Welcome to the podcast of the white Church in Adelaide, South
Australia We're. Going to we're going to jump
straight into the word. So we are, we're going to talk
about the Holy Spirit this morning.
And so in the in the past weeks we talked about, we talked about
who Jesus was. We've talked about the gospel.
We've talked about baptism in water last week.
This week we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk around some
of these things this morning. This is something that is under
a lot of debate. The I don't think the church
cannot, you know, there seems to be a lot of disunity in in what
we believe and what we how we interpret the Scripture and
stuff like that. This doesn't need to be
something that divides the church.
This is not, you know, one of the foundational truths to
become a Christian. Whether you believe that the,
the, in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, some sort of a, some
sort of an experience after salvation or whether you believe
that it's when you get saved, whatever.
What I'm saying is it's not enough for us to be separated by
these things and, and we, but we, we need to have a clear
understanding of what we believe and why.
And so we're not going to shy away from on, on teaching how we
interpret this, what we believe these things are saying in the
scripture. So that's what we're doing this
morning. We're not going to, we're not
going to hide. We're not going to just put it
aside because people can't agree and we don't want to defend
people or anything like that. We just have to trust the word
of God. We have to just take it as what
God says and get on with doing what he's called us to do.
And so whatever you believe in reading the Scripture, you can't
argue the fact that there is a Holy Spirit.
He does do a work in people and he does manifest himself in
certain ways in the Scripture. Can we agree on that?
Excellent. So we looked at baptism in water
and we talked about how baptism in water is full immersion, full
immersion in the water. You go down into the water.
And so when we talk about baptism in the whole with the
Holy Spirit, it's the it's the same sort of concept, the same
word. So it's to be immersed, fully,
fully immersed with the Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit.
The word baptize and the whole and Holy Spirit together are
only used in seven verses in the New Testament.
Only 7 times we see baptism and Holy Spirit used together.
If you compare that to water baptism that we read about last
week, we looked at last week over 50 times, depending on how
you count 57. So there's a whole lot more
about water baptism than there is about this baptism of the
Holy Spirit, which is interesting.
All four gospels mention the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Usually when something's in all four, it matters, right?
It does matter. It's important.
The writers of the, of the gospels all felt or you know,
they didn't feel it themselves, but the Lord made sure that they
were inspired to put the, the, that that phrase baptism of the
Holy with the Holy Spirit in all of the gospels.
So we're going to read Matthew 3.
The 1st 4 mentions of Holy Spirit baptism are all in the
four gospels and they're all talking.
John the Baptist is saying it like it's all mentioned by John
the Baptist. So this one mentioned in Matthew
3 is one of these times. So I'll read Matthew 3 verse 11.
It says I indeed, this is John. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than
I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
So that the first four mentions of this all say the same thing
in all four gospels. It's all John the Baptist
speaking and he's saying that that Jesus, it points forward to
Jesus. It says Jesus is going to do
this. OK, the fifth time that we see
baptized and Holy Spirit together in the Scripture is
Acts one verse 4. We are going to put it up on the
screen. If you've got a Bible there, I'd
encourage you to go there. Acts One verse 4, he says he
commanded them. So now we're talking Jesus, This
is Jesus commanding. He commanded them not to depart
from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which
he said, you have heard from me for John truly baptized with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days from now. So Jesus is relating directly to
what happens at Pentecost here. That's when this takes place so
that so the disciples, the the, the apostles wait exactly 50
days from the from the day that Jesus was raised from the dead.
This is the day of Pentecost. Pentecost actually just means
50th. So it's 50 days after, after
Jesus was raised from the dead and now baptized with the Holy
Spirit as Jesus promises. The sixth time in Scripture we
see baptized and Holy Spirit is in Acts 11 verse 15.
So this is when Peter is recounting taking the gospel to
the Gentiles for the first time. OK.
And Peter says here in Acts 11:15 as I began to speak, the
Holy Spirit fell upon them. This is upon the Gentiles as
upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of
the Lord when He said, so he's remembering what Jesus said.
