Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: We have another praise report. It's so good to hear these praise reports. It strengthens our faith and we've been praying for Misty to get a house for her three children, and God provided a house for her just where it needs to be yesterday: exactly what she needs. And so we are so grateful, Lord. We are so grateful. Misty, you've come so far and you’ve put your faith in God and he is bringing you in and he has got great things ahead for both of you. Yes, James. We just welcome our guests today. It's so nice to have you here and please, will you wait so I could run down and meet you? Sometimes I get talking and our guests have left and I never got to meet them. We hope you got one of our gifts today, too. It's nice to have you here. I'm sure we have some guests online and we are so happy to have you with us too. If you are in Minneapolis, come see us here too or St. Paul. Flo and Ernie are here from St. Paul. It's so good to have you here. Next week we are having a picnic. So if you are not going out of town, let's just have a picnic together after church. You can read all about it online. I think that's all I have to say.
Brian: I don't believe it, but that's okay because you always have good things to say.
Jacque: Oh see you saved yourself there. Yeah. Good.
Brian: Yes. Hallelujah. God is so good. I'm so thankful for today. Today is a very special day on the church calendar. I don't think at times that we've truly understood the significance of this particular day on the church calendar. Today is the day of Pentecost. Kind of like throughout a lot of church history, there was kind of like the Pentecostals and the charismatics. They celebrated this day, but they just kind of celebrated just a small niche of this day. And then you have more of the traditional denominations that would recognize it or talk about it because it was one of the feasts of Israel, but they had not experientially really kind of entered into the whole aspect of Pentecost.
It's kind of one of those church holidays or special days that I think has found a difficult place to fit. I'm hoping to help us understand how it is supposed to feel yet today because there is so much to celebrate. We realized that we went from, basically, with the coming of Christ, and then of course, with the day of Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost, what ended up happening is the world went from being governed in a sense under Old Testament law to New Testament, grace.
I don't think that we today really understand the significance of that, especially to the depth and degree that I would hope that we will come to an understanding of it. Jesus, through the prophets, spoke a lot about a change that was going to becoming. He spoke through Jeremiah. He spoke through Joel, the prophet. He spoke through Ezekiel, the prophets. The fact of the matter is the law that God gave was never able to change a person's heart. How many of you know that the harder you squeeze somebody, the more you punish them. Oftentimes, that doesn't transform their hearts, does it? It just gets them angrier. It gets them harder. I'm not saying that laws are not important, certainly they are important, but the law is not what transforms us. When a person's heart is hard, what need to have happened is not more laws put on tHhem, but they need to understand their value because they've been made in the image of God and they need to understand grace. God saw this, especially starting through the prophets in the Old Testament.
He began to say things like I'm going to put my spirit in them and I'm going to write my laws on their hearts. I'm going to change their hearts. How they are going to be governed is no longer going to be governed on tablets of stone with rules and regulations, but rather it's going to be this intimate relationship that people can have with God that's going to change their lives. We see this progression historically when we read the scriptures where all of the Old Testament was intended to be, as Paul later says, a teacher to do what, to bring us to whom? To Christ. I use this illustration a lot and I think because it helps people understand the whole purpose of the Old Testament.
When I was at the University of Minnesota studying for my undergraduate degree in piano performance, I had the opportunity to— I was asked by the conductor of the Box Society, if I would come in and audition to be the accompanist for the Box Society. And so I said, certainly I'll be glad to do that. But what do you think he would have thought if I would have said to him “Audition? I study with Duncan McNabb who studied with Rosina Levine who studied with the fellow in Russia, who studied with Beethoven. Why should I audition?” The conductor would have probably said to me, well, it doesn't really matter who you studied with, what matters is, what?
Jacque: Can you play?
Brian: Yeah. What did you learn from who you studied with? What did you learn from who you studied with? Paul, in writing the epistles, he says the scriptures, and referring to the Old Testament, the scriptures were intended by God to be a school master or a teacher to bring us to Jesus Christ. The whole Old Testament was written to point the way to Jesus. And the problem of course, with the religious leaders at the time of Christ was they kept saying, "But we have the Law of Moses. We have the law." Jesus was basically saying yes, but what did you learn from this teacher you've been studying with? They really missed the boat. They really missed the boat.
