All right, if you have your Bibles, please take this morning
and turn to Mark Chapter 1. Mark Chapter 1.
And this morning, if you're watching online or in some days
to come, then we want to welcome you to North Life.
Welcome to our service. But we want to invite you to
come and be with us in person. Maybe you're unable.
Maybe you're watching from another state.
Hello, this week, some others. Renee, I know that you might be
watching this morning, so some who are nearby and some for far
away, but if you're able to make it, we're at 115 E Main Street,
right here in the heart of the historic area of Gaylord.
We'd love to have you at one of our 9:00 or 10:30 services
sometime soon. All right, if you in Mark, we're
going to start with Mark chapter 1 and I'm going to start in
verse 4. This is the story, a story of
John the Baptist, and this is John the Baptist early in Mark,
Mark chapter 1, Mark is referencing when John the
Baptist introduces Jesus onto the scene, if you will.
OK, So remember John the Baptist, he's a cousin to Jesus
and he's, you know, quite a character and he's out crying
out, you know, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
He's calling people to repentance and he's encouraging
them to be baptized. So starting in verse 4, John the
Baptist appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to
him, and we're being baptized by him in the river Jordan
confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with
camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate
locust and wild honey. And he preached, saying, After
me comes he who is mightier than I.
And of course, he means Jesus, the strap of whose sandals I am
not worthy to stoop down and untie.
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit. John introduces Jesus by saying
I baptize you with water, but Jesus, who's coming, who's
mightier than I am, he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
This morning I want to talk to you about the baptism of the
Holy Spirit or the filling or the immersion.
All of these are ways that it is referenced, this monumental
event that can happen in the life of a follower of Jesus, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. John says Jesus will baptize you
and the Holy Spirit. Let's pray and then we'll dive
in. God, thank you for this day.
It is a day that you have made, and now after we've sung and
honored you, after we've given and fellowships and been
together, now we turn our attention towards Your Word and
our hope. Our intent here is to grow in
our understanding of what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.
What does it look like in the life of a follower of Jesus if
it's so mentioned so many times in the New Testament?
It's important. So give us clarity Holy Spirit,
we pray as an act of worship. We are hungry for your word and
Jesus name and everyone loudly together said Amen and Amen.
Now John, who was known again as the Baptist, and what he would
do is he would baptize people and by baptizing what?
Well, it's the Greek word baptizo, and it means to immerse
or to submerge or to make well. So the idea is that drawn would
call for people to repent of their sin and as an outward
expression of what was happening inside of them, them being
cleansed, he would dunk them, baptize them, immerse them in
the Jordan River. And I was in the I was in Israel
about 15 years ago and got to go to the Jordan River and was
baptized there. Had been baptized younger as a
teenager, but was baptized in the Jordan.
So I can envision how muddy and looking it is and, and the sores
of the Jordan. So this is John, Jesus's cousin.
And again, it's so important the way that he introduces Jesus
because this is like the first mention of John talking about
Jesus and for him to him to say of Jesus that I baptize you with
water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
It because it's at first mentioned, John's first
mentioned that then it is important.
And it's mentioned numerous times in the New Testament.
OK. But often there's certain
Christian traditions that don't talk about it very much, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit or being filled with the Holy
Spirit. And some who do talk about it
often, well then they miss some important details about being
filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit.
And I'll, I'm, I'm going to get there and I'll tell you some
things that I think have been misrepresented and that are
confusing then some Christian traditions.
Okay. But what I want to show you is
that the mentioning of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, it
happens numerous, numerous times in the New Testament.
So it is still a valid experience to be baptized,
immersed, filled with the Holy Spirit.
So I want to teach about and students, particularly I timed
it knowing that you were going to 1 heart this this weekend,
right? Because it might be that some of
you when you go to this one heart event, this might be a
really monumental time for you to be filled, baptized and the
Holy Spirit. So I want you to have some
clarity on what what it is and what it isn't.
OK, so, so here we are now we've been in a series teaching on the
Holy Spirit. And this is what my 6th message,
yeah, 6th message. And so I'm slowly have been
going through the even the Old Testament and Jesus is
mentioning that he would pray to the Father and the Father would
send the helper to that being the Holy Spirit to us.
So we talked about dwelling that in the Old Testament, that the
Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit that was there at the very
beginning of Genesis 1 when they said the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters and the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit
would dwell with God's people. And God had designed it such,
okay. And in the Old Testament, in the
Holy of Holies, you couldn't get near the presence of God because
of our sin that had not yet been forgiven by Jesus.
So there was like like a temporary atonement system that
got it set up and their worship. But God would dwell.
He's omnipresent, He's everywhere, all powerful at all
times. But God would choose to dwell in
tents, a mobile tent that would move when the firewood at night
would rise up and lead them in the cloud by day.
Then they would move and God's presence, the Holy Spirit of God
would manifest itself in tents and tabernacles and eventually
temples like the temple of Solomon.