John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with
the Holy Spirit. So this, this mention, the 6th
mention is pointing back to Pentecost.
So you have the 1st 4 which are pointing towards Jesus is going
to do this. You have the 5th mention, which
is Jesus saying it's going to happen then at Pentecost.
And then you have Peter looking back at what he's reminded of
what took place at Pentecost by the things that happened to the
Gentiles. The seventh time and the final
time that we see baptized in the Holy Spirit is in one
Corinthians 12 verse 13. So this is Paul writing now and
he says for by 1 Spirit we were all baptized into one body.
So we all, he's talking about believers now he's talking about
everyone that was saved, that has been saved and that will be
saved, will be baptized by the Spirit into one body.
That's everyone, that's all the Jews, all the Gentiles.
We are Gentiles, right? We're, is anyone a Jew in this
place? OK, so we're all Gentiles.
If we're not Jews, we're Gentiles, right?
So we're all Gentiles. So, so we are baptized as
believers by the Spirit into the body.
So again, just to, to wrap this up, baptism with this Spirit
promised by John the Baptist, given a specific time by Jesus
and fulfilled and then explained by Paul to be the promise of the
outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost to all believers and,
and every, every believer beyond that point, our salvation
experience. There's no other mention of the
term baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's significant to me because
you know, the the apostles in writing the New Testament, they
didn't, they never mentioned it again.
They never said, Hey, you got, you need to be baptized by the
Holy Spirit. Like Paul never said, you know,
when he was addressing problems in the church and he said, you
guys just need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit like so it's
just not mentioned again, which I find very interesting.
So I guess the question now is, if all believers receive the
Spirit at salvation, why don't we always see similar signs that
we read about in Pentecost? So we believe that, you know,
and can I, can I just clarify something as well?
This isn't just like what I believe.
You know, as leaders in this church here, we've actually come
together and dug in here and spoken about it and prayed about
it and tried to understand what we believe and why.
And so Justin and Bianca are away their elders.
Justin is the elder in the church here as well.
But these these things that we're speaking about here,
we've, we've come to believe that this is what the the
Scripture is, is speaking and what it's teaching us.
OK, so God is authenticating and clearly marking the passing of
the old covenant with the new covenant.
This is at Pentecost. And he's confirming that the new
covenant is not just for Jews, that it is for all people.
So let's take a closer look at Pentecost in this.
We read about this in Acts 2. I would love for us just to read
this whole whole Scripture, but I can't.
It's just too long for time's sake.
But go away and read and read it for yourselves.
Acts 2GO and read about what happens at Pentecost.
But I'll give you the highlights.
I'll give you the dot points. I don't like to do this, but
this is how we're going to do it.
So the believers were together. They heard a sound of a rushing
wind and it fills the house. Tongues of fire appeared upon
their heads and they were all filled with the Spirit and they
spoke in other tongues and crowds gathered and they heard
these words being spoken in their own language.
You know, their, their tongues were they, they heard these
people were not Jews. These people, it says that they
were from all different nations and all all around the world.
And they heard these guys speaking the things of God in
their own language. That's a huge sign, isn't it,
that hey, God speaking to us here through these guys, but
then they're not like from, you know, our nation, our place and
and many were amazed. There was great amazement.
There was much confusion. Some mocked, right.
Some said these these guys are all drunk and Peter addresses
all this again, go and read it. Acts 2.
So the Holy Spirit coming upon them is very visible.
You couldn't miss it. It's visible, it's audible, it's
supernatural, it's unmistakable. God poured out his Spirit there,
right? And can I say it needs to be?
It needed to be that way. This is a crucial time.
Some would say that that at Pentecost the church was
birthed. This is a crucial moment.
What was clear that the new covenant is now in place.
We have moved from the old God is doing something new.
The new covenant has been set in place and Peter stands up and
makes it clear what is happening from the Scripture.