We see now as Jesus ascends into heaven, he gives us what is called the promise of the father. It's not the promise of Jesus; it's actually the promise of the father. Before we kind of get into some of the scriptures today, I think it's just— I've been praying for our church for many years, and it's my prayer that we, as a community of Hope and those of you who are part of the online community, that we really develop a deeper hunger for the things of God, that we really develop a passion for the kingdom of God and the ways of Jesus in our lives and the power of a spirit-filled life that we can have in our lives. When we read Book of Acts, we see that the New Testament church was really a very exciting church. Wasn't it? It was a very exciting church and was a very powerful church.
What grips our heart and minds when we read the Book of Acts is not the prestige of the early church. What we see in the early church is even the influence that they had in the local governments at that time with the government of Rome or the government with Herod and local governments. But what we see is a demonstration of the power of God. That's what we see: a demonstration of the power of God. In that day, God moved in response to prayer. God moved in response to their passion for the intimacy and the presence of God. There were many miracles that attended the saving power of Jesus Christ, many, many miracles that would attend that. I'm thankful today that we have seen miracles with Nikki and miracles with Daniel and miracles with other people. These miracles give us a hope for when we need a miracle because God is no respecter of persons.
I would like to begin with a simple verse in Hebrews chapter 13. We've probably memorized it many years ago. Hebrews 13 verse 8, as the writer of Hebrews is kind of concluding this incredible book of Hebrews, he wants to remind us of something about Jesus, the nature of Jesus and what he is like, and here is what he said.
Jacque: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Brian: Wow, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So Jesus was he still is. What Jesus said, he is still saying, isn't he? And what Jesus did, he is what?
Jacque: He is still doing.
Brian: He is still doing because he is the same yesterday, today and forever. Not only does Jesus still save today, but he also heals today. He still baptizes in the Holy Spirit today. He still frees people from their sins today. He still brings grace and mercy to everybody he counters today. That has not changed. I think that that's a wonderful message that we have to give to people in an hour that seems very dark in our world. He still performs the things that he did during his soldiering on earth. He is still doing it today. In the early church, not only were the lost redeemed, but those who needed a touch from God were touched. It was more than just giving them a place to go when they died.
The early church was much more about telling people somewhere they could go when they died. It was about a kingdom that was in heaven that was supposed to come to the earth and dwell within them in majesty and empower and in greatness, transforming their lives. People who were oppressed were set free. We've seen that happen in so many people's lives. We've seen people who have virtually been in prison or in a prison of sorts and where Jesus comes and changes their whole lives and their future, and they were delivered from all sorts of tormentors. I love this story of the demoniac of the Gadarenes; it's one of my favorite stories. It's one of my favorite places to go in Israel: that cemetery that now has a kind of the ruins of an old church there that was built many, many centuries ago.
When you go there, when I go there and I reflect on the story, I can sense the freedom. It's like a spirit of freedom is right there in that place where Jesus came and set this tormented man free. We don't know how he became so possessed and afflicted by the demonic realm. I suspect that he had been the victim of some kind of abuse and some kind of mistreatment, maybe marginalized, rejected, all the things that would open up doors to the demonic realm to afflict him. And yet Jesus came and in a moment, he freed him from his tormentors. Not one person prior to that could do that. Their only solution was put actually more chains on them, to bind him more with physical chains so that he wouldn't hurt people. Their solution, kind of externally, was nothing but a reinforcement of what was, had happened to him internally. When we look at people, we need to remember that what we need to do is deal with the hearts of issues, hearts of people. As we deal with the hearts of people, the only way to do that is to bring a heart transformation message to them. That heart transformation message is the love of Jesus Christ. That's the real heart transformation.
Jacque: He changes us from the inside out.
Brian: Yes, he does. He changes us from the inside out. The early church was a fellowship of believers who I think we could say were admittedly imperfect. Wouldn't you agree that much of the early church we read about the believers were admittedly imperfect, but they were also vibrantly and dynamically alive, even in their imperfections, even in their lack of perfectness. Their imperfections actually didn't hinder their vibrancy of life. The early church was really desirous of man manifesting or painting a picture of what the power of Holy Spirit in our lives can really do. It could really do. I think they were more concerned about Christian love than they were even about correct liturgy. They were more concerned about loving properly, loving each other than they were about having right liturgy.
Anyways, let's read a portion of scripture. We find it in Acts 1: 4 and 5. This is talking about Jesus. Right before we read this, I just like to say this: when you are driving down the road and you see a chimney and there is smoke coming out of that chimney; what can you conclude from that?
