1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:01,880 All right, yes, you can applaud her thing. 2 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:07,920 All right, if you're watching online this morning, we're 3 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:09,280 thrilled that you were here with us. 4 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:10,840 If you're joining us, right, right. 5 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:13,880 Live right now at 11 O 9 or later today or in some weeks to 6 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:15,200 come. We're glad that you found us and 7 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,280 we want to invite you to come and worship with us at North 8 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,320 Life Church at 115 E Main St. Our services are at 9:00 and 9 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,720 10:30 and would love to see you sometime soon. 10 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,880 All right, I have a like a little bonus to my message this 11 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:29,680 morning. I'll call it that. 12 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:33,680 It's a bonus. I knew of what is happening this 13 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:36,080 Friday and I wanted to tell you about it. 14 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:38,120 And I don't have my flyer, but that's OK. 15 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:39,720 You can grab one on your way out. 16 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:41,400 And we were going to make sure Missy was going to make sure 17 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:46,320 that we didn't run out. So Laurel, maybe if you make 18 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:49,920 sure the Flyers are in the back about the Freedom of religion 19 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:51,800 day. Now, you probably don't know 20 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:53,800 this, but if you do, great. But if you don't, I want to tell 21 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:59,880 you about it starting in like 1992 there then George W Bush or 22 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:04,640 no George Bush, the original 1 was president and he declared 23 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,960 that this Friday, this particular week, this Friday 24 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:12,680 every year would be declared Freedom of Religion Day. 25 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,120 Now you know that we as Americans, we celebrate free in 26 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,280 our in our, in our, our constant. 27 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,960 It's not our Constitution, but the First Amendment gives us 28 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,720 many freedoms, but it gives us the freedom of religion. 29 00:01:27,960 --> 00:01:31,520 OK, now it's the freedom of religion and not the freedom 30 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:34,440 from religion. And some people have gotten this 31 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:36,400 backwards. They think, wow, we're free from 32 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,400 like having any religion or any faith in our schools or in our 33 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:45,120 public places, etcetera. So some try to interpret it that 34 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,040 way, but it's not, it's not freedom from religion, it's 35 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,080 freedom of religion. It's freedom for us to express 36 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,000 our faith. And this is true of our faith as 37 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,840 Christians and uniquely about our country is that if you're 38 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,120 not a Christian, you still have freedom to express your 39 00:01:58,120 --> 00:01:58,800 religion. OK. 40 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:00,800 This is a foundation of the United States. 41 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:03,240 And wrongly, some people think that all, you know, there's 42 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:05,160 supposed to be separation of church and state. 43 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:07,720 Maybe you've heard that separation church is not 44 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:09,720 supposed to be in anything that is government or state. 45 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:11,280 That's a fallacy. It's bull. 46 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,160 It's not true. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter. 47 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,560 It wasn't in the Constitution or in any of the amendments. 48 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,600 He wrote a letter where he suggested the idea of of 49 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:23,720 separation of church and state. But it wasn't to protect the 50 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:26,280 state. It was to protect the church 51 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,800 because they're coming from Great Britain where the Church 52 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:30,240 of England controlled everything. 53 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,160 So they say, OK, separation of church is saying freedom of 54 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:34,680 religion. That's, that means that we can 55 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,720 practice our religion. We have that freedom we have, we 56 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,040 have this freedom of religion, right? 57 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,760 And it's been fought and sometimes it's attacked. 58 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:45,400 But thankfully our, our founding fathers had wisdom in the way 59 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:46,960 they set up, I believe inspired by God. 60 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,120 So we have freedom of religion and that means that our kids can 61 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,600 express their faith in school and at our workplace and in 62 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,640 other places. We don't have to hide our faith. 63 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:59,720 And I will tell you that that should be celebrated. 64 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:03,840 So every president since Bush, this means Clinton and Bush 2, 65 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,120 Bush W, if you will, George W and then Obama and then Trump 66 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:10,440 and Biden. Every year you could see it. 67 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:11,680 I have it printed on the back table. 68 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:14,560 You could take it home with you. Every year a president makes a 69 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:16,680 declaration. So they declare this Friday, 70 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:20,480 Freedom of Religion Day, every president. 71 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:23,880 OK, so the president of this is that, hey, on Friday, just take 72 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:27,200 a minute and say God, thank you, thank you for our freedoms and 73 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:28,960 be mindful of it. Now I knew I was going to 74 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:31,440 encourage you to just be grateful and I have this handout 75 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,800 that gives some history of freedom of religion and some of 76 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:37,760 the quotes from presidents. But then this came up the sun 77 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:39,920 this week. I ran into this yesterday of all 78 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:42,120 things. And so I thought I want to share 79 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,760 this with you. So this is the Glen Arbor Sun. 80 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:48,640 This is a newspaper locally. OK, so this article caught my 81 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,400 attention for other reasons too, but it says, watch this. 82 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:52,960 This is a really great headline, right? 83 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:58,920 And the Glen Arbor Sun, it says allegations of youth grooming. 84 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,800 Now, when you hear allegations of youth grooming, what do you 85 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,880 think? Somebody sexually grooming a 86 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,720 child to abuse them, right? A predator. 87 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:11,040 All these are predators in Glen Arbor. 88 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,040 Oh my gosh, man, I want to know about this. 89 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:14,840 And so watch this. It's the Leland Planning 90 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,000 Commission heard nearly three hours of impassioned public 91 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,560 comment on Wednesday, January 7th at their monthly meeting, 92 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:23,440 which had been moved to the Northport Public School 93 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:25,440 auditorium to accommodate a crowd that numbered in the 94 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:27,120 hundreds, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 95 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:28,800 You can go read the article. Let me tell you what happened, 96 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:30,640 OK? There's an organization in the 97 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:35,120 Leland School, and it's called Youth for Christ. 98 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:39,240 It's an internationally recognized, solid, wonderful 99 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,440 ministry. And they meet in the Leland High 100 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,280 School and some people got up arms about it and they're like, 101 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:47,360 they're in that school and they're proselytizing and 102 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:49,240 they're grooming, and I can't believe they're doing this. 103 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,920 It's like they have the freedom to do this. 104 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:56,200 Our students have the freedom to express their faith and have 105 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,280 Bible studies and everything in their school. 106 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,200 And So what happened is some people got up at arms about 107 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:03,920 they're like, these people are grooming in the schools. 108 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:06,360 We got to put a stop to this. And, and not that I have an 109 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,560 opinion. Thank you. 110 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:11,720 I don't want you to think I have an opinion about this, but of 111 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:13,200 course I have an opinion about this. 112 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,560 So what happened is the youth for Christ in Leland grew so big 113 00:05:16,840 --> 00:05:19,800 that they've decided they wanted to meet outside of the school 114 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:22,000 because so many kids are coming. Isn't that exciting? 115 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:24,600 So, so many kids are excited. So someone in the community 116 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,920 wanted to violence. They wanted to donate space and 117 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:29,360 watch this. This is very important to us as 118 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,400 a church. This this person wanted to 119 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,640 donate space and like an industrial park for the youth 120 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,960 for Christ group to meet and people met at the town meeting 121 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,240 to fight it because I said, well, that's zoning. 122 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:43,600 It fights, you know that it's not zoned religious or religious 123 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,000 place. It's a it's a industrial, it's 124 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,320 an industrial space. So we can't allow these kids to 125 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:50,320 meet there. So what happened is Youth for 126 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,080 Christ sent their attorneys in. Why? 127 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,360 Because we have freedom of religion, right? 128 00:05:55,840 --> 00:05:58,040 And So what happened is the newspapers can have their 129 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,280 headings where they're like, yeah, grooming in the high 130 00:06:00,280 --> 00:06:02,560 schools. And you're like, we've got to 131 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:04,960 fight that. No, it's youth for Christ. 132 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:06,640 And why is this important to us as a church? 