God, his spirit dwelt there. So, and we see this in Exodus
25, nine where it says and let them make me a sanctuary.
This is God speaking through Moses that I may dwell in their
midst. So it's always been that God is
dwelling in dwelling with his people, but he dwelled in tents
and tabernacles and temples. OK, now in the New Testament,
when Jesus is crucified and the temple veil is rent now the
presence of God that would be behind the temple veil.
Now it's no longer there. Now it's out and available to
all who will receive Jesus. So now in the New Testament era
in which we are in now we are the the temple, the Tabernacle.
We are where God dwells. And I taught at length about
that. If you miss those messages, go
back. You can find them on YouTube,
Facebook, wherever you podcast. But the but I just wanted to
remind you that this is how God has said that where God dwelt
with but in the air and we are in now the Holy Spirit is going
to dwell in. So Jesus in John 1415 and I will
ask the Father and he will give you another helper.
Jesus was their helper. And again, it seems odd that we
would think of God as our helper like Jesus, but he was a
servant. He came and washed the feet of
the disciples. He is our helper.
Jesus says, I'll ask the Father, he'll send you another Helper
and even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive
because it neither sees sees Him nor knows Him.
You know Him, meaning the Holy Spirit, for He dwells with you
and he will be in you. OK, so this is a big principle.
When we follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit, when we receive Jesus,
when we're born again, when we receive salvation, the Holy
Spirit comes to dwell in us. That happens at the point of
salvation. So that's a big part of
understanding the additional experience that happens when
we're baptized, immersed, filled with the Holy Spirit.
So you get the Holy Spirit when you're saved.
But then there's ongoing experiences that we have, and
I'll show you evidence of that in the Bible.
OK, so Jesus also speaks of his followers being baptized in the
Holy Spirit. So watch this.
So John says Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
Then Jesus speaks about himself in Acts, Acts chapter one.
This is after Jesus has lived, I was crucified, was resurrected.
He spends 40 days with his followers, OK.
And in this time where he's with his followers after the
resurrection, he's going to talk about the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, verse 4. And while staying with them, he
ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the
promise of the Father, which he had said, You heard from me.
For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with
the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
So John speaks of it. Now Jesus is Speaking of it.
You will be baptized, immersed, filled with the Holy Spirit, and
then he continues. And so when they had come
together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore
the Kingdom to Israel again? In their mind, even after three
years with Jesus discipling them, they're still thinking
that Jesus is going to set up an earthly Kingdom.
But that's not the point. He has other things in mind.
He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons
that the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
What will they receive when the Holy Spirit comes upon them?
They will receive power. This is the evidence of being
filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit.
It is the power of God. And the Greek word in this
occasion for power is dunamis, and it's where we get our word
dynamite from or dynamic. Then it means it's a force, it's
spent. Now the Holy Spirit is not a
force, but the Holy Spirit gives power, and that power has force
to it, and it's miraculous supernatural ability, abundance,
mighty. So we receive.
When we get filled with Holy Spirit, baptized in the Holy
Spirit, we receive dunamis, which is power.
Now what I want to show you is the day that they have this just
unbelievable supernatural experience.
We call it the day of Pentecost, OK.
And this is where Pentecostals, those from that tradition, they
gather, make their name from this day of Pentecost that they
like we look towards. OK, so this is Acts chapter 2,
the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is going to visit
them. Watch.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together
in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a
mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where
they were sitting. Jesus said it would happen in
Acts chapter 1. John said it would happen in
Mark chapter 1. Jesus says it'll happen in Acts
chapter 1. Here in Acts chapter 2, boom, it
happens. They are baptized in the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit comes and
settles on them and you remember they burst out of this upper
room where they were, and they were prophesying and preaching
the truth about Jesus and real languages that they should not
have known. Now my wife speaks 3 languages,
right? Jay speaks 3 languages.
So sometimes when she gets a little befuddled this morning
and you know, a couple words and I'm like, she speaks 3
languages, man. So, but we don't, I barely speak
one, you know. So, but here they are.
They're preaching in languages that they do not know.
And this is because of the Dunamis, the power of the Holy
Spirit supernaturally, miraculously using them to teach
in other languages. OK, so this happens on the day
of Pentecost now, but when Jesus told them what was going to
come, he didn't give them a specific gift.
He didn't say you're going to speak in tongues or you're going
to prophecy, you're going to preach in other languages.
He said you'll receive power dunamis.
And that is what we receive when we are filled, baptized,
immersed, and the Holy Spirit. Now what I want you to see, and
this is really important, is that on the day of Pentecost
when they're baptized, immersed in the Holy Spirit, they already
have the Holy Spirit. And how do I know this?
Well, because if we go back in time and John chapter 20, this
is Jesus resurrected after his resurrection but before the day
of Pentecost. And watch what happens.