Jacque: There is a fire somewhere.
Brian: There is a fire down below somewhere. There is a fire down below that's making that smoke in the chimney. In the same way, the manifestation of the gifts of the spirit and the power of Holy Spirit in our lives is an indicator that there is something, a work of the Holy Spirit happening in that person.
Jacque: There is a fire inside us.
Brian: There is a fire inside us. That fire inside of us, that Holy Spirit inside of us is a gift from God to equip us to be able to overcomers, to be able to destroy the works of the enemy, because the enemy is still alive and he is still well, but his future is not well. That we know. When we see the gifts manifested then the power of God is there in a person's life. There is quick question that I want to ask as we get into this. The question is, what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? The baptism of the Holy Spirit basically, can be defined this way. It's a second encounter with God in which a Christian begins to receive the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in their life. Sometimes it happens when a person gives their heart to Christ; there are other times it comes subsequently through instruction. It's an infilling of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit into their lives because of this wonderful transition from Old testament to New Testament relationship with God. Let's go there to acts chapter one, verses four and five. And we see this.
Jacque: On one occasion while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with or in the Holy Spirit. Yes.
Brian: Jesus is having dinner, eating with his disciples and his friends, and he basically gave them this command. He said, "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for the gift that my father promised, which you've heard me speak about." This wasn't the first time that Jesus had spoken about it. So you've heard me talk about this. Now, this is a promise from the father. And Jesus even said, "I have to go away so that the promise can come" because his disciples said well, why do you have to leave? Jesus said, "I have to leave so that the promise can come." And then in a few days, you will be baptized with, or in the Holy Spirit. So then we jumped down to verse eight of that same chapter, which reads this.
Jacque: But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Brian: What I find really interesting about the timing of this is that it coincides with what was the feast of Pentecost. The feast of Pentecost was basically the first feast that had happened after Passover. Another title for it was the Feast of Harvest or First Fruits. It was a celebration. The feast of Pentecost to the Jewish people was a celebration of the first harvest coming to them from their plantings earlier in the spring. As we know that Jesus doesn't do anything just arbitrarily or by accident, he never says, oops, well, I didn't think of that. Those are not within the framework of God's vocabulary. Everything he has he is does with a purpose. He purposely sent Holy Spirit at this feast of celebrating harvest. And then we see even from his own words, that the purpose for this baptism of power, this purpose of being filled with the Holy Spirit was so that you and I could become powerful in demonstrating signs and/or wonders as a witness of who Jesus is in our lives.
I have a personal opinion as to why we need this, and it's this: I don't believe that when God created man, he ever designed and intended man to sin because if he did intend man to sin when he created us, we wouldn't have had such terrible consequences from it. But we have terrible consequences from sin not only in our relationship with God and in our relationship with each other, but even in our own bodies, don't we? We have terrible effects when we live in sin. So I don't believe that we were ever designed by God to actually do the work of evangelism because God never intended any of us to have to be evangelized. Makes sense?
Jacque: It does to me.
Brian: Okay, good. At least it makes sense to you. I have to live with you, so that's good. But now God sees that within our natural design and makeup, we were not created to evangelize or have a harvest of souls, if you would. And so he says, "I need to give them something to empower them, to do that in a way that will demonstrate who I am and penetrate all of the schemes of the enemy." And so he gives us this wonderful gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We see the first, in a sense, baptism, we encounter or engage is salvation. Of course, we all know this scripture, but I love reading it again.
Jacque: Oh, it's so good.
Brian: John 3: 16 and 17.
Jacque: This is from the NIV. I memorized it as a kid in the KJV. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Brian: God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. I want to do one more thing here. This is not— Give me one second. I got to go through all my goofy stuff here on my phone, but I want to read this cause I have this, I have this on our headstone out in the—
Jacque: Oh in the Message Bible.
Brian: In the Message Bible. And here is what the Message Bible reads John 3:16: this is how much God loved the world. That’s so good. This is how much God loved the world: he gave his son his one and only son. And this is why, so that no one need be destroyed. By believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his son into the world to merely point and accusing finger telling the world how bad it was. But rather he came to help to put the world right again. That's why Jesus came. He came to put the world right again; he didn't come to point in accusing finger.