So Peter full of the Spirit of God, he gets up and he tells
them what is happening. And what does he say?
He says, you know, this is where he says that some of you believe
that that these people are drunk.
They're not. This is the Spirit of God.
And he says, and it sure come to pass.
This was spoken by the prophet Joel.
It shall come to pass In these last days, says God, I will pour
out my spirit on all flesh. So Peter here tells them what is
happening, What's happening here?
This is the the promise of God in the last days, I will pour
out my spirit on all flesh. This is what you guys are seeing
here. This is the promise of the
Father that Jesus spoke about. And it never happens exactly
like this again. But we do see a pattern and
outward signs when the Holy Spirit is given after this point
in other Scriptures. So we're going to look at some
of these things. In Acts 8, we see the gospel
accepted by Samaria. Samaritans and Jews at that time
didn't get along. They weren't friends, right?
And so Jesus actually makes a point of going there and, you
know, preaching the gospel. So God's not against Samaritan,
some of the Samaritans, but there was a lot of tension
between the Jews and the Samaritans.
And so this is where we find ourselves in Acts 8, verse 14.
Now when the apostles were at Jerusalem, they heard that
Samaria had received the word of God.
They sent Peter and John to them, who when they had come
down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
For as yet he had fallen upon none of them.
They had only been baptized in the name of Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy
Spirit. And it says here that when Simon
saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy
Spirit was given, he offered them money.
So Simon's there and he sees Simon is his, His, I'm not going
to get dug down in that. There's this guy Simon there,
right? He sees the apostles laying his
hands on the people of Samaria and he sees something.
He sees the Holy Spirit come. So he didn't just see, you know,
them laying their hands on them and saying receive the Holy
Spirit and then just going, all right, thanks.
He saw something, something happened because he says, Oh my
gosh, I can I give you some money and you can give me that
power and I could raise, put lay my hands on people and, and and
do that thing that you just did, right?
So he sees something, there's a sign.
There is my point. And so God sent his apostles to
go there. Personally, I believe to lay
hands on the Samaritans, those of Samaria and God confirms with
signs, right? Why does it happen like this?
God is confirming that the new covenant is for the Samaritans.
Also, God is saying it's not just for juice.
I'm going to do it in a similar way so that you guys can
understand that this Holy Spirit is for all flesh.
Those guys are not excluded, right?
That's why I believe that it happens this way.
And as we read on, the Gentiles receive the gospel and the Holy
Spirit. So this happens after Peter
takes the gospel to the Gentiles, non Jews for the first
time. And Peter gives this account in
Acts 10 verse 44. He says while Peter was still
speaking the words, so he's preaching the gospel to them.
The Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word and those of
the circumcision. The Jews who believed were
astonished, and many came as Peter as as many came with
Peter, because of the the gift of the Holy Spirit had been
poured out on the Gentiles also, for they heard them speak with
tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answers, Can anyone
forbid water, that these should not be baptized?
Who received the Holy Spirit just as we have, just as we
have. So again, the Holy Spirit comes
in a very similar way that he comes at Pentecost with signs so
that they can know for sure this is God.
God is doing this. You know, there's a whole lead
up to, to Peter going to the Gentiles.
God is all over this. He's orchestrating everything.
He makes sure that Peter knows to go.
He makes sure that the guys where he's going know that he's
coming. They God sends them to get
Peter. God's all over this.
God is making sure that the apostles know that this Holy
Spirit is for the Gentiles. This is the outpouring of the
Spirit to all flesh. Do you see it?
God's all over it. He's making it very clear to
them. So this is the the pattern that
we that we see here. The pattern was for the Jews,
the Samaritans, those of Samaria and the Gentiles, which is
really interesting because Jesus said this.
We read this in Acts 1. I believe we read this, maybe we
didn't read this first. Acts one verse 8 says, But you
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and
you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea.
Where else? In Samaria, where else?
To the ends of the earth. So this is the pattern God says
in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth, this is the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles.
So this, God's orchestrating all of this, He's said that this
will happen. This is now happening.