John 20 verse 19 on the evening of that day, the first day of
the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for
fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and he said to
them, peace be with you. And we think he actually would
have just like walked through the walls and just shows up in
the room right when that had been something just shows up was
like peace be with you. Why?
Well, because it would have been scary for Jesus just shows up.
Verse 20 when he had said this, He showed them his hands and his
side. And then the disciples were glad
when they saw the Lord, and Jesus said to them again, peace
be with you, as the Father has sent me, Even so I'm sending
you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.
So this is before the day of Pentecost.
So this is Jesus now resurrected, and now the Holy
Spirit. We're in the Old Testament, the
Holy Spirit dwelt in tents and tabernacles and temples.
Now the Holy Spirit is going to dwell in US and now these
followers of Jesus, Jesus is like, OK, here you go, receive
the Holy Spirit and they do in these days before the day of
Pentecost. So what I present to you is that
the whole we receive the Holy Spirit when we believe, but the
baptism of the Holy Spirit is an additional ongoing event.
OK, so when you receive the Lord, when you receive Jesus,
you receive the Holy Spirit. He comes and he dwells in you.
But then there are periods of time in our life where we are
baptized, we receive the dunamis, the power of the Holy
Spirit, in additional ways, then pass just dwelling in US.
And I must tell you that some Christian traditions disagree
about this. Some Christian traditions do not
believe that there is a second or ongoing experience.
I'm going to show you that it's not a one time event.
We are to be baptized, immersed in the Spirit of God, ongoing,
lifelong. And I'll give you evidence of
that here in a second. But whenever I teach something
like this, I never want to be such where we're we're just
raising controversy and division.
OK, so I like that our church is interdenominational.
OK. And I was telling one of my sons
about this this week. We're not non denominational.
We say interdenominational. Why?
Well, because we're, we have people from Lutheran backgrounds
and Baptists and Pentecostal and Catholic.
Even this morning, the worship team, when we were standing
around, we went through and I said, I'm going to be teaching
today on the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And we said, what tradition of Christianity are you from?
And, and some traditions of Christianity, will they talk
more about the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
And some of them when they talk about it, I think they're
getting a kind of wrong. OK.
But then some they don't believe that there's a second or ongoing
experience. I'm showing you that there is.
It was second experience. Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit
when he breathed on them. And then some days later they're
actually baptized when the Holy Spirit comes and gives them
Dunamis, supernatural power. OK, now so this is a big
principle that you need to know and some Christian traditions
differ about it. Now, when they receive dunamis,
the power, that's in Acts chapter 2.
But then watch what happens in Acts chapter 4 and Acts chapter
4. There's a story of the apostle
Peter and John and they're going to, they're in Jerusalem and
they go by a gate called beautiful.
It's actually called the gate called beautiful.
And these gates have been transported over the sea to
Jerusalem. And and supposedly, legend says
that it was miraculous that they had fallen in the water, but
they they were recovered. OK.
So it was something that the Jews were very proud of.
This gate called beautiful. It's a landmark.
And on this particular day, Peter and John are going to come
across a man who's crippled. OK, So this is Acts 4, seven
through 10. And when they had set them in
their midst, they being the religious leaders that were
critical of Peter and John, right?
So when they heal this man, the Pharisees, the leaders are upset
about it. So when they'd set them in the
midst, they inquired by what power or by what name did you do
this? So instead of them saying, wow,
this is great, the miracle Dunamis power, this guy is
crippled. But now he's walking instead of
saying that they're, they're wanting to know who'd you do
this? By whose name?
So verse 8 then Peter filled with the Spirit, said to them,
rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today
concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this
man has been healed? Let it be known to all of you
and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by
him, this man is standing before you.
Well, OK, now how does he heal? He heals to the dunamis power
that comes from the Holy Spirit because he's filled with the
spirit. So on the day of Pentecost,
they're they're speaking in languages that they don't know.
On this day, Peter is healing. He's praying for this man and
supernaturally he is healed. Why?
Because he's filled with the Spirit.
And Luke points us out the reason he's healed is because
he's filled with the spirit. Now what I want to show you.
So you're filled with it. They receive the Holy Spirit
that when Jesus degrees on them, they wait and then in Acts
chapter 2 at the specific time and place God supernaturally,
you know falls on them and they go preach in other languages.
Now here is a healing in Acts chapter 4 mentioning that he's
filled with the spirit, but then watch what happens right after
this event. They actually are in jail for a
little while, but then they get out Peter and John and in verse
31 it says and when they had prayed, OK, so after that they
actually now are with with believers again and they're like
in a Prairie meeting. And when they had prayed, the
place in which they were gathered together was shaken and
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to
speak the word of God with boldness.
So watch, they receive Holy Spirit when Jesus breathes on
them the day of Pentecost. Boom.
Now the dunamis comes and then he's healing somebody.