133 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:10,240 Because do you know that the city of Gaylord graciously 134 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:16,760 allowed our building that is in a commercial zone to be rezoned 135 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:21,080 nonprofit freedom of religion, right? 136 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:24,600 So that means that our city graciously doesn't get taxes 137 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:26,960 from our, from our zoning, right? 138 00:06:27,280 --> 00:06:31,000 And the Gaylord Art Council next door, they're also a nonprofit. 139 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:35,160 They're in a commercial place. And so this is important because 140 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:39,360 you need to be aware that every so often our freedom of religion 141 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:41,480 gets attacked. It's happening right now in 142 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,320 Leland, not far from here. Youth for Christ is a valid, 143 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,000 reputable, honorable Christian organization. 144 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:51,480 And for them to rise up and say they don't want them in their 145 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:52,400 high school. Sorry. 146 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:55,720 We have freedom of religion and every president declares it to 147 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:58,000 remind us of it. And it happens this Friday. 148 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:02,000 Is it OK that I've shared this? Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, 149 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:04,040 wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second. 150 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:06,040 Let me ask you that one more time because you missed a really 151 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:08,560 big opportunity. Is it OK that I shared this? 152 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:13,120 Do you like that I share this? Yes, thank you. 153 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,080 So on Friday, don't forget to celebrate and just say, hey, 154 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:19,760 God, I want to be mindful of my freedom of religion. 155 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:21,840 I don't take it for granted. You can pick up a sheet in the 156 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,360 back that has some information about and can we pray for the 157 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,040 Youth for Christ group in in Leland? 158 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:26,880 Would you like to do that with me? 159 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,080 All right, let's take a minute. God, thank you for Youth for 160 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:33,800 Christ. What a legendary, enormously 161 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:38,080 great organization that has LED thousands and hundreds of 162 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:42,480 thousands to you. And while this organization is 163 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:47,680 being misrepresented and attacked in Leland, we pray for 164 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:52,400 favor for them, wisdom. And we pray that God in humility 165 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:55,240 stand for righteousness. And that God, we pray that our 166 00:07:55,240 --> 00:08:00,680 freedoms of religion, that our forefathers, we believe inspired 167 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:04,960 by you, we pray that you would protect their freedoms in our 168 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:08,720 backyard not far from here. We lift them up to you in Jesus 169 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:10,880 name. And everyone loudly said, Amen. 170 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:14,680 All right, if you have your Bibles, please take them and 171 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,760 turn to the book of Acts. And we're going to be in Acts 172 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,680 chapter 13. And we were in Acts chapter 13 173 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:24,120 last week. And purposefully even weeks and 174 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:26,800 weeks and weeks ago, I knew that I was going to connect what we 175 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,080 did last week to what we're doing this week. 176 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:32,520 OK, So let me set it up for you. This is Acts chapter 13. 177 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:37,039 This is the early church. Jesus has ascended to heaven. 178 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,400 It's been crucified, buried, resurrected. 179 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:44,120 He was with his disciples for 40 days and then he now is ascended 180 00:08:44,159 --> 00:08:47,960 to heaven. And now the church has exploded 181 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:51,960 at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes to be in and 182 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:54,200 with them. And this is a church called 183 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,000 Antioch. It's an Antioch, and Paul and 184 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,280 Barnabas are part of the church. And we saw this last week. 185 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:02,200 I'm going to show it to you this week and we're going to look at 186 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,960 it from a different angle. Chapter 13, verse 2, it says 187 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:11,720 while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, this past week 188 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:14,320 we have been fasting and this morning that we're worshiping 189 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:21,160 the Lord and fasting. The Holy Spirit said, set apart 190 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:25,560 for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called 191 00:09:25,560 --> 00:09:28,920 them. Then after fasting and praying, 192 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,640 they laid their hands on them and they sent them off. 193 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,720 We are fasting and praying and worshipping, and this morning we 194 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:39,440 got to pray for Mariah and send her off. 195 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,960 We're trying to be a New Testament church in the context 196 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,000 of these disciplines, sending out missionaries, praying, 197 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,520 fasting, worshipping, all of that. 198 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:53,120 This morning I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit. 199 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:57,080 Quite simply, I'm going to talk to you about the Holy Spirit. 200 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:03,160 Let me pray for us, God, thank you for your presence. 201 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:09,440 Holy Spirit, You are here with us and we've worshipped you in 202 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,120 song and in giving and just being together. 203 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:15,920 And now we we open our hearts and our minds. 204 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:21,000 We're attentive to your word and we pray God that you would speak 205 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,600 to us greatly. We're eager and we're ready. 206 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:29,240 And Jesus name and everyone loudly said Amen to remind you 207 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,080 we do have teaching. The notes are available on the 208 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:33,280 back table. If you want to grab those, you 209 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:35,440 can grab those during the teaching or on your way out. 210 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:39,280 I encourage you to make use of those this morning. 211 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:43,640 Now last week I talked to you about fasting and faith. 212 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:47,920 Not just fasting, like to lose weight or fasting as a way of 213 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:50,880 kind of a restart for the year. But last week we looked at 214 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:55,040 length about what it means to fast, deny yourself of something 215 00:10:55,520 --> 00:11:00,040 for the purpose of giving more attention to prayer and to our 216 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:01,840 relationship with God. And we see that the New 217 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:04,480 Testament church was doing this in Acts and throughout 218 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:08,960 Scripture. And so we wanted to take time 219 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,480 this week and and to pray and fast. 220 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,920 And this morning what I want to do is I want to show you that of 221 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,160 course in the story we talked last week, praying and fasting 222 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:20,640 is a part of the early church. But now I want to show you even 223 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:26,760 more hopefully profound, is that the Holy Spirit is part of the 224 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:29,360 early church. It's God as the Holy Spirit is 225 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:32,520 the enormous part of the Acts story, and the part of the 226 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:34,200 gospel is a part of Scripture all the way through. 227 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,120 But particularly in the book of Acts, we start seeing how the 228 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:44,080 Holy Spirit operates in us when we come to faith in Christ. 229 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:47,400 So in the next couple weeks, we're going to be focusing on 230 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:49,800 the Holy Spirit. And I and I hope to bring you 231 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:52,160 several things. We're like, oh, I, I didn't know 232 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:53,160 that or I didn't look at it that way. 233 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:55,600 I didn't see it that way. And my hope is that we will 234 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:57,280 grow. The goal is to grow in our 235 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:01,560 relationship with God by growing in our understanding of the role 236 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:05,840 and the personality, if you will, of the Holy Spirit. 237 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:09,440 Now at our church, I just came up with this this week. 238 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,640 So this is going to be new, but I think it's going to become 239 00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:14,160 part of our culture. I want, I have a new saying and 240 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:16,520 the saying is going to be trust the tangent. 241 00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:17,720 Can you say this out loud with me? 242 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:20,040 Can you say trust the tangent one more time? 243 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:22,960 Say trust the tangent. Now, why do I say this? 244 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:27,120 Because most, I think most a lot of preachers or teachers, they 245 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:31,640 teach in points. Point #1, now point #2 and now 246 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:34,040 point #3 and you know, I can go have lunch, right? 247 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:36,200 I don't teach that way. If you've been here for a while, 248 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:37,200 you know, I don't teach with points. 249 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,080 Instead, I've, I've finally coined it. 250 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,360 I tend to teach with tangents. What do I mean by that? 251 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:45,120 Well, I'm always disciplined to give you a title, like by rhythm 252 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,320 was when I teach, I'm like, OK, here is what we're going to talk 253 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:51,280 about, and I give you a title. And when I was in seminary Bible 254 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:53,960 school, they taught us, OK, good preaching is you tell people 255 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:56,240 where you're going. It's the title, and then you go 256 00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,040 there. And then when you're done, you 257 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:00,880 tell them where you've been. Have you ever been in the sermon 258 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:03,280 and the message in this church service where the preacher said 259 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,200 he was going to go over there, but then half what you were 260 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,880 like, he never got there. Where is he? 261 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:11,120 I have no idea where he is. Now, I must admit that sometimes 262 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,000 when I teach with my tangents, I might get some place and you 263 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:16,520 might lean over to your wife and go, where is he going with this? 264 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:19,040 I don't know what he's doing and just wife, just go. 265 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,960 Just trust the tangent. He's on one of his tangents. 