 13, scriptures say when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished. And they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Tells me a lot. You can be ordinary and unschooled and used mightily for the Lord. That good to know. It means you can just be you and be used mightily of the Lord. If you spend time and linger with Jesus, you know, it's interesting if you have young kids, you know, I have a son that's always trying to measure himself against me now.
I used to watch it with his mom and his sister and now he's like coming up to me all the time. Stand, dad, dad, let's look in the mirror again. I'm like, dude, it hasn't changed in the last hour, I promise you. But I look back at pictures and I see how he's growing. It's obvious he's getting taller.
And I tell him all the time, keep eating, keep doing what you're. You'll be taller than me. I know you will. It's no big deal. It's not a big deal to me, but I see it and he wants it and he wants to grow.
Or you think about losing weight, you know, if you haven't seen somebody for a period of time they lost weight, you know, it's pretty evident over time, man, they're losing weight. Or if you see somebody go on a vacation and they're lighter skinned, when they go away and they go to Florida or Hawaii or something, they come back and their skin's darker. Why? Because they spent time in the light and it changes who they are. What God is saying is if you linger with Jesus, his light will change who you are.
The more time you spend with him, the more you'll change. See, sometimes we think I'll just do my time with Jesus. So here's what I want to change and then I'll go work on the changes. No, the change comes from I'm lingering with Jesus. And the more I linger with Jesus, the more change he's going to make in my life.
And then you'll hear people say things like, hey, I really see Christ in you. I really see this in you. I really see that in you. And I remember as a young believer in Christ and nobody was saying anything about that because I didn't know how to champion my identity. I didn't know how to renounce my sin.
I didn't know how to preference the Lord. I didn't know how to do any of these things. But when I learned how to do them and started lingering with Christ, and then I would be talking to people about something, even my friends in my fraternity would be like, man, when you talk about Christ, it's just different than everybody else. When you give analogies, like, you understand a better name. But I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.
I was teaching at a camp one time, and I was like, one of the teachers for the whole week. I had like an hour, and people came up to me afterwards like, you're an excellent teacher. I'm like, I am not. I don't even know anything about the Bible. You know what I mean?
People will see it in you, but how do you get there? And especially those of you young guys that are saying, I want to be used of the Lord in ministry, I want to be used, linger with Jesus. Spend more time with Jesus. If you do, he'll change your life so really quickly. I know we've gone long, but that's okay because it's so important.
Filling the Spirit's one of the most important ministries that he does, and he's willing to do it all the time. You have everything. You have all of the Holy Spirit in your life. He's a person. He doesn't come in piecemeal.
If you invited me to dinner and I came to your house and your spouse was at the door answering, and you called out and said, is Pastor Jeff here? He's like, well, some of them's here, some of them's on the way, some still at home. It'd be weird. I'm a person. When the Holy Spirit comes in you, you have the whole person.
The question is, does that person have all of you? Right? And so as we're talking here today, here's how you know he does. When you have an expression of worship and a posture of thankfulness and a preference of others, and how do you be filled? Champion your identity.
Don't let the devil lie to you and tell you what you're not anymore. If you are really of Christ, tell him who you are. Renounce your sins, forsake them. Yield to Christ as he prompts. And you can do all that by lingering more and more with Jesus.
I promise, if you do, you're going to live a life that blesses God. You're going to live a life where you say, I'm blessed by God. It's joyful to be in the presence with other saints. I have a desire to see young believers Grow. I have a desire to see sinful people set free.
I have a desire to see the lost found. I have a desire to grow more in my faith. I have a incredible yearning to be with Jesus. Friends, I was thinking, I don't know when Jesus is coming back. I just know clearly from the scriptures, it's soon.
So he told us. I don't know when. Could it be 500 years? Yeah. Could it be next year or two?
Yeah. I don't know. But really in my soul, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't change how I want to live. I'm learning.
I'm yearning to see him. I can't wait for the day I get to see my beautiful Savior's face and hear him say to me, well done, good and faithful servant. Oh no, I didn't do anything. It was all you. That's the gospel.
Jesus calls all of us to turn from our sin and turn to him. If you're here today and you never trusted Christ, you can give your life to Christ. It's by believing that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth, the only life. He died and that he rose and that you have a desire to turn from your sin, be crucified with your old nature and become something new. And if you do, your life will never ever be the same.
Amen. Would you stand with me? Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the worship. We thank you for the prayers of your people.
Lord. We thank you for this message about the Holy Spirit. And we pray today, Lord, that you would do an incredible work. This would be the start of a new day. The way we're going to be more authentic with you.
The way we're going to trust you more so that we can keep on being filled by your spirit. Lord, have your way with us. We give you all the praise, all the glory and all the honor in Jesus name, Amen and amen. Can we bless God for his word?