But then even after he's healed somebody full of the Spirit,
they have a prayer meeting. And what happens at the prayer
meeting, right after he did the healing, they're filled with the
Spirit again. It's not a one time event.
It's ongoing. It's happening over and over and
over again. And Luke in his writing, he
wants you to see this. It's not just a one time thing.
And here's The thing is that man, when we know that it's like
it's ongoing, that we could be baptized and immersed and
filled, then we get hungry for God and hungry for the Holy
Spirit and hungry for the dunamis power of God, and it's
available to us. But if you think it's a one time
event that happened 12 years ago or 2040, fifty years ago when
you got saved, he's like, oh, I received the Holy Spirit then
then that's it. It's like, wait a minute,
there's so much more. God wants to fill you again and
again and baptize you and mercy you again.
And he wants you to receive the dunamis power that comes with
you being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
So they get filled again and again and again.
Now let me show you another occasion.
This is the apostle Paul, and I want to show you the
progression. So if you remember the story,
Paul, his name initially is Saul of Tarsus, and he's an enemy of
Christianity, and he wants to kill Christians, and he has a
letter that's given him permission to do so.
OK, so he's there when Stephen is martyred.
OK, so Paul is traveling. He's on the road to Damascus,
and Jesus himself appears to Saul and says, Saul, why do you
persecute me? As a glowing light knocks Saul
off his horse, and Saul is blinded.
And then he goes on to the next city, and when he's there, God,
God is going to speak to a man named Ananias.
God says to Ananias, go and pray for Saul, who will become the
apostle Paul. But so Ananias is afraid because
he knows that Paul has been killing Christians.
But this is how he responds verse 17 to Chapter 9.
So Ananias departed and he entered the house and laying his
hands on him, meaning Paul, Saul.
He said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the
road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your
sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And immediately something like scale spell from his eyes and he
regained his sight. And then he rose and he was
baptized and taking food, he was strengthened.
Now what I propose to you is that Paul on the road to
Damascus, Jesus, like, why do you persecute me, Saul?
And at that point, that's his salvation moment.
He is saved on the road to Damascus, and he receives the
dwelling of the Holy Spirit. But then these days and days
later, when Ananias comes to him, Ananias is going to pray
for him, and there's going to be a miracle.
And at this point, Paul is going to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. He has the Holy Spirit, but now
he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
He's going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
And immediately the scales fall off his eyes and he
strengthened. There are so many occasions
where in the New Testament, if I took weeks to teach this, then I
probably could. I want you to see, but you can
go dive into this even the more the occasions in the book of
Acts and other occasions in the New Testament where it just
referenced and they were filled with the Spirit and they were
baptized in the Spirit. John mentions it, Jesus mentions
it. It happens over and over again
in the book of Acts. So if this is happening in the
old test in the New Testament and also with the early church,
then it's I think it's a discipline that we can have
today, the ongoing filling and being baptized, immersed in the
Spirit of God and received the doomest power that comes with
it. Now I'll show you another
occasion. This is Acts chapter 19.
This is when Paul goes to the city of Ephesus.
OK, and watch what happens here. Now, Paul, who was Saul now is
this, you know, giant missionary and writer of much of many of
the letters in the New Testament.
So he's a giant apostle leader. OK.
And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul
passed through the inland country and he came to Ephesus.
Later he's going to write a letter to the Ephesians in the
city of Ephesus. And we have that now in the New
Testament. And there he found some
disciples and he said to them, so if their disciples are
followers of Jesus, and he said, when did you, he said, did you
receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
And they said, no, we've not even heard that there is a Holy
Spirit. And he said to them, into what
then were you baptized? And they said into John's
baptism, So watch this. They're saying that like they
had gotten the news of of this John the Baptist.
Maybe they'd gone to Jerusalem, maybe they've seen John, who
knows. But they're baptized in the
tradition of John the Baptist. They don't really yet know about
the ongoing truth of the Holy Spirit, etcetera.
So maybe just John declaring, hey, Jesus is the Messiah, He is
the one. OK, So they're baptized under
that idea, but that's all the revelation that they have.
And Paul said John baptized with the baptism of repentance,
telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after
him, and that is Jesus. OK, so they got that so far, but
on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands
on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in
tongues and prophesying. And they were about 12 men in
all. Now this could be a bit
confusing because Paul is saying, hey, did you receive the
Holy Spirit? They're like, we don't even
know. But I would say that yes, the
Holy Spirit was dwelling in them when they were saved, but
they've not yet been filled. They've not yet been immersed or
baptized in the Holy Spirit. So he leads them into that
experience. OK, so they're, and by the way,
they were Gentiles, so they didn't know the history of the
Old Testament where God would dwell with his people, right?
Dwell with them in tents and tabernacles and temples.
OK, so, and this occasion, these are followers of Jesus.
They're saved. But watch, they're only saved.
Then he's going to tell them about the Spirit.