266 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,160 But no, I will get back. And not only that, the tangents 267 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:27,480 are in your notes. So it's not by accident. 268 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:29,280 It's an intentional tangent. Why? 269 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:33,160 Because I teach with tangents. So trust the tangent. 270 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,600 So that means this morning what I'm going to do is I'm telling 271 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:40,520 you I want to talk about the Holy Spirit in the context of 272 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:44,080 the church at Antioch and what the Holy Spirit looks like in 273 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:47,400 the local church, what it looked like in the story of Paul and 274 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:48,840 Barnabas. That's where I'm going to. 275 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,400 So just trust my tangents as I get there. 276 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:53,200 OK, You good with that? Yes. 277 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:57,320 OK, Now so tangent number one, somebody people say point number 278 00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,640 one, I say tangent number one. OK, I have a fair criticism 279 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:05,160 about modern worship songs and my fair, my fair tangent 280 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,440 criticism of a lot of modern worship songs is that, and I 281 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:12,480 don't want to sound like an old fart, you know, but we're just 282 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,640 doing that. Is that a lot of the songs now 283 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:17,880 that are coming down the worship Pike, if you will, they sound 284 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:20,320 like songs that that are like a guy could sing to his 285 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:22,920 girlfriend, right? Have you heard any of these 286 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,600 songs? They're like, I love you so 287 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:30,080 much, you're so beautiful. And it's I just want to be with 288 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:31,840 you and. It's all this stuff and like, 289 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:33,640 these are the types of songs that a lot of churches are 290 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:37,400 singing to the Lord. And it's just like, and again, 291 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:42,240 not that I have an opinion, OK, but but I'm just thinking these 292 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:46,440 songs are like they're just not. But I think the church should be 293 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:49,120 singing, right? So at our church, I'm very 294 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:50,560 committed. And watch me on this. 295 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:51,920 You didn't know I did this, but watch. 296 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:54,040 And in the weeks to come. And if I miss a week, then come 297 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:56,440 and say, Kurt, what's going on? But but if you go back week 298 00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,840 after week after week, every week, we'll have one song at 299 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:05,440 least that feels like a creed. And when we find these songs, I 300 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:06,400 tend to put them in the rotation. 301 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:08,920 We sing them often. So this morning we sang the song 302 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:10,120 by Phil Wickham and some friends. 303 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,680 It's called I believe, right? And so watch this. 304 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:14,800 The lyrics were I believe there's one salvation, one 305 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,440 doorway that leads to life, one redemption, one confession. 306 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:21,240 I believe in the name of Jesus Christ. 307 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,800 I believe in the crucifixion. By his blood I've been set free. 308 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:27,640 I believe in the resurrection, Hallelujah, his death. 309 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,080 His life is death, defeat. Does that sound like a song you 310 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,040 can sing to your girlfriend? No, it's not right. 311 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,080 So we intentionally sing songs that sound like Creed. 312 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,720 So then the course of that song, all praise to God the Father, 313 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,840 all praise to Christ the Son, all praise to the Holy Spirit, 314 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:47,400 right. We get around and we have a 315 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:49,040 couple other songs, several other songs. 316 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,320 I'm always looking for songs like this. 317 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:52,800 A friend of mine has a record coming out this year and he sent 318 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,640 me like the the demo of and I'm like, we're going to do that at 319 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,520 our church because it's another one of these Apostle Creed like 320 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,600 songs. So how many of you grew up in a 321 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,640 tradition of a church where you said the Apostles Creed? 322 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:06,760 Anybody wave at me really high if you did. 323 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:09,240 OK, so you grew up saying the Apostles Creed, right? 324 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:12,880 And it was part of your worship liturgy every week. 325 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:14,480 It's part of it. And what is liturgy? 326 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:16,720 Well, liturgy is just the rhythm in which you do a service, 327 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:20,200 right? So we have liturgy at our church 328 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:23,720 and you might even say we're a liturgical church. 329 00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:26,160 Why? Because liturgical churches tend 330 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:28,840 to say creeds every week and they have certain things they do 331 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,160 every week. So we have we sing songs and we 332 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:32,680 sing a creed like song every week. 333 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,080 So you can when someone asks you about North life, you can say, 334 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,960 well, our church is liturgical. And by that what do you mean? 335 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,960 It's like, well, we tend to sing songs that are creed like that 336 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:44,520 have great truths in them, right? 337 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:47,400 Listen to the Apostles Creed. It says I believe in God the 338 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:50,200 Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. 339 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:53,040 I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. 340 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:58,320 He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the 341 00:16:58,320 --> 00:16:59,840 Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius 342 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,040 Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. 343 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:04,560 He descended to the dead on the third day. 344 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,079 He rose again. He ascended into heaven and is 345 00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:10,839 seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again 346 00:17:10,839 --> 00:17:12,200 to judge the living and the dead. 347 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:17,400 I believe in the Holy Spirit. There it is again, the holy 348 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,160 Catholic meaning unified Church, the communion of the Saints, the 349 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,720 forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and 350 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,079 the life everlasting. Amen. 351 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:28,119 I want you to know there's a Church. 352 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:36,320 We are intentionally committed to traditional theology, creed, 353 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,080 like theology. And even though it might not 354 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:41,040 look like a like maybe a Lutheran or Methodist, our, our, 355 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:43,400 our Lutheran brethren and Methodist brethren, we love them 356 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:45,320 so much. We celebrate their way of 357 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:46,640 worshiping. Ours is just a little bit 358 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,360 different, but we adhere to the same creeds and doctrine. 359 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:51,320 And because of that, we're unified. 360 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,800 Now what I want you to see is that in our songs and in our 361 00:17:55,800 --> 00:18:01,680 creeds, we mention it's in our theology, it's in our doctrine. 362 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:09,000 We mention often the Holy Spirit, and we mentioned Jesus 363 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,480 and we mentioned God the Father. So as Christians, maybe this is 364 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:12,840 a new term. It'll be an old term to many of 365 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,080 you, but as Christians, we are Trinitarian. 366 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:17,040 In other words, we believe in the Trinity. 367 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,240 What is the Trinity? Well, the Trinity is the belief 368 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:24,240 that God is 3 in one, three, and one. 369 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:26,160 And this is very important in the ancient world because in the 370 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,520 ancient world and in the world in which we live now, the world 371 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:33,480 had many gods, many, many, many gods. 372 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,840 And some religions will say, well, you know, there's lots of 373 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,040 ways and lots of gods and lots of gods. 374 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,760 And so God appears to Abraham and then to Moses and throughout 375 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:43,800 the Old Testament. And then Jesus comes along in 376 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,960 the same way, proclaiming this is the way, the only way, and 377 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:51,120 he's God won. But God has three different 378 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:53,480 personalities. We use that word personality. 379 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:56,040 So you'll see the God is 3 in one person sometimes. 380 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:58,800 Don't be confused by that because God is God, not a human 381 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,720 being, a person. But it's letting you in on the 382 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:05,200 truth that God has three unique personalities. 383 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,600 And I'm going to get around to why that's so important to a 384 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:09,640 Christian, but let me just keep on packing it for you. 385 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:13,760 So we're Trinitarian and we believe that God has three 386 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,320 distinct personalities. He's unique in three different 387 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:19,520 ways. And so and, and the three ways 388 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:23,440 are equal in importance. And I think a lot of Christians 389 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:24,880 miss this. Maybe they think, well, the Holy 390 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:29,000 Spirit is kind of like down here and like the Father's here. 391 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,000 Maybe Jesus is like, well, because Jesus is the Son, maybe 392 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:33,920 he's under the Father and the Holy Spirit under Jesus. 