We see that this wonderful gift of receiving Jesus is offered to the whole world. When we do that, we are instructed to demonstrate that to the world by being baptized in water. That whole process, I call the first baptism. That's the first baptism. Then there is a second encounter that Jesus talked about right here in Acts 1:8, but we have the historical demonstration of it in acts chapter two. I want to read verses 1 through 13 here together in Acts chapter 2. Let's start that. I'm going to be interrupting you quite a bit.
Jacque: Oh, that's fine. You even interrupt yourself when you read. It's okay.
Brian: I know. I interrupt myself when I'm reading. So what can I say?
Jacque: You help us understand it better.
Brian: So this second— I'm already interrupting you and you haven't even started yet. This second encounter, this second baptism, in a sense, was first experienced at the day of Pentecost. And we see this right here in Acts chapter 2
Jacque: From the Message Bible. When the feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place in one accord.
Brian: Now let me stop you there for a second. I was raised as a Pentecostal and we used to sing all sorts of songs, like "They were in an upper chamber. They were all with one accord and the Holy Spirit descended as was spoken by God's word. And then oh Lord, send the power just now." It's a great song, but I don't think it's theologically or historically accurate.
Jacque: I like the chorus.
Brian: It's cool. I think it's historically accurate because the scripture says that they were all together in one place, they were in one accord, according to other translations. I think that's very important, but I don't believe that place was an upper room. I'll explain that in a few moments, but let's go on.
Jacque: Without warning, there was a sound like a strong wind gale force. No one could tell where it came from now.
Brian: Just picture this for a second. Just picture being in a place and you hear the sound of this incredible gale force wind. We've all been in storms. We've all been like in the middle of winter time with the wind blowing. It can be very loud. In fact, people who say that they've been in a tornado say that it sounds like a locomotive is going right over their heads. Imagine being in a room like this room with the sound of this incredible rushing wind, but the curtains aren't moving because it doesn't say that there was a wind. It just says it's sounded like a wind. That's kind of what God does: he does these incredible things that go above and beyond the grasp of our minds to comprehend these mysteries, these miracles.
Without warning, there was this sound that came into this place where these people were gathered ,120 of them. That was one reason why I didn't think it was in an upper room. That would be a really, really, really big room, but there is more to it than the 120. I'll get to that in a second. No one could tell where this came from, but it filled the whole area.
Jacque: It filled the whole building. Then like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit's spread through their ranks and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the spirit prompted them.
Brian: Imagine that; these 120 people were speaking in languages that they had not learned. What was really interesting is that there was a whole host of people there that was hearing them. We see that happen here.
Jacque: There were many Jews. This was because they were here to celebrate the feast.
Brian: The Pentecost, so again, this is God's economy bringing all this together.
Jacque: There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard this sound, they came on the run.
Brian: They heard a sound and they came on to run so they couldn't have been in a room upstairs. They couldn't have been in a second floor, upper room. So here is where I think they were. I think this all happened in the outer courts of the temple. All these people were there to gather for the feast. Everybody went to the temple. There were thousands of people there that day. As a result of this experience, we'll see later on— If you read the rest of this portion of scripture later on in the chapter, 3000 people heard these disciples and these people speaking about the miraculous, wonderful things of God in their own native tongues, in their own mother languages, and 3000 of them came to believe in Jesus. They believed the message: 3000 of them. Wow.
That's what harvest is about. That was the purpose for this baptism of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers, to be able to testify supernaturally, to be able to witness or be a sign supernaturally of the wondrous things of God, so that the message would go to the hearts of people and transform their hearts and that they would believe. It wasn't a message of you vile worthless sinners, and these are all the rules you are breaking. That wasn't the message. The message was the incredible majesty and greatness and mercy and compassion and love of God. And these people heard this sound. When they heard this sound of this, when they came on the run and then they heard one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken. So let's read that.
Jacque: Then when they heard one, after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunder struck. They couldn't for the life of them, figure out what was going on and kept saying, "Aren't all these Galileans? How come we are hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?"
Brian: There is something kind of almost prejudicial in some of this statement because Galileans were not known for their being extremely educated. They weren't; they were more known for kind of blue-collar workers and they were fishermen. They were from the region of the Sea of Galilee and that type of thing. Even though certainly Capernaum was a fairly good city, et cetera, et cetera, the Galileans on the whole weren't thought of as highly educated people. Yet it was quite clear, and I'm not sure if that I would be able to notice a distinction, but these people were able to notice the distinction that these people, these disciples, these people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who were now speaking in all these different languages were Galileans. I don't even want to try and draw an analogy to the America here, because if I do, I think it'll sound like I'm prejudice, and I'm not. I try not to be anyways. There was definitely an understanding of the people hearing that these were Galileans. These were not highly educated people and how did they know how to speak all these languages?