And then here they're going to be baptized.
OK, so they're baptized in the name of Jesus and then they
receive the the feeling of the Holy Spirit.
So it's opposite of what his progression was because he got
saved, he got filled with the Spirit and then he was baptized.
They are saved, then he baptized or then he baptizes them and
then he lays hands on them. OK, so this is the progression.
My point is showing this again that here are people that are
following Jesus, but they don't know about the power, the
dunamis of the Holy Spirit. Now this is like many Christians
today, because in Christianity Today, we can promote the idea,
hey, come to Jesus, receive the forgiveness of Jesus, receive
the forgiveness of Jesus. And people like I'm in and maybe
they even get baptized. I'm baptized.
Oh, this is great. Look, I'm following Jesus.
But then you said what? Wait a minute, there's more.
There's an ongoing, ongoing discipline of saying God fill me
again. And even after Paul, after Peter
and John heal the crippled man, they still go to a prayer
meeting and get filled again. So that means that we don't just
one time in our life say God fill me instead, it's ongoing.
God baptized me. Holy Spirit, I want the dunamis
power that comes from you. The famous evangelist DL Moody,
who started the Moody Bible Institute in Dallas, a famous
preacher from the 1800s. He, he said this, he said that
he needed to be filled often with the Holy Spirit because he
was a, he called himself a leaky vessel.
And that's true. It's like we leak so we can be
filled with the Spirit, But then it's just like it's not just a
one time event, but you had 30 years ago.
Our students are going to go to the one Heart conference this
week. I'm telling you, students, in
the years past, we've had the students up sharing testimonies
about what God had done at the conference.
Maybe we'll do that again this year.
But my hope is that our, our students, our young people will
just be baptized, immersed in the spirit of God at this event.
It can happen. So that's one of the reasons
against students why I'm teaching it this weekend,
because I want you to be ready and prepared for that to go,
Yes, God, I'm ready. Show me, fill me.
And it could be a Pentecost type of event where God might
surprise you. And I look back and man, some of
you who went to Promise Keepers, did any of the guys ever go to
Promise Keeper events? Right.
So many years ago I was involved in these events called Promise
Keepers and they were big men's events in stadiums and arenas.
And I remember it like every event, just feeling like, man,
this is getting filled. Oh my God, just fill me, baptize
me, immerse me, God in your spirit, in your Dunamis power.
Now in the weeks to come, I'm going to talk about the gifts,
the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And I want to kind of prep you for it by reminding you, and I
mentioned this last week, but I'm going to just kind of spell
it out again, is that there are traditions within Christianity.
There are people that love God, are educated, scholarly
sometimes, and often some of them do not believe that the
supernatural gifts of the Spirit that we're going to talk about
in the weeks to come. Many believe that they passed
away when the Bible was completed and when the apostles
died. And in the weeks to come, I'll
unpack why they think that, and I'll try to represent their
viewpoint as well as I can. But it's from First Corinthians
13. When Paul talks about love, he's
talking about supernatural gifts like prophecy and speaking in
tongues and other things. In the middle of that, he goes
to talking about love, and then he goes back to teaching about
prophecy. OK, so we'll get there.
But my point is that there are some within Christianity, they
would consider themselves to be cessationists.
And it's a big word. You don't have to remember it.
But the cessationist, they believe that the gifts,
supernatural gifts of the Spirit have ceased.
Thus they're cessationist. They have ceased.
So no more gifts of prophecy or healing or speaking in tongues
or other gifts. They they're OK with like mercy
and hospitality and leadership. And the ironic thing to me is
that to me, man, the gift of mercy is supernatural.
But when the, when they say, oh, the supernatural gifts have
ceased, well, then it's saying like mercy and hospitality are
not supernatural. I think they are.
But so some who are cessationist, they believe again
that the gifts, those supernatural gifts have ceased.
Then there are continuationists. And I'm a continuationist.
And what that means is I think that the supernatural, all the
spiritual gifts we're going to get into in the weeks to come
that we receive when we are filled, immersed in the Holy
Spirit, all of the gifts are still available.
OK. So we're continuationist, OK.
Now to me, what's interesting is that sometimes people become
continuationist because they've seen the abuses.
And there are in certain Christian traditions, there are
some, there are abuses and there are some people that that that
name particularly like certain certain Pentecostal traditions,
especially they would say that the evidence, the evidence of
being filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.
Well, no, I don't believe that at all.
And Scripture does not bear that out.
And I'll show you that even the more in the weeks to come,
because Paul asked the question rhetorically.
Do all speak in tongues? Do all prophecy?
No, he says, no, they don't. But he is promoting the idea of
love, OK. And he says when things are made
perfect, then those things will cease.
Well, things are not perfect yet.
The world's still not what it's meant to be.