393 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:37,360 No, that's heresy. As Trinitarians, what we believe 394 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:42,800 is no God is 3 equally distinct personalities in one. 395 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:46,800 And if you're going to know God and walk with him as a 396 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,520 Christian, then understanding the role of the three different 397 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:54,120 distinct personalities of God becomes vitally important. 398 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:58,200 And many people who follow Jesus and who are Christians, they 399 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,160 kind of get the concept of the Father. 400 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,360 And they get the concept of the Son, Jesus, the King, the 401 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:06,080 reigning one, the Lord, the Messiah. 402 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:10,440 But often we tend to put the idea of the Holy Spirit kind of 403 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:14,240 down here as a support. Or maybe you were around a 404 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:16,680 tradition where people talked about the Holy Spirit or the 405 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:18,560 Holy Ghost. But they were what I call 406 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:20,640 granola types. Do you know what a granola type 407 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,240 is? It's someone who's like a fruit 408 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,480 or a flake or a nut, right? So maybe around some Christians. 409 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,200 And they were like, oh, we're all about the Holy Spirit, but 410 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:28,720 they were as weird as all get out. 411 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,280 And a lot of stuff they were into was like they were over 412 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:35,200 emphasizing some things, some things that were not necessarily 413 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:38,000 as important as other. And we're going to get into this 414 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:39,320 in the weeks to come, so get ready. 415 00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:41,920 But maybe we're around somebody. And they talked about the Holy 416 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:43,800 Spirit, but it LED you to believe It's like, yeah, the 417 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:45,280 Holy Spirit thing. That's kind of weird. 418 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,480 And so I'm kind of going to stick over here with the Father 419 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:50,520 and the Son. I get the Father and the Son, 420 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:55,880 but the Holy Spirit, it's weird or it's lesser or and we miss 421 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:01,160 how vitally important it is to understand the role of the Holy 422 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:02,360 Spirit of our lives in our lives. 423 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,640 So this morning I want to just as an introduction, I want to 424 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,880 just continue unpacking like, what does it look like for us 425 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,400 now in following God through Jesus? 426 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,400 What does it look like with this Holy Spirit thing? 427 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:18,120 OK, and I say thing, but really the personality God, the Holy 428 00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:21,240 Spirit is God. OK, Now there's a there's a 429 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,440 heresy called modalism. And I just want to mention this 430 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,520 briefly, I'll get more into it in weeks to come, but modalism 431 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:29,280 is an ancient heresy that the original church fought. 432 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,480 And the modalism heresy was that that God appears like in three 433 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,120 different modes. And the idea is that OK, God is 434 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:39,320 God, and at one point God is the Father, OK, when God is being 435 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,000 Father, he's Father. OK, But then God has to take off 436 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,320 his role as Father, and now God is Son. 437 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:47,960 OK, God left heaven, He came to us and now got his Son. 438 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,320 But God can only exist in one personality at a time. 439 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:52,360 So now he's Son. And then Jesus goes back to 440 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,880 heaven and he did talk about that the Holy Spirit would come. 441 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,360 So now God is here as the Holy Spirit. 442 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,400 But it gives the idea that God can only do one thing at one 443 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:02,560 time. And this is where the 444 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,400 illustration that that the Trinity is like water, right? 445 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,160 Maybe you've heard this illustration, It works for 446 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,600 children to kind of illustrate what the Trinity is like, but it 447 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:13,680 breaks down in some ways. Every breaks down. 448 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,400 It ends in heresy, really. So the idea is that, OK, water, 449 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:22,800 it can be ice or fluid or steam, but it can only be one thing at 450 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:25,360 a time. So you could say, oh, that's 451 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:27,640 what the Holy Spirit is, our God, the Trinity is like, it's 452 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,320 all three. It can be all three, but no, God 453 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,000 is all three at one time. So watch this. 454 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,360 Jesus could be being baptized and he's praying to the Father 455 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:39,560 and then the Holy Spirit descends when he's baptized. 456 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,920 So now you have Jesus existing. This is God. 457 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:43,840 Here's Jesus, here's always Spirit and here's God the 458 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,440 Father. They're all three interacting at 459 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,320 the same time. And I know this is this is a 460 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:50,360 challenging concept. I just want to introduce it to 461 00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:52,480 you that now and we'll tackle it more than weeks to come. 462 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:57,320 But just knowing that, okay, God the Father is here, Jesus, yes, 463 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,600 God reveals himself as the Son and the Holy Spirit, but all 464 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,880 three can be interacting at the same time. 465 00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:06,200 We're not into God dividing himself up into mode. 466 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,320 So we're not into modalism. OK, now again, more than weeks 467 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,160 to come, but I wanted you to know that the creeds mentioned 468 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:16,800 the Holy Spirit, the Apostles Creed are songs, the Bible a 469 00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,560 great length. And so we're going to study the 470 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:22,120 Holy Spirit for the next several weeks. 471 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:26,760 And I've got lots and lots to tell you now, why is this 472 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,520 foundational and why is it so important? 473 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:30,800 Our understanding of the Trinity? 474 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,480 Because our understanding of the Trinity, watch this, it's big. 475 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,040 Our understanding of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit as the Holy 476 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,440 Spirit, as God reveals himself as the Holy Spirit. 477 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:46,200 Our understanding of the Holy Spirit dictates our relationship 478 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:49,720 with God. And maybe you've heard, Oh yeah, 479 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:51,600 some people have like father issues. 480 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:54,040 Maybe sadly and tragically, they were abused by their father. 481 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,400 And so they can't relate to God as Father. 482 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:58,400 I mean, that's a real thing. It's a tragic thing. 483 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,360 And and then some people go, well, I like the Jesus side of 484 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:05,480 God because I could relate to Jesus and I like his teachings. 485 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,800 And I and I read the red letters in my Bible and I've drawn to 486 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:09,840 those. Some people are that way. 487 00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:12,240 And so they're like, well, I'm going to really kind of lean 488 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,560 into the Jesus side or I'm going to lean into the Father's side, 489 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,880 right. But what I'm telling you is that 490 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,600 you don't get to pick if you want to have a relationship with 491 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,800 God now and you want to flourish in your relationship with God, 492 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:27,240 then the option is here on earth with the life that we have the 493 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,320 the way that God has set it up, you're supposed to be 494 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,400 interacting with the Holy Spirit. 495 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:37,120 And I'm going to show you why I can say that OK, and why it's 496 00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:38,880 really important. So here's The thing is that if 497 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,960 you're following Jesus and you don't get the role of the Holy 498 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:46,480 Spirit in your life, then you'll miss a flourishing spirit LED 499 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,240 life. And I don't want to do life 500 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,480 without being spirit led and spirit filled and aware of the 501 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:58,280 Holy Spirit's role in my life. Now, because I knew we were 502 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,280 coming this way this Christmas. We really, we emphasize this 503 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,320 every Christmas, but particularly this year, we 504 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:08,480 really emphasize week after week that Jesus is the fulfillment of 505 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:13,080 Old Testament prophecies. They called him Emmanuel, God 506 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:17,760 with us. He's prophesied this way. 507 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,160 He's called this way in the Old Testament when the Angel Gabriel 508 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,640 comes to Mary, he says, and he will be called Emmanuel. 509 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:24,200 And Emmanuel means that God is with us. 510 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,880 So again, this Christmas, we just emphasize it every week. 511 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,960 God puts on human skin, God comes, he's with us. 512 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,480 Jesus is God revealed with us. But what is the Holy Spirit? 513 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:40,840 I'll tell you John 1416 through 17, Jesus is going to talk much 514 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,640 to the disciples, his followers about the Holy Spirit. 515 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,640 He's going to drop clues over and over and over again. 516 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,680 In verse 16, you watch, Jesus is talking about the Father and 517 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,000 He's talking about the Holy Spirit all in one, their God all 518 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:57,480 in one in verse 16 of John 14. And I will ask the Father, and 519 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:02,560 He will give you another helper to be with you forever. 