It's happened. So the only time after this that
we read about visible signs, I believe it's the only time.
It might, there might be another one, or I believe it's the only
other time that we see visible signs at salvation when, when
people are saved, when the Holy Spirit comes is when Paul goes
to Ephesus and they speak in tongues there.
And it's interesting because Paul's bringing disciples of
John again, old covenant into the new covenant.
He preaches Jesus, they receive Jesus, they receive the Holy
Spirit and they speak with tongues.
It's, it's the passing of the old covenant to the new covenant
again. That's the pattern it would
seem. And so after that, we see many
believers in households saved in Scripture, but there's dozens.
There's no signs mentioned, right?
So you've got the Ethiopian eunuch.
He is saved and baptized in water.
We don't see any signs. We see Saul the apostle.
Now, Paul didn't speak in tongues when he's saved.
When the Holy Spirit comes to him, he clearly speaks in
tongues afterwards because he says that he speaks in tongues
more than all of you, right? So, but it didn't happen.
According to what we read at Salvation, Lydia and her
household are saved. There's no documented signs.
The Philippian jailer and his household saved, baptized.
No signs. Christmas, the ruler of the
synagogue and his household, again, they've saved.
They're baptized. I don't know if it gives an
account of baptism in in water in every single time, but my
point is there's no mention of of tongues or any any outward
expression of the Holy Spirit coming and doing things.
I'm not saying that it didn't happen then.
I'm just saying that from what we read in Scripture, it doesn't
seem to be the normal pattern right after Pentecost, after
Samaria, after the, the pouring of the Holy Spirit on, on all
flesh on the Gentiles. So you might be thinking, well,
we've witnessed something of the Holy Spirit, you know, being
poured out upon people either at salvation or another time.
You might be thinking, but I've experienced the, the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. I was saved here and I've
experienced this Holy Spirit come.
I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
I've received gifts and tongues and stuff like that.
What are you saying, David? I'm not denying that these
experiences happen. We are, we, we just want to, you
know, we want, I'm not denying that they happen and we want
them to happen. We want the Holy Spirit to come
and empower us and pour out his spirit and give us gifts and,
and manifest himself in a real way.
We want to see him working. We believe he does.
We want to see him do that, but we're just clarifying the the
language that we use here. And it's important because it
can be confusing. It can create doubt and genuine
in, in our genuine salvation experience.
If I stand here and say that, you know, we receive the Holy
Spirit when we're saved, but then we need to have the baptism
of the Holy Spirit to be empowered.
And some of us are and some of us aren't.
You know, you won't be starting to question, well, if I don't
have the, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, then I'm sort of a
lesser Christian than this person over here.
We start to question, I'm confused, what does this mean?
That does it mean that I actually have the Holy Spirit or
doughnut? You see, there can be some
confusion there. And so we would call these, you
know, for us like we're when it comes to the, the pouring out of
the Holy Spirit, you know, outside of our salvation
experience down the road a bit, we would call this the feeling,
the infilling, that that the Holy Spirit would come and fill
us afresh, you know, fill us and empower us.
And so, and I believe that this is scriptural because this is
the language again, that the Holy Spirit that that the Bible
uses, again, it doesn't use this language of the baptism of the
Holy Spirit came and then the room shook or anything like
that. So that the Holy Spirit filled
them. So we just want to line
ourselves with with Scripture in this.
So let's take Peter as our example here.
Peter receives Peter and the apostles received the Spirit
from Jesus. When does the Holy Spirit come
upon Peter? Well, it's after the
resurrection. Jesus has to be resurrected.
He died and he resurrected and the new covenant starts.
But Jesus in John 20 verse 22, this is after his resurrection.
Jesus is with them and when and this is Jesus, he says, and when
he had said this to them, he breathed on them and said
receive the Holy Spirit. So when did Peter receive the
Holy Spirit from Jesus? We received it in that moment
for sure because Peter, God, Jesus breathed on it and they
received it. So I'm not going to argue with
Scripture. Peter received the Holy Spirit
when Jesus breathed on him and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
He received it, right? And so I believe that Peter,
these guys were saved already. They had the Holy Spirit.
