Acts 1:4-8 - We Need the Holy Spirit

[0:00] or on your phone, scroll there, flick there. You know that we've been kind of going through a sermon series called Disciple Makers.

[0:15] ! And, you know, it's not something that we would normally kind of take weeks over doing topicals. You know, our normal thing here at Calvary is that we go through a book of the Bible verse by verse.

[0:25] But every now and again, we just kind of feel like it's good just to stop and maybe address some issues, address some things that are on our hearts. And a few weeks ago, middle of Christmas, which is never a good time to start a new sermon series, but like, you know, sometimes you just have to.

[0:44] We started this series and I was talking to you about how when we came to Southampton, you know, like the burden on our hearts was to see discipleship as more than just building a repertoire of knowledge.

[1:01] And we talked about that, didn't we? And two things at the forefront of our hearts and minds as we started the church or we just started to gather together. And the two things that have kind of been driving ever since and even in our conversations and my conversations this week with church leaders across the country have been what would happen if the word of God is platformed in such a way that it becomes central and foundational and authoritative in the lives of the people of God.

[1:33] But also at the same time, what would happen if the spirit of God gets hold of people in such a radical way so that God's mission is adopted as their own? So what would happen if the word of God and the spirit of God collided in the hearts of the people of God?

[1:50] And so this morning or what we've been looking at is this idea. What would happen? Like what would happen if we open the word of God and we said in our heart of hearts and our mind of mind, this is true.

[2:07] Even if I struggle with it, even if I struggle understanding it, even if sometimes I struggle believing it, this is true. And then the Holy Spirit moved on my heart to the degree where I was able to actually step out and not just understand it, but believe it and put faith in God for it.

[2:29] And I was having a relationship with the Lord that was active, that as if he was actually alive. Right? So what happens when the word of God and the spirit of God collide in the people of God?

[2:47] Like, cause I want that for myself. Like, and I'll confess, I don't, I'm not getting