520 00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:05,760 Now what's happening? Jesus knows that He's going to 521 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,920 ascend to heaven and he's going to go back to being with the 522 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:10,480 Father. And so he's saying to the 523 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,760 disciples, hey, listen, I'm going to send you a helper, and 524 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,600 I'm going to pray to the Father, and he's going to send me the 525 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:15,960 helper. And the helper will be with you 526 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,640 forever. He's about to leave. 527 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:20,760 The Holy Spirit's going to come and be with you forever. 528 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,520 Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because 529 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:26,360 it neither sees Him or knows him. 530 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:30,280 You know him, for watch, this is big. 531 00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:36,720 You know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you. 532 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,160 Now in the Old Testament, you see the Spirit of God talked 533 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,840 about a lot, but the Spirit of God is with when Jesus comes, 534 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:51,920 he's with and then Jesus says you know him and he's coming and 535 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:57,600 he's going to be in you. Do you see that progression with 536 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,360 Jesus is walking with them, but he's saying the comforter who 537 00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:05,920 the helper is going to come. He's going to be in you in the 538 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:07,440 spirit of the truth in the world cannot receive. 539 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,400 He dwells with you and will be in you. 540 00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:12,800 I ask you to trust the tangent. We're going to get back to Acts 541 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:14,040 13. We're going all the way back 542 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:18,040 there to the church in Antioch. Jesus is Emmanuel, He's God who 543 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,040 dwells with us. But he says the one who's 544 00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,720 coming, he's going to be in you. Now how confusing would this 545 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,960 have been to the disciples because watch this. 546 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,320 Jesus had been prophesied about and he finally shows up and he 547 00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,280 is the Messiah. And not only is he the Messiah, 548 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,520 but they walk with him for three years now he's resurrected and 549 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:36,920 he's with them for 40 days after the resurrection. 550 00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:41,360 And he's with them. Can you imagine Jesus, Emmanuel 551 00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:44,120 with them after the resurrection for 40 days? 552 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,560 And in these 40 days, he's talking about he's, he's 553 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:50,520 alluding to the fact that I'm going to pray God will send the 554 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,320 helper, the spirit of truth. And he's dropping Nuggets to 555 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,400 them that, that, that, that he's going to be leaving. 556 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,040 He's no longer going to be God with us. 557 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:03,240 And Luke continues to tell the story. 558 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,640 Luke 2444, it says. Then he said to them, these are 559 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,960 my words that I spoke to while I was still with you. 560 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:11,520 Watch this. It's just over and over and over 561 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,240 again this theme. And he said, I was with you that 562 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:15,480 everything written about me in the law of Moses and the 563 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,480 prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. 564 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,600 And then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 565 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:23,000 He supernaturally goes, opens their mind. 566 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,000 Remember The Karate Kid movie? And in my generation, it was wax 567 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,680 on, wax off, right? How many remember wax on, wax 568 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:30,240 off, right? The new generation. 569 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:32,120 I haven't seen the movie, but I'm told it's like, put the code 570 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:33,640 on or put the code off or something, right? 571 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,720 Somebody help me with that. What is it in the new movie? 572 00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:37,280 Nobody's seen it. What is it? 573 00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,120 What is it? Take the code off. 574 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:41,960 Somebody told me this. OK, So because I was saying in 575 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,640 the guitar lesson one time, I'm like wax, like wax on, wax off. 576 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,080 And the young person, huh. What are you talking about? 577 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,200 I'm like The Karate Kid movie. And they're like, I don't get 578 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:49,880 it. OK, so, but remember in The 579 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,320 Karate Kid movie, right, he has them wax in the car and waxing 580 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:53,680 off right? Now, Why am I doing this stupid 581 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:54,400 thing? This is so dumb. 582 00:28:54,400 --> 00:29:00,200 This is so stupid until the karate and he's like waxing and 583 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:01,720 he's doing the wax on, wax off thing. 584 00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:03,760 And it's like his mind's open. He's like, oh, it was for this 585 00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,400 reason. Whoa, right. 586 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:07,760 So Jesus kind of does this with the disciples. 587 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:09,720 He's been telling them all this stuff and they don't understand 588 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,640 why am I waxing on waxing? Oh, Jesus wanted to keep talking 589 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,120 about the Kingdom, keep talking about the helper that's going to 590 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:17,800 come. And then Jesus is like, and it's 591 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,040 like he makes the Scriptures make sense to them, right? 592 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,720 That's what happens here. It's like they've been confused. 593 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:26,280 But then he makes things clear to them. 594 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,640 And he said to them, this is written that the Christ should 595 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,080 suffer on the third day, rise from that, and that repentance 596 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,600 for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name 597 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:36,320 to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. 598 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,400 You are witnesses of these things. 599 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,920 He's like you read it that it would start in Jerusalem and 600 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,440 then the the good news of God's love and grace and mercy and 601 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,280 forgiveness is going to go out from Jerusalem and go to the 602 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,200 whole world and the disciples are going to be the start of it. 603 00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,880 And Jesus said, behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father 604 00:29:55,240 --> 00:30:00,000 upon you, not with you, but upon you, but staying in the city 605 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,880 until you are clothed with power from on high. 606 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:05,640 So Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit to come and he's 607 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:07,040 talking in these terms. He's going to be in you. 608 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:08,720 He's going to be with you and in you and upon you and you're 609 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,120 going to be clothed in. I mean to get ready, I'm going 610 00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:14,880 to leave. But someone else, the Holy 611 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,960 Spirit God is coming. And they must have been 612 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,600 confused. And he let them out as far as 613 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:23,320 Bethany. And after the 40 days he was 614 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:27,880 with them after the resurrection and lifting up his hands, he 615 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,360 blessed them every. It's not just my truth. 616 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,200 So of course, it's a Christian tradition at the end of a church 617 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,680 service, it's, it's right that the, the minister, the pastor 618 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:41,080 should say a blessing, right? So every week when I say a 619 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,240 blessing over you, it's just, it's, it's in the tradition of 620 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,240 Jesus. Jesus is like ending this time 621 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:47,360 and he says a blessing. But when Jesus is saying a 622 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,720 blessing over them, he starts to ascend up to heaven. 623 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,200 So you can imagine it's like, may the Lord bless you and keep 624 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:54,880 you and may he turn his face to you. 625 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,320 And then Jesus starts to like ascend all the way up into the 626 00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,800 heavens. While he blessed them, he parted 627 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,880 from them and was carried up into heaven. 628 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:10,080 God with us is no longer God with us. 629 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:16,680 Now Jesus is away. He parted from them and we see 630 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,240 that. We don't see this at the end of 631 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:19,920 Luke's story. You actually see this in Acts. 632 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,200 I don't know if you know this, but Luke's gospel. 633 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,120 So the book of Luke and then the book of Acts, Luke writes both 634 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,040 of them, and I call it dovetailing. 635 00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:31,360 He dovetails his story. The end of Luke is the beginning 636 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:33,160 of Acts and he kind of tells parts of the same story. 637 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:34,760 Have you seen some of The Avengers movies where they do 638 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,640 that like 1 movie at the end of the one movie and then you're 639 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:39,760 waiting, it's a cliffhanger and then the next one kind of starts 640 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,200 right at that exact moment. But they kind of tell both parts 641 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:44,360 of the story, right? So that's what Luke is doing. 642 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:48,800 So Acts 1 is the dovetail of the end of Luke and Acts 11. 