You can't be saved unless you have the Holy Spirit.
We've talked about this in past weeks.
You come from death to life. What is it that raises you from
the dead and makes you alive? It's the Holy Spirit, only the
Holy Spirit. And so I believe these guys were
saved already before Pentecost, but clearly they receive the,
the Holy Spirit comes upon them again and they receive power
because Jesus says this, he says, wait, you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Power to be my witnesses. And they do witness when the
power comes. And so Acts 4, they're filled
again. Acts 4, verse 31, it says that
when they had prayed. So just to give you some context
here, that Peter and these guys, they come, they've been
persecuted by the rulers. They've they've come, they've
been told, don't you speak of this name Jesus again, they just
go, well, what do you want us to do?
We're going to listen to you or we're going to listen to God,
right? So then they come back to their
own in Acts 4, and it says when they had prayed, the place where
they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God
with boldness, which is interesting because they were
asking for boldness. And how do you receive anything
from the Lord? Holy Spirit comes and empowers,
right? We can do nothing in our own
strength. The Word teaches us nothing.
You can do nothing in your own strength.
It's by the power of the Holy Spirit that we could do
anything. Do we believe that?
I hope we do, because if you think that you can do anything
on your own for the Lord, you'd be wrong.
It's the Holy Spirit in US and through us that we can do
anything for the Lord, that we can have any sort of success at
all in seeing His Kingdom come in His will be done.
So the pattern seems to be that you receive the Holy Spirit at
salvation, but you can be filled again and again.
And the purpose of power and receiving gifts is for the for,
for works for good works that he has for us.
And I think that's important for us to mention because if we
think that we just come together and, you know, have this moment
of, of come and fill us, Lord, and we get all tingly and we
feel good and we have this Holy Spirit.
I felt the Holy Spirit so strong and then like, like, that's what
all it is. It's always for a purpose.
It's always for a reason. It's just not so that you could
just have an amazing moment and then just go and say, oh, the
Holy Spirit really touched me guys.
It's for power, It's for the for his will.
It's for, for stepping into greater things that you could
see his will be done in and through empowering.
It's for the empowering of his will and not yours.
Like we're laying down our will. We're asking him, you know, when
they asked him for boldness, was it just so that they could be
bold and they could go, hey, like, hey, guys, look how bold
we are now. No, it was for the purpose of
seeing the gospel move forward and for people to be saved.
They were like, we're kind of scared here.
Lord, we're getting persecuted. They, they just had us in
prison. Lord, give us boldness that we
wouldn't shy away that like no matter what they do, we would
have the boldness to continue walking this out.
Lord, please help us. Do you see it was they were
asking for boldness so that they could continue to do the work in
the face of opposition. We need boldness.
So we need the Spirit of God to play our part in his mission.
We do. If we're going to come together
and ask for the Spirit of God, it can't be for any other reason
other than to see the mandate that He has for the church
outworked in US and through us. That's it.
The only thing that the Lord is building on earth is His church.
Why? Because the church is the vessel
that He's reaching the lost people out there.
It's through the church. Jesus built his church.
Jesus came and established his church.
Jesus empowered his church. Jesus is sending His church.
We need to be empowered so that we can be sent and to do His
will. That's it, Not so that you could
feel better, but the Lord will, will comfort you.
He sees the comforter. So when you're struggling, he
will comfort you. But can I say, and I think there
is a difference here as well. I'm sort of, I'm jumping away
from my notes. I didn't want to do this.
But you know, we're in our own personal prayer time when we're
seeking the Lord. It's OK to seek Him for comfort
and for strength, right? You need it.
That's your personal. The Lord wants to change you
from the inside out. The Lord wants to empower you to
be like Him. But then there's something
different about when we come together corporately.