When we get to heaven, we won't need the supernatural spiritual
gifts anymore. OK, my point in telling this is
that when we are baptized, immersed, filled with the Holy
Spirit, then we do receive supernatural gifts and they're
listed in the Bible. So we'll go.
And my goal in the next couple weeks is to, for one, I want
you, I want to create within you and stir within you in a hunger
to say, God, I want I want to be filled God, I want to be
baptized in your spirit. And it's an ongoing thing, not
one time. I want it to happen in
periodically lifelong in my life.
And then I want to learn what are the supernatural gifts?
For Peter, it was healing that day with the man at the gate,
beautiful. For those on the day of
Pentecost, it was preaching in these languages they did not
know, speaking in tongues. That was a supernatural natural
gift. So the idea is that if you say
God, fill me, baptize me, well then when you get filled
baptized, well then what comes after that are supernatural
gifts and a life that is lived minus an awareness of the
supernatural gifts that God will give you.
Man, it's a, it could be a pretty shallow Christian life,
in my opinion. But when you say God, whether
whatever your gift is leadership, I think my gifts are
leadership, teaching and exhortation.
OK, it's always funny to say your spiritual gifts because it
can sound braggosious. But here I said teaching and I
don't want to just teach out of my wisdom or my own mentality.
I want to I want to say God supernaturally, Holy Spirit,
fill me with fill me with Dunamis power and then teach
through me, right? I want to come from that place.
I want it to be supernatural. I don't want it just to be my
own strength. OK, so when you whatever, if
it's mercy or hospitality or leadership, tongues, prophecy,
words of knowledge, whatever your spiritual gift is as a
pastor and as a church, we want to encourage you in your
spiritual gifts and we want you to live flowing with them when
you have been filled and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
But again, because there are abuses and some of the abuses I
remember, particularly Chuck Swindoll, who I really admire so
much, I would been like 22. I was driving an Oldsmobile
Cutlass S83 back in those days. And I would listen to his
program Insight for Living. And he's a cessationist.
He doesn't believe that the supernatural gifts are available
today. Do I admire him?
Yes. Is he a great preacher legend?
Amazing. Who am I to disagree with Chuck
Swindall? But I do because but here's The
thing is that he had a teaching and I remember ordering the
cassette and listening to it over and over and over again.
So this would have been like 1992.
And he was promoting the idea that often people who are about
the spiritual gifts, what they can tend to do is they can miss
the heart of God and only want the hand of God.
So they miss, they miss just knowing God and they just, they
can become obsessed with like supernatural moves that
sometimes again, are not really God.
And there are a lot of preachers on TV you can watch that are
manipulative. Recently there was an occasion
where I won't say the name necessarily, but I don't even
remember his name. I didn't know who he was.
But there was a pretty well known guy who would pack out
big, big churches and maybe arenas and the like.
And he was using Facebook to give words of knowledge to
people. So what he would do is people
would come to his conference and then he would have them sign up.
And then he would look up their names.
And then he would go on Facebook and he would get all these
details about these people. And then in the service he was,
I have a word of knowledge. Is there someone here named John
Doe? John Doe.
Stand up. Do you live on 125 Main St.
Yes. And people.
And then he would tell them all, you have this many children.
Yes. Well, they figured out
eventually he was totally getting all this information
from Facebook. OK, that obviously is an abuse
and it's scandalous and it's fraud and OK, but does that mean
that there are not still words of knowledge that God can
sometimes put in the heart of a person that's following Him?
I believe that the gifts continue and we receive them
when we're filled with the Spirit of God, when we're
baptized, immersed in the Spirit and we're like God.
I want to flow in the supernatural gifts, whether they
be mercy or hospitality or leadership teaching, whatever
they might be. So the creation, the
creationist, the no, the, the cessationist, they throw the
gifts out because they've seen abuses.
And I don't think it's worth doing that.
I think it's worth figuring out that when we ask God for the
Holy Spirit, we get the Holy Spirit.
We don't get demons, we don't get false gods and how do I know
this? Look at Jesus in Luke 1119119 it
because my hope is that you're going to go yes, I want more of
the Holy Spirit. I want to flourish and flow and
be baptized in the Holy Spirit. So you just could ask and what
do you get when you ask? Well, according to Jesus, verse
9, it says, and I tell you ask and he's talking particularly
about the Holy Spirit here. Not, not not a new car or a new
house. And I'd tell not the throne to
pray for a new house or whatever.
But he's not talking about that here.
He's talking about the Spirit. He says, and I tell you, ask and
it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock,
and it will be open to you, for everyone who asks receives, and
the one who seeks fines, and to the one who knocks it will be
opened. What Father among you, if his
son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a
serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, we'll
give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
Watch again. Often we hear those passages out
of context. It's not talking about praying
for a spouse or praying for asking.
It will be given to you. No, Jesus is talking about
asking for the Holy Spirit when you ask for the Holy Spirit.
Some have abused the gifts or the infilling, the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. They made it something it's not.