643 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,240 Luke says in the first book, oh Theophilus, that's who he's 644 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:54,360 writing to. I have dealt with all that Jesus 645 00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,920 began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up. 646 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:01,880 So the end of Luke and the start of Acts is Jesus taken up. 647 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,160 In other words, Emmanuel, God with us is no longer God with 648 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:07,320 us. And here's The thing is that 649 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,560 you'll hear people talk about I walk with Jesus, Jesus take the 650 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,680 wheel. You know what, when I'm driving, 651 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,080 I don't say Jesus take the wheel because Jesus isn't here. 652 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,920 He's in heaven. But who is here with me? 653 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,360 The Holy Spirit. I'm not attacking the I mean, 654 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:23,520 the song is great. I love the song, but I mean, 655 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,680 theologically it bothers me, right? 656 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,440 Because it should be like Holy Spirit take the wheel. 657 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,960 You know, it's like, so now the Holy Spirit is with us. 658 00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:36,960 That's the end of Luke and the start of Acts. 659 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,520 So in the first book, so until the day when Jesus was taken up 660 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:41,840 and after he'd given the commands through the Holy 661 00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:44,200 Spirit, the apostles whom he had chosen. 662 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,160 Then in verse 3, it says he presented himself alive to them 663 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,680 after suffering, meaning Jesus by many proofs appearing to them 664 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,800 during 40 days and speaking about the Kingdom of God. 665 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:55,080 He's telling the end of Luke again. 666 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,600 And then while staying with them, verse four, he ordered 667 00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:00,920 them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the 668 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:05,360 promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me for John 669 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,560 baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy 670 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:14,480 Spirit not many days from now. Jesus said you'll be baptized, 671 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:18,400 you'll be immersed, He'll be in you, on you, you'll be clothed 672 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:20,520 in him. He where Jesus said I'm dwelling 673 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,000 with you, He's going to dwell in you. 674 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,200 So in verse 6, when they come together, they ask him, Lord, 675 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:28,520 will you at this time restore the Kingdom? 676 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:29,640 This is when they're still with Jesus. 677 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,920 Before his sins, they were still confused about the Kingdom. 678 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:33,720 They thought Jesus was going to kick the Romans out. 679 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:34,840 He's going to set up an earthly Kingdom. 680 00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:38,400 No, he's leaving and him leaving means that God and now he's 681 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,320 going to come to be with us as the Holy Spirit, not in a 682 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,480 different mode, but they're interacting at the same time. 683 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,560 But now the Holy Spirit where he used to be with us and the Old 684 00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:49,080 Testament. Now we are going to now be the 685 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:53,200 temple, the Tabernacle of God and the Spirit of God is now 686 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,440 going to be available to be in US and with us. 687 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,160 Verse 7 Jesus said to them, it's not for you to know the times of 688 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,120 the season that the Father right the the the Trinity. 689 00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:06,520 They talk about each other has fixed by his own authority. 690 00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:12,719 But verse 8, but Jesus is saying you will receive power when the 691 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:15,159 Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in 692 00:34:15,159 --> 00:34:18,560 Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the 693 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,560 earth. And when he said these things, 694 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:23,040 as they were looking on, he was lifted up. 695 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:24,840 So again, it's dovetail. He's lifted up at the end of 696 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:27,719 Luke now He's lifted up at the beginning of Acts. 697 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:29,400 And a cloud took him out of their sight. 698 00:34:29,639 --> 00:34:32,120 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, 2 men 699 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:35,199 stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you 700 00:34:35,199 --> 00:34:36,800 stand? Look at the end of the heaven. 701 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:39,719 This Jesus who was taken up, who's not with you anymore. 702 00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:41,560 He's not Emmanuel, God with you anymore. 703 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:44,960 He's been taken into the heavens and he will come in the same way 704 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,600 as you saw him going to heaven. Watch. 705 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:51,199 So Jesus ascends and they stand there waiting and the thinking 706 00:34:51,199 --> 00:34:53,320 is that maybe they thought he's coming right back, right? 707 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,400 They still missed it. No, he's going to go away. 708 00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:58,320 The Spirit of God now is going to come and be in you and with 709 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,840 you on you, clothed, clothed with you. 710 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,760 And, and now you're going to leave Jerusalem and the whole 711 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:08,080 world generations are going to hear the message of God's love, 712 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,240 the gospel because of the Holy Spirit and the power that is 713 00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:12,680 going to come into these disciples. 714 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,600 And that power is still available to us. 715 00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,160 Now I want you to see in the context of this, the progression 716 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,240 of the biblical narrative. In other words, what do I mean 717 00:35:22,240 --> 00:35:23,960 by that? I mean the story of the Bible 718 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,240 this week. Chuck, who was in the first 719 00:35:26,240 --> 00:35:28,040 service, he reached out to me in the middle of the week and said, 720 00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:32,640 hey, what, what, what like Bible do you recommend for kids and 721 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,080 certainly parents? I think that we should put 722 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:36,760 Scripture in our kids in in Sunday school. 723 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,960 We're certainly teaching your kids to memorize Scripture. 724 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,080 We want them to do that. But here's The thing is that 725 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:43,360 often people just want kids to memorize Scripture. 726 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:47,960 We're committed as a church for your children learning the story 727 00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:50,640 of the Bible. And even if you're new in faith 728 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,480 or even if you've been in faith for a long time, it might do you 729 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,640 good to go get just like a little children's Bible like for 730 00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,600 1/3 grader and read it and and just to get OK, wait a minute, 731 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:00,440 wait a minute. This Oh yeah. 732 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:04,040 This is the story of the Bible because God reveals himself in 733 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,400 the Bible in story. It's story. 734 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:08,040 It's not just a list of do's and don'ts. 735 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,680 It's the story of God. And what is the story of God? 736 00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:14,480 The story of God is this from Genesis to Revelation. 737 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:22,320 The story of the Bible is God with us, God, OK, God being with 738 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,000 us, like we interacting with God. 739 00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:26,760 That's the story of the Bible. So in Genesis what happens is 740 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,240 God is there at the beginning. I won't read it to you for the 741 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:30,720 sake of time, but in the beginning God created the 742 00:36:30,720 --> 00:36:33,480 heavens and the earth and the Spirit of God, dimension of the 743 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,840 Spirit of God is there and he's hovering over the waters. 744 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,840 And then in Genesis 3, we jump forward and we're like, OK, God 745 00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:42,200 creates Adam and Eve and he's in the garden with them. 746 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,960 And you get the idea that God is with them in Eden. 747 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,560 And that's the that's the thing. It's like God created the 748 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,920 garden, puts Adam and Eve in it. They're tending the garden and 749 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,080 in Eden, God and man are together. 750 00:36:58,240 --> 00:37:03,120 Well, what happens tragically, Adam and Eve disobey God. 751 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:06,560 They eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and 752 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:10,120 the relationship that walking with God, being with God is 753 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,640 broken. What happens after they sin 754 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,600 verse 8 and says, and they heard the sound, watch this, I want 755 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,400 you to get this and they heard the sound of the Lord walking in 756 00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:22,440 the garden in the cool of the day. 757 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,480 And you get this, you get this impression that Adam and Eve 758 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:30,920 were familiar with the sound like what was the sound of God 759 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:32,320 walking in the garden in the cool of the day? 760 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,640 Well, they knew that sound so like they're familiar with the 761 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:40,440 sound of being with God and all of a sudden they hear the sound 762 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,600 of God coming to be with them. And by the way, what if if God 763 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,520 is walking in the garden is making sound? 764 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:48,600 And this would arguably what we call Christophany, It's like an 765 00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,840 appearing of Jesus. God is showing up as we think, 766 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:57,400 as God in bodily form is Jesus. So Jesus is there God walking 767 00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,120 with him in the garden. And the man and his wife hid 768 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,760 themselves from the presence of the Lord and God among the trees 769 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:07,800 of the garden. The Lord God called to the man 770 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:12,560 and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound 771 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,800 of you in the garden, and I was afraid. 772 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:23,720 So here's what I give you is that this idea of like the sound 773 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:28,040 of walking with God, they had it, God coming and walking with 774 00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,280 them and the sound of God being with them that they were 775 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:33,600 familiar with, they could hear his footsteps and him coming to 776 00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:35,680 be with them. And now they're afraid. 