Jacque: So many languages.
Brian: The scripture says through the Message Bible that they were thunderstruck, they were like dumbstruck. How can this be? How is this happening? They couldn't for the life of them, figure out what was going on, and they kept saying, aren't these all Galileans? How are we hearing them in our own mother tongues? How is that happening? Luke, who writes the Book of Acts, goes into a description of some of the different people who were representative here. And let's look at that list real quick.
Jacque: These are all the places they came from: Parthians, Medes and Elamites, visitor's from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia. How do you pronounce that one?
Brian: Phrygia.
Jacque: Phrygia, thank you, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene.
Brian: This is where Simon of Cyrene came from that carried the cross of Jesus
Jacque: Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes who are gentiles.
Brian: Yeah, immigrants from Rome and people who had converted to Judaism, proselytes et cetera, who were Gentiles who converted to Judaism,
Jacque: Even Cretins and Arabs. They are speaking our languages describing God's mighty works. Their heads were spinning.
Brian: Can you just imagine it? Just imagine it. You are in the outer courts of the temple. There are thousands of people there and all of a sudden the sound of this incredible tornado rushing wind comes through the outer courts area, but it has got a locale to it. And they come running. These people come running from all directions to see what's going on, what's going on. All of a sudden, they hear this handful of disciples and followers of Jesus speaking in their own mother tongues.
Jacque: Their heads were spinning. They couldn't make head or tail of it. They talk back and forth confused. What's going on here? Others joked: they are drunk on cheap wine.
Brian: Yes. And so others just— we are always trying to put some kind of natural explanation on the supernatural things of God, aren't we? So the natural explanation was, well, they are drunk. Well, then Peter stands up. We won't read that whole rest of the scripture. You could do it this afternoon. Peter stands up and says these people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only 9 o'clock in the morning guys. They haven't even been up long enough to drink enough to get drunk. And then he goes on to say this is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel. And he quotes this incredible portion of scripture from Joel, and then goes into a little bit of a history of Jesus.
At the end of the chapter, it says 3000 people believed and came to receive Jesus Christ. This is the first demonstration of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the effects of what it is intended for. It's really intended for us to be able to bring the witness of Jesus Christ to the world. It's really intended to be used in such a way that supernaturally the incredible majestic things of God would be described and understood in a person's native tongue. One of the things I really love about this event is that I'm sure that there are things that we say in our American language that are very difficult to say in other languages, but they mean a lot to us, don't they? They mean just a lot to us because they are our native or mother tongue.
God loved all of these people so much. Even though they were all Jews, even though many of them probably learn to speak Greek and maybe even Hebrew, because that was what a good Jewish person would do: learn how to speak Hebrew. Some of them would learn how to speak Greek, but they all had their mother tongues that were their real language of communication. God cared so much about them he would speak to them in the language that they were most familiar with. He didn't sidestep their culture, but he poured himself into their language.
This second experience of the power of God, I believe is given for the purpose of equipping you and I, the believer with God's power, for service, for reaching the laws for this harvest a feast of Pentecost. It is a spiritual baptism in which I believe Jesus begins to manifest his sovereign Lordship and the use of us in his supernatural ways. We basically have two baptisms here that talking about, and this is what I want to finish with today.
We do have, in essence, a baptism when we pray to receive Jesus, because the scriptures tell us that we received the spirit of Christ; that the spirit of Christ comes and dwells in our hearts and the spirit of Christ comes and lives within us. What a wonderful gift that is. I still can really remember. I prayed to receive Christ as a child, but then when I really understood it more as an adult, and I really prayed to receive Christ as Lord of my life. I still remember the day and, and the whole world changed for me. My whole future changed for me. The whole purpose for why I was living change for me, and that happened. I became baptized in water. I wanted to follow and demonstrate what had happened inwardly to me to the world and become part of the faith community. So I became baptized in water.