We're not crying out to the Lord to make us feel better and to
fix us in this moment. We are crying out for power that
we could be victorious, that we could rise up, that we could
come into our call, that that the church could be moving in
power and strength and overcoming the enemy.
It's the togetherness now. So when we're praying together,
we shouldn't be praying in our for ourselves.
We're praying beyond ourselves. And if your prayer life at home
is just about you, you've also missed it.
You need to pray beyond yourself.
We should be praying for us as a church.
How often are we coming? Like in our personal prayer
life, are we praying for this church?
Lord, help us, strengthen us. Pour out your spirit upon us.
I hope we are because if your prayer life's just become about
you, you don't understand what you've been brought into.
You are a vine in a, in a, you're a branch in a vine.
That means you're connected, right?
You can't be a branch on your own and be a part of the vine.
The church is a body of believers together.
This is why we're together, and if you if us being together is
not important to you, you are a withering branch on your own.
You are dying. If you're not a part of the
church, you are dying. You are not connected to the
vine. You are not connected to what
God is doing on the earth. It's as simple as that.
We can't be Christians on our own.
A Christian is a part of the body of Christ.
You are a part of his body like it or not be a part of his body.
Get excited to be together and be part of I am way off of my
notes here. I didn't even know, I don't even
know where I am Lord. And, and so, you know, the, the
early church, when we look at what they were doing here, they
weren't chasing a single experience.
They weren't chasing just some moment of being empowered that
would see them through for the rest of their lives.
And I think that when we have this understanding that we're
saved and then we need this baptism of the Holy Spirit, and
if I get it, then I'm done. That's dangerous because you
stop seeking after the Lord, You stop seeking after his power.
And it's dangerous because what if you don't receive it?
Then what? What if you don't have that one
moment? Then what?
Now you're just like, you're not even sure whether I'm a part of
this thing or not. So it's not a single experience.
They were never seeking a single experience, and they were always
together seeking The Lord. Jesus says that He will give us
living water. How often do you need to drink
water? I need to drink right now.
You can't survive without drinking water.
Try going a day without drinking water.
Living water. Guys, we need to drink from Him
regularly. Jesus says that He is the bread
of life. He says that give us this day
Our Daily Bread. What is He showing us?
We have to eat from Him. How often?
Daily, it's like the Lord's trying to show us that this is
not just to have an experience and then that's done.
This is like you walk this out day by day, moment by moment.
You need His water today, tomorrow, the next day.
You needed it yesterday. You need the bread of life
today. You need to open the word of God
every single day. You need to digest His bread.
We need to come together. We need to drink together.
We need to eat together daily, all the time.
That's the pattern from Scripture.
So I am bringing this to a close, and I just want to
highlight again, I've sort of said it here already, but the
times in Scripture when the Holy Spirit comes and fills them is a
corporate time. There's a togetherness when this
happens. And I think that that's really
important. They're not alone in their room
somewhere. I'm sure that God did these
things alone in their room somewhere.
But the Bible, the word of God, what he gives us as a pattern
and how he shows us how that we should live and, and what the
church should be doesn't seem to show you this.
Just go lock yourself away. The Spirit of God will fall on
you and you'll be empowered and you'll come out of that place,
you know, like it's, it's togetherness.
And Paul writes about spiritual gifts.
And what does Paul say the spiritual gifts are for, for
you, for you, for you, for me, are spiritual gifts for me.
What are the spiritual gifts for, for the church, for the
building up of the church. So I think it makes sense that
God pours out his Spirit upon the church when they're together
for a reason, because it's not for you, it's for us together.
And so we should be receiving it gifts from the Lord, receiving
the infilling of the Spirit together so that we could use it
together, right? The togetherness just together,
together, together. You know, every time we read and
now we're together with 1 accord.
They had all things in common, the togetherness of the Lord.
I hope this is this is stirring us up because it's just like
that's sort of another message. But like man, we we've lost the
importance of being together. It's church has become a a, if
it's convenient for me thing like once a week, like we can't
even align our schedules to align with God's schedule.