777 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,240 And So what does God do? Does he kill them? 778 00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,040 No. This is a curious thing. 779 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:44,760 God puts them out of the garden. And why? 780 00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:48,200 Well, because when they ate from the tree to the knowledge of 781 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:51,160 good and evil, it just it's now sin and presented and they're 782 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:53,240 going to live eternally. They can live eternally. 783 00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:55,160 It's the long story theologically, but they can live 784 00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:57,680 eternally in the garden. And if they stay in the Garden 785 00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:04,280 of Eden eternally minus relationship with God, walking 786 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:08,040 with God, then the Garden of Eden becomes like a hell. 787 00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:14,040 Because if they're not with God in the garden, then being absent 788 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:18,200 of God and relationship with God and walking with God, now that's 789 00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:20,840 hell. So God does something good to 790 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:22,280 them. He puts them out of the garden 791 00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:26,000 and he puts an Angel cherubim on like in the gates of the garden, 792 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:27,880 and he's so they can't get back in. 793 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,360 It's punishment. No, because if they get back in, 794 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,600 they're forever without God and that's hell. 795 00:39:33,240 --> 00:39:35,640 So God keeps them out of the garden and they start dying. 796 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,600 But that's OK because God has already said that he has a plan 797 00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:41,560 and he's going. That's the story of the Bible 798 00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:45,280 where God is going to restore walking with him. 799 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,720 God with us. They're God with us in the yard, 800 00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:50,320 in the garden. Now we're separated from God, 801 00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:51,600 but the Spirit of God is going to be there. 802 00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,040 And then God starts his plan with Abraham and Moses. 803 00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:56,680 And it's the story of the Old Testament where God is restoring 804 00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:58,880 this idea of being with him and walking with him. 805 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,640 And so he prophesized. It's like, I've got this plan. 806 00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:03,240 I'm going to redeem you. I'm going to buy you back. 807 00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:04,960 I'm going to buy you back. And it's all those who went 808 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:06,440 before us and all those who will go after us. 809 00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:09,160 God has his plan. So the plan is, I'm going to 810 00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:12,080 send myself, I'm going to be with you. 811 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,560 And when I come to be with you, then I'm going to give my life 812 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:15,760 for you and I'm going to redeem you. 813 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:17,640 I'm going to surprise. Satan, he doesn't know it's 814 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:21,720 coming and then it's able to storm the gates of hell. 815 00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:23,920 Jesus does. He takes back the keys of the 816 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:26,000 Kingdom of hell. All I mean, he conquers sin and 817 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:27,040 death. He does all his stuff and he 818 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,800 comes back to the disciples and he's with them for 40 days. 819 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,920 But that's not the end because if Jesus stays that way, then 820 00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:37,280 he's only with those disciples. And the plan is not that God is 821 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,520 just going to be with a few. The plan is that God with this 822 00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:42,880 sense of like walking in the garden and being with, it's 823 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:45,040 going to be for all who want to come. 824 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,520 All of us are going to be able to have relationship. 825 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,160 We're all going to be able to get back to the sense of like I 826 00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:55,720 hear the sound of God walking in the garden and I get to go be 827 00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:58,160 with him. Of course, that's eternally, but 828 00:40:58,160 --> 00:40:59,320 it doesn't. It's not the other side of 829 00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:01,200 eternity. We get it here now. 830 00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:03,920 And that's the story of Pentecost and the story of the 831 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,200 Holy Spirit. It's no longer God with us like 832 00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:10,320 a few. Now it's God in US, All of us 833 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,320 who want to receive the Holy Spirit, God in our lives. 834 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:17,360 Now it's God in US. And that's the story of the 835 00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:19,840 Bible. It goes sad in Genesis, but it 836 00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:24,600 goes great in Acts. Now what I want to show you, I 837 00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:27,480 want to get back now in Acts chapter 13, it's a long tangent, 838 00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:30,720 but here we go. The church at Antioch. 839 00:41:30,720 --> 00:41:33,880 This is post Pentecost. If you know the story of Acts 840 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:37,760 chapter 2, Jesus said go, wait. And the Holy Spirit's going to 841 00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,320 come, the helper's going to come and, and he does and they snig 842 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,440 comes on them and it says it's like fire on them, you know, in 843 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,440 a good way. And and they storm out of this 844 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,520 upper room that they're in and they go preaching in the streets 845 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:51,640 during during the Pentecost festival. 846 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,720 And they're declaring and other languages the message of God's 847 00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:56,720 love through Jesus. And, and they're preaching it 848 00:41:56,720 --> 00:41:58,240 right. And the church is launched. 849 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,400 OK, then watch. What does the church look like 850 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:04,720 early on? It looks like the church in 851 00:42:04,720 --> 00:42:05,960 Antioch. And this is what I want our 852 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:10,040 church to look like. While they were worshipping the 853 00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:18,160 Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, all the sudden it's 854 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:21,600 the sound again of us being with God. 855 00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:26,400 And how did the Holy Spirit say, I don't know, did did someone 856 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,000 have a prophetic word? I don't know how the Holy Spirit 857 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,720 said, but I do know this is that in, in, in Genesis, God's with 858 00:42:34,720 --> 00:42:38,000 them, God's with them. And now the church in Antioch, 859 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:40,000 it's just while they're worshipping and praying and 860 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,240 fasting and praying, it's like, wow, God speaks. 861 00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:47,480 It's the sound of being with God again, and it's so beautiful. 862 00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,200 And it's not just for the church, it's for us as 863 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:55,640 individuals. So this is the arc of the story 864 00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,440 narrative. They're separated from God. 865 00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:58,840 They walk with God. They're not with God. 866 00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,280 Now, the church in Antioch, it's just the norm, but they worship, 867 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,720 they pray, they fast, and the Holy Spirit speaks to them and 868 00:43:03,720 --> 00:43:05,760 the Holy Spirit speaks to them. They do things like we did with 869 00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:07,280 Mariah this morning. They blade hands on Paul and 870 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,720 Barnabas and they sent them out. This is what the church should 871 00:43:10,720 --> 00:43:14,320 be looking like. We're interacting with God like 872 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:18,000 Adam and Eve did in the garden. And the Holy Spirit is the one 873 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:21,280 that enables us through this is God now revealed to us as the 874 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:24,800 Holy Spirit. And here's where a lot of 875 00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:25,920 Christians, again, they miss it, right? 876 00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:28,160 So in the weeks to come, I'm going to talk for weeks to come 877 00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:30,840 about the Holy Spirit. So what does the Holy Spirit do? 878 00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:32,240 What are the gifts? What are the fruits? 879 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:34,960 Like what you know, what about blasphemy and the Holy Spirit? 880 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:36,440 What about all that stuff, right? 881 00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:37,880 I'm going to get to all that, right? 882 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:40,680 And here's The thing is that a lot of people, again, I'm going 883 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:42,600 to teach on this because a lot of people don't understand the 884 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:44,240 Holy Spirit. I understand this and it's true 885 00:43:44,240 --> 00:43:46,680 in the early church. This is Astor in Acts chapter 886 00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:48,920 19. So this is 6 chapters after the 887 00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:50,960 church at Antioch. It's like the garden. 888 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:52,840 They're walking with God and God speaking to them. 889 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,600 But here's some Christians, disciples, followers of Jesus, 890 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:58,880 and watch what happens. This is Paul and it says, and it 891 00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,520 happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, so in the city of 892 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:05,520 Corinth, Paul passed through the island, the inland country, and 893 00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,080 he came to Ephesus. You know, the New Testament, 894 00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:09,920 there's a book called Ephesians that there's a church there. 895 00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,240 And Paul writes a letter to them, right, called a letter to 896 00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:14,640 the Ephesians. So Paul's in Ephesus and he 897 00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:17,560 comes up there. He found some disciples. 898 00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:22,000 These are followers of Jesus and and they're proclaiming their 899 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:23,920 faith in Jesus in in far off lands. 900 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,800 And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you 901 00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:31,840 believed? And they said, no, we've not 902 00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:36,400 even heard that there is a Holy Spirit disciples of Jesus. 