But Jesus is saying, if you ask for the Holy Spirit, God is good
and that's what He will give you more of.
Now I have a story when I was about, I would have been like 14
and I was eager for God as a teenager.
And, and I was part of this really wonderful church and it's
so much of it was really great. And I grew so much in the Lord
there. But in this particular tradition
of Christianity, they would promote that, that when you are
filled with the Holy Spirit, the evidence of you being filled
with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.
So here I'm this kid, I'm 14 and eager for God.
And I go down like probably 6 or 8 times.
They would have like ultra calls of sorts and you'd go down and
music would be really dynamic and, and powerful and, and I
would pray and, and what I was praying for is, and what I was
praying for was to speak in tongues.
I wasn't praying to receive the Holy Spirit, although I might
have said that it seemed like in that culture you prayed to
receive the gift of speaking in tongues.
And so I'd go down and I would cry, my God, please, Lord,
please. And I would travail and and then
I would get up defeated and go back to my seat.
And other people around me would be speaking in tongues and I
wouldn't. And so in that tradition, they
would also teach that the, well, if if you're not getting the,
what they consider to be the Holy Spirit, well, maybe it's
because you are not sanctified enough.
So they would preach that you're saved.
There's a period of sanctification and then you can
be filled with the Spirit, but you can't be filled with the
Spirit in their tradition until you're sanctified.
And So what I thought was, well, I guess I'm just not sanctified
enough. There must still be sin in my
life that is prohibiting me from getting filled with the Holy
Spirit. And I felt so defeated and it
was just horrible, right? But I'd go down and pray and,
and cry and, and it just wasn't happening.
So then one particular time after this happened, there was a
little sweet older lady and I don't know her name.
I could barely remember. I just remember where I was.
I was like getting up and going down that side of the church.
It was maybe a little bit bigger than our church.
And this little lady came up to me and she said, I have been
watching you pray for the Holy Spirit.
And she said the Holy Spirit is the power of God and I see the
power God all over you. And when she said that, I was
like, I'm, I'm chasing after the wrong thing.
And so when I realized it was like, oh, I'm not, I'm not
chasing after this particular gift.
And it could be any gift on that particular occasion, that was a
gift I was chasing after, and I wasn't getting it.
So I thought, well, I don't have the dunamis, the power of God.
And this woman, she might have been an Angel for all I know,
which is so sweet because all these years later, I realized
it's OK. The evidence of being filled
with the power of God is, yes, baptized, immersed, but it's not
one particular gift. And that abuse, I think, has
done a lot of harm to people who think, well, again, any
particular gift is the one you're chasing after.
Instead, we get the idea. According to Jesus, he said you
will receive this Dumas power and you will be my witness.
The evidence of being filled with the Spirit of God is that
we become bold witnesses for Jesus.
And we're not ashamed to tell others about him.
We're not ashamed to live our lives in a way where we're like,
we point to Jesus, the Holy Spirit in US will point to
Jesus. So in the weeks to come, I'm
going to be unpacking spiritual gifts.
And my hope is that you'll discover and you'll resonate and
go, oh, yeah, yeah, I think that might be me.
And then once you figure out what your spiritual gift is,
whether you're a parent or a teacher or a Carpenter, whatever
you do, but you can do it from your spiritual gift that is
empowered by the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit.
And when you live your life that way, it's a whole different ball
game because it's not just your own wisdom.
So for me, even through the years as a songwriter, knowing
that years ago, me thinking, OK, I think one of my spiritual
gifts is teaching. So even like teaching, like when
I would write songs, it's like, I don't want to write them just
from some musical, crafty, creative way.
I want to write songs thinking, wow, I'm using my spiritual gift
of teaching when I write these songs.
So whatever your gift is, again, whether you're, I mean, when you
bring it to your parenting, when you bring it to your career,
when you bring it to your relationships, your spiritual
gifts blessed by being baptized in the Holy Spirit leads to a
whole nother level of Christianity.
Because if you live your Christianity, just grateful that
you got saved and maybe that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you.
I mean, that's great. The last couple weeks when I've
taught the Holy Spirit dwells in you, that is profound and it
should shape the way we live our lives.
But then, beyond just dwelling in US, the Holy Spirit wants to
baptize us and immerse us, and he wants us to flourish and flow
in the gifts. Now Paul writes to the Church of
Corinth in Romans 15 and he says, may the God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power
of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
When this church was leading me to chase after a certain
spiritual gift and I wasn't getting it, that wasn't hopeful.
Paul's saying that the God of hope will fill you with all joy
and peace by the power of the dunamis.
Dunamis dynamic dynamite type power that we received through
the Holy Spirit. So students, this week when you
go to 1 Heart, I'm so excited for you and I'm believing that
you will be baptized, immersed, that the Spirit of God will
visit you greatly. As a church, when we're in our
worship times together, we're singing this morning, or in a
moment of teaching or maybe in a moment of just being with your
friends and praying, the Spirit of God can surprise you and you
can be filled again and again and again.