God's given us a calendar. God's given us a day come
together, the Sabbath day come together once a week.
But we're just like, I'll come to church as so long as there's
not something else on that. I'm interested in God's
calendar. We have made our lives and our
things more important than his calendar.
And that's just one day a week, you know.
But anyway, again, I'm getting off into other things.
It's not about like guys, you just you should have to want to
come to church. We need to have a revelation of
the importance of being together and honouring God with our time,
His time. This is his time, guys.
This day that we're in right now, this moment that we've come
together, this is His time. We've given up our time to Him.
You know, we offer ourselves a living sacrifice to the Lord.
That means that in order for me to be here, I might have to
sacrifice something to be here. Anyway, I'm looking, I'm getting
lost. But anyway, I'm just going to
remind us of something that Tie said to us.
You know, we don't seek after gifts.
We don't seek after power. We don't seek after an
experience of being filled more than we seek after him.
Ty reminded us he is the prize. He is the prize.
Our our relationship with him is what we seek.
Our connection with him is what we seek.
And he gives gifts to those that seek him.
And so we want to be a church that seeks Him.
And so I'm going to close here in Acts 42.
I'm just going to read a couple of verses here.
Acts 42, We've sort of been here already, but just bear with me
for one second. I didn't have this in the notes.
I thought about this later to do this.
OK, So Acts 42, OK, so sorry, 1st chapter 4, verse 23, it
says. And being let go, they went to
their own companions. Everyone say they went to their
own companions. We are with our companions this
morning, right? They went to their own
companions and they reported all the chief priests and the elders
had said to them. So when they had heard this,
listen to what they do. They're together.
And they raised their voice to God with 1 accord and said,
Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and
all that is in them. Let's do that together.
You ready? Have we got it up there with one
accord they said, Lord you God, who made heaven and earth and
the sea and all that is in them, you God, they come together and
they and they before the Lord, they say you are God, you
created all things, you made the heavens and the earth, they
belong to you. So they declare who he is and
they, and they, they go on and, and then they, they quote more
scripture together. It says that they were with 1
accord and they're quoting scripture together.
And then the Holy Spirit falls upon them with power.
And I say all that for us this morning because we have to be
together. We have to be unified and we
have to seek Him together if we're going to receive from him.
It's no good if we're here for our own selfish reasons and
expect that God's going to pour out His Spirit upon us and
empower us for some work that we don't want to do that we don't
even know we should be doing. Do you see what I'm saying?
So I'm just going to close here like we're going to pray
together. We're going to trust that the
Lord's going to do what needs to be done in our hearts.
We're going to trust that He's going to empower us to do what
we need to do. But but more so than that, it
might just be that we just ask God to unify us, that you, he
would unify us in his cause. As a local church.
Let's start there. Can we just raise to our feet?
Let's just pray together, seek the Lord together.
He is listening, guys. The Lord is listening.
We're called to seek him. Let's call him together.
Let's call upon him. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the
word that you've spoken this morning.
We seek you together corporately, one body under the
name of Jesus, your body. And by 1 Spirit, Lord, we ask
that you would meet us where we're at, but that you would
move us from wherever we're at to where you need us to be so
that we could be empowered, so that we could move in power, so
that we could, you know, be, see great success where you've
planted this church, Lord, so that people around us could know
that that you're here, that you're powerful, that you're
working. Lord Jesus, So for my heart, for
every single one of us in this place, we pray, Lord, that you
would reveal yourself in this moment, that you would take us
from where we are to a greater place of fellowship, a greater
place of intimacy, a greater place of unity, a greater place
of purpose, a greater experience of your power.
Come Holy Spirit, touch us. Pour out your Spirit upon us.
Lord, let this church rise up to the call that you've called us
in Jesus mighty name, Amen. Thank you for joining us for
today's message. For more information about The
Way Church, please visit ourwebsite@thewaychurch.com dot
AU. Have a blessed day.