903 00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:38,920 And they're like, we don't know nothing about this. 904 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:40,920 Now, are they, are they saved? Yes. 905 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:41,840 Are they Christians? Yes. 906 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:43,600 Are they disciples of Jesus? Yes. 907 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:45,760 But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, they're like, we're 908 00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:47,200 close. We don't know anything about it. 909 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,960 And here's The thing is, I think there's so many Christians today 910 00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:53,560 that are Christians. They've, they've said, I want to 911 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:56,720 surrender my life to Christ, but they don't understand the role 912 00:44:56,720 --> 00:44:58,040 of the Holy Spirit in their lives. 913 00:44:58,280 --> 00:44:59,400 So when you say, are you a Christian? 914 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:04,840 Yes, yes, I, I, I, I go to church and I read my Bible and I 915 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,280 give and I do all these things and I serve. 916 00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:10,320 And then you say, do you know about the Holy Spirit? 917 00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:12,920 Do you know about the power of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy 918 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,640 Spirit is in US and how we get to walk with him like Adam and 919 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:17,040 Eve in the garden? Like do you know about this? 920 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:20,000 You're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. 921 00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:22,040 A lot of Christians are like this. 922 00:45:22,240 --> 00:45:23,920 Or they'll go. They told me that when I got 923 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:26,400 saved, I got the Holy Spirit. Yes, you did. 924 00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:29,480 Yes, you did. When you got saved, yes, the 925 00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:31,080 Spirit of God came to dwell in you. 926 00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:35,120 It's true, but if you don't know the fruits of the Holy Spirit 927 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:37,720 and the nature of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit 928 00:45:37,720 --> 00:45:39,760 interacts with us, I'm going to tell you in the weeks to come, 929 00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:42,520 all of these things that the Holy Spirit does, how God 930 00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:44,080 interacts with us now is the Holy Spirit. 931 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,760 I'm going to get to all that. So if you, you live your 932 00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:49,000 Christian life, you could be saved, you're a Christian, 933 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,120 you're going to be eternally with God, all of that. 934 00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,240 But if you live your life going, I'm a follower of Jesus. 935 00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:56,160 I'm all about Jesus. I'm all about Jesus. 936 00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,200 Jesus is up in heaven going. I'm up here, the Holy Spirit is 937 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,520 with you. I went away, I was God, I was 938 00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:06,400 Emmanuel, but now the Holy Spirit and you're like Jesus 939 00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:09,480 speak to me and Jesus is like the Holy Spirit is there to do 940 00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:11,480 that. Now it's the Holy Spirit. 941 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:13,920 So you have to learn how to interact with the Holy Spirit 942 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:16,720 because that's now how it is. We're in that period of time 943 00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:21,200 where God now is with us and in US. 944 00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:24,120 And Jesus is not just in one place now God is. 945 00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:26,360 Jesus has a sin in heaven. So the Holy Spirit can't be 946 00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:30,560 everywhere to all people, but there are New Testament types 947 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,040 gone. Having you heard of the Holy 948 00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,560 Spirit. So I don't want you to be a part 949 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,240 of North life Church and someone says, hey, do you know about all 950 00:46:38,240 --> 00:46:41,000 the things that the Holy Spirit could do You know like like you 951 00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,440 know how you can you can pray and when you pray, do you know 952 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:44,800 you're supposed to pray to the Holy Spirit? 953 00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,560 Did you know that Well, Jesus said when you pray, say father, 954 00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:49,720 right. We pray to father, but OK, but 955 00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:51,360 there are other places. I'm going to show you how you're 956 00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:53,440 to interact with and speak the Holy Spirit. 957 00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:54,960 We'll get all that in the weeks to come. 958 00:46:55,440 --> 00:47:01,000 So my hope is that as you grow in your understanding about the 959 00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:02,920 confusion that you might have or the hang ups that you might 960 00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,360 have, again, maybe you've seen churches that were like Holy 961 00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,680 Ghost churches, right? The Holy Ghost churches. 962 00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:10,000 And it was like, I don't get that. 963 00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:14,000 OK, well, does that mean all that is, all that they believe 964 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,280 is not available? Their churches are like, because 965 00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,480 we don't want to have anything to do with that, Then we're 966 00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:21,240 going to be over here. We're all about the Father and 967 00:47:21,240 --> 00:47:23,400 all about the Son and the Holy Spirit thing. 968 00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,200 I don't know, man. Well, I'm going to show you 969 00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,640 scripturally, you don't get to go that you don't. 970 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:28,640 That's not the route you get to take. 971 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:31,640 You want to walk a flourishing, powerful spirit like Christian 972 00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:34,120 life. Then we want to grow an 973 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:38,160 understanding of how God is revealing himself and the 974 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,080 Trinity. And right now the part of the 975 00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:44,720 Trinity that is most available to us is the Holy Spirit. 976 00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:48,280 So just end with some questions. Did you know about the Trinity? 977 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,200 Maybe it's new. The concept of the Trinity might 978 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,520 be new to you. And like the in Acts chapter 19 979 00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:55,240 where like Paul's like, did you know about the Holy Spirit? 980 00:47:55,240 --> 00:47:57,160 Maybe you're like, I don't know that I know about the Holy 981 00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:58,400 Spirit. They didn't either. 982 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:01,560 And Are you ready to go for a deep dive in the Holy Spirit in 983 00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:04,600 weeks to come? Good, Very good. 984 00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:06,160 So Jason's going to come and we're going to sing. 985 00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:07,560 Now. What I love is I love this song 986 00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:09,760 became so popular a couple years ago and we signed here many 987 00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:11,560 times. But we're going to end with 988 00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:14,480 this. And the idea is that you go, oh, 989 00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:16,320 yeah, I've sung that song many times. 990 00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:19,640 But then you're like, wow, I guess I didn't understand the 991 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:22,440 way that, wow, what this song means when it says Holy Spirit, 992 00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:24,480 you're welcome here. Oh, I guess I didn't understand 993 00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:26,800 what I was really saying. Like sometimes you might think, 994 00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:28,320 oh, the Holy Spirit is the present. 995 00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:30,680 Oh, it's the Holy Spirit. Is that like goosebump feeling 996 00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,040 that I get right? If you come to church, I hope 997 00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:34,720 that there are times you're like, man, sometimes people just 998 00:48:34,720 --> 00:48:37,200 move to tears. They come to church and they're 999 00:48:37,200 --> 00:48:39,720 like, oh, wow, I feel the presence of God. 1000 00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:41,320 And he said, oh, that's the Holy Spirit. 1001 00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:45,560 No, that's not the Holy Spirit. It's not the, it's not totally 1002 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:46,960 the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit moving in a 1003 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:48,840 way. We're like, I sense God, I feel 1004 00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:49,880 God. I can't explain it, but I feel 1005 00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:51,600 God. No, that's not what we were 1006 00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:53,400 chasing after. When we say Holy Spirit, you're 1007 00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:54,440 welcome. It's not like God. 1008 00:48:54,440 --> 00:49:00,920 Bring the good vibes, right? No, we're saying God, Holy 1009 00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:04,160 Spirit, you are God, you are God. 1010 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:08,120 And we're saying, come Holy Spirit, you're welcome in our 1011 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:11,440 lives and in me. Can you stand for me? 1012 00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:17,480 I'm really looking forward to the next couple weeks. 1013 00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,160 And if you know somebody that comes to our church and they 1014 00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:23,480 missed it, let them know. Go listen to the podcast to get 1015 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:26,200 ready for next week. I've got like, well, I won't 1016 00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:27,880 even tell you how many weeks because I don't know yet. 1017 00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:33,360 So we'll see how it goes, but we're going to sing this before 1018 00:49:33,360 --> 00:52:31,520 we go out. Let us experience the glory of 1019 00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:39,000 your presence. Let us become more aware of your 1020 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:45,200 presence. Let us experience the glory of 1021 00:52:45,520 --> 00:53:29,900 Your goodness. God, in the weeks to come, Holy 1022 00:53:29,900 --> 00:53:34,020 Spirit, we pray that you would reveal yourself to us and new 1023 00:53:35,340 --> 00:53:38,620 and deep ways that we may walk with you. 1024 00:53:38,620 --> 00:53:41,740 As Adam and Eve walked in the garden, let it become a familiar 1025 00:53:41,740 --> 00:53:45,660 sound, the sound of you among us. 1026 00:53:50,460 --> 00:53:54,800 And before you go, I want to say a blessing over you, if you 1027 00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:58,160 prepare your heart to receive this blessing before you go. 1028 00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:07,400 And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may he make 1029 00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:13,000 his face to shine upon you. And may the joy of the Lord that 1030 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:17,840 is unspeakable and full of glory, may it abound to you. 1031 00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:22,200 And may the peace of God that passes all understanding may 1032 00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:24,960 surprise you in the midst of all of the challenges that life 1033 00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:27,880 brings. And then may the mercies of the 1034 00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:31,400 Lord, in other words, the forgiveness of God, that is new 1035 00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,520 every morning. May it be especially new to you 1036 00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:39,600 now and your mornings to come. And now may the Lord Jesus 1037 00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:43,240 Christ guard your heart and your mind. 1038 00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:49,480 You are salt and you are light. Go now and be salt and light 1039 00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,200 unto the world. You are blessed. 1040 00:54:52,760 --> 00:54:53,920 We'll see you again