It's not a one time event. Let me close with some
questions. Have you ever prayed?
Holy Spirit, fill me with your power.
You can, you can go home today. I'll pray for you now, but also
you can go home today and you can just start making that a
daily prayer. God, fill me, God, baptize me,
rebaptize me, reimerse me. God, I want to flow in the
dunamis power that you have for me.
Or maybe you've been leaking and it's been a long time since you
had an experience where you felt revived, refilled.
And I would encourage you in that.
And certainly church should be a time where each week we were
just revived and our hunger for the Holy Spirit and hunger for
the miraculous power that comes from him.
And then I would say this, Are you open to the gifts of the
Spirit that come with being filled?
If you're open, maybe you don't know about them yet.
I mean, you could Google them. You could beat me to the punch
if you want. Within the next couple weeks,
I'm going to be talking about them, but go home and just
Google them. What are the spiritual gifts?
OK. And you might read them and
immediately go, oh, that's me. You know, mercy is a fruit of
the Spirit, but there's also the spiritual gift of mercy, right?
So we should all have the fruit. We should all have mercy.
But man, some people just have it supernaturally with Dunamis
power, whatever yours is, I hope that you find it.
And I hope that I inspired you to say for some of you, this is
old news and you're like, Oh yeah, I've I have lots of
experiences being filled with the spirit.
That's cool. You leak.
Let's keep going. But for some of you, this is
going to be really new. And I hope that you say, God,
I'm in being saved and the Holy Spirit dwelling in me is just
not enough. There's more and you can
experience it. Let me pray for us, God, Thank
you for this day. Thank you for your word, Holy
Spirit, thank you for the dunamis power that you bring to
us. And we are grateful that you
dwell in US. Wow, it's amazing.
We're in the Old Testament. It wasn't, it wasn't a thing.
But now you do. You dwell in US ongoing.
You don't just visit us shortly. And no, but you dwell in US and
we are grateful for that. And now beyond that, we say,
fill us with your power, fill us to become great witnesses for
you and bring the gifts to come with your infilling so that you
might be honored and exalted and glorified forever and ever.
We pray before we leave this morning, I also wanted to just
give you an opportunity. If you're here this morning,
you've never accepted Christ as your Savior.
You've been sensing maybe got pulling you, the Holy Spirit
drawing you, but maybe you've never just taken the final
moment to say, Jesus, I want to surrender my life to you.
I want to become a Christian. You don't have to understand all
the tenets of Christianity or all the doctrine, but you do
need to have a awareness that Jesus is God.
And the Bible says that if you believe in your heart and
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you shall be
saved. And so we believe that salvation
secures us eternally with God and leads to eternal life.
Now you don't have to wait till the other side of eternity to
have that sense of purpose and relationship with God so you can
receive it. Now it takes you turning from
your own sin and saying, God forgive me, I accept the
forgiveness of Jesus. And then it takes you saying,
Jesus, I want to follow and chase after you.
And then the Holy Spirit comes and he dwells in you and you
have the ongoing ability to be filled again and again.
Let me pray. And if you've never received the
Lord in this way, I want to encourage you to echo this
prayer and let somebody know. Tell somebody, tell a friend,
tell me, tell someone, you made this decision.
And then we would encourage you to be baptized, which we will
tell you more about in the days to come.
Let me pray and you can echo this prayer.
You could say, Heavenly Father, I come in Jesus name and Jesus,
I want to accept you as my Savior, as my Lord.
So that means I give away the lordship of my life.
And I say you God, you are to reign and rule in me.
So I turn from my sin, whatever it might be, and I want to grow
in your ways. So forgive me of my sin and the
sin that's kept me from you. Thank you Jesus, that the cross,
the penalty for my sin was paid for by you on the cross.
So I received that forgiveness. And I say, come and rule and
reign in me. Grow me in your ways as I chase
after you in Jesus name. And everyone said Amen.
Hey man, let's all stand together.
Thank you so much for coming. And if you have questions about
some of the stuff, feel free to e-mail me.
My e-mail is curtcurt@nlifechurch.org.
Again, curtcurt@nlifechurch.org. All right, before you go, I want
to say a blessing over you. So if you'll prepare your heart
to receive this blessing before you go.
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may He make
his face to shine upon you. And may the joy of the Lord that
is unspeakable and full of glory made abound to you.
And may the peace of God that passes all understanding may
surprise you in the midst of all of the challenges that life
brings. And then may the mercies of the
Lord, in other words, the forgiveness of God, that is new
every morning. May it be especially new to you
now and your mornings to come. And now may the Lord Jesus
Christ guard your heart and your mind.
You are salt and you are light. Go now and be salt and light
unto the world. You are blessed.
We'll see you again soon.