In this first baptism, I was the object of redemption. I was the object of God's redemption, but then when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and God gave me a heavenly language to speak in my prayer times with him, but he gave me much more than that. He also gave me or made available to me all the gifts of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit that could be used so that somebody who is hardened in their heart and without hope that those gifts of the spirit could be used to melt that hardened heart. In this second baptism, I'm no longer the object of redemption, but I become the instrument of redemption in this second baptism, that as I am baptized with the holy spirit and filled with the holy spirit, I can now be an instrument that is used by God, in the hands of the master to bring redemption to people who are hopeless and lost and undone, and in and in change without hope with full of shame. All these incredible gifts that God makes available to us through the baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit become available to us for whatever moment they are needed in our lives.
Oftentimes, people don't enter into this second baptism because number one, they aren't always very aware that there is a baptism of that type of available to them, but I would just say to all of us today, whether you are here in the auditorium, or you are watching by live stream, all you have to do is ask. All you have to do is ask because he wants to fill us with his power and his presence in such a way that we will be empowered to bring this wonderful message of Jesus to hearts that our heart beyond our ability to change, but with the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can't. I'd just like to pray for all of us today.
Father, I thank you that your wisdom gave this second wonderful baptism, this baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you transitioned us from an Old Testament way of salvation where we made sacrifices, our sins recovered and through the cross and the resurrection and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that came at Pentecost, we've now transitioned to a whole new covenant, a whole new way of walking with you, Lord. We are not under the old rules, the old regulations, the old manner, but you've given us a whole new life with freedom from shame, freedom from guilt, freedom from bondage, and you, Lord also give to us as your children, the power to help break the bondages in other people's lives by working in conjunction with you in the gifts of the spirit. And so I pray today, Lord, I thank you that at this wonderful feast, this feast of Pentecost where the Jewish people were celebrating the harvest, they were celebrating the first of the harvest of that year, that you sent your spirit to bring a harvest of souls, that there would be a harvest. Lord, you have said to your disciples, look onto the fields for they are white into harvest, but there aren't enough workers. So pray to the Lord of the harvest that we would send workers into the harvest.
And I pray today, Lord, that we would send not only workers into the harvest, but the workers would go equipped with the right equipment to harvest the fields that are whitened to harvest. And this is what you've given to us today, Lord and I thank you for this day that we can celebrate your gift to us, the gift of Holy Spirit, the promise of our father. You've not asked us to go do a bunch of labor and not give the tools to labor with. So we thank you for your presence today. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you that we can be baptized in your Holy Spirit and that there can be a power from on high that comes into us, that when we speak our words won't fall on deaf ears that you'll give us words of knowledge, and you'll give us a spirit of discernment and you'll give us faith, a gift of faith. And you'll give us Lord the gift of miracles, because some people just need a miracle to believe. Others, Lord just need their bondages broken.
There are so many things you've given to us, Lord to bring your love and grace and redemption to the world. And I pray today that we would once again, be open to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, filling us up to overflowing with all of the equipment that we need to do this incredible work of the harvest in the last days. This I pray Jesus, in your name for your sake. Let's lift our hands together, shall we?
Now, may the Lord bless you ad may the Lord keep you. May the Lord turn his face towards you, and give you his peace. May the Lord be gracious unto you and smile upon you today. May our hearts be filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that we can be his witnesses in our own hometowns, in our regions, in our state, our nation and the world.
We've not been left alone. So today, I pray that you will go with great confidence, go with great fervor, go with great faith knowing that there is an infilling of the spirit of God that awaits all of us to do the work of the master, who sent us. This we pray in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. God bless you. God Bless you. Just know today that all you need to do is ask and he knows how to give good gifts. Jesus just said, "Would a father, give a snake or a scorpion? No." He said, "How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?" How much more?
Jacque: We ask over and over, over for our lifetime, always fill me. Every day, fill me.
Brian: You know, when we have a cup, I don't just fill this cup one time because I keep drinking out of it. So every time I take a drink out of it, I need some more to go fill it in. Every time we operate in the gifts of the spirit and work in the gifts of the spirit, there is an emptying of ourselves. And so it's okay to ask God to fill us up again. This is the relationship we have with God. If you would like to receive communion today, Dave and Lou will be here to serve communion for you at this morning if you would like community after the service. God bless you. Thank you for being with us today. Know that you are empowered mightily by God to do the works of him who sent you. Have a great day. God bless you, and thank you all for watching us today on live stream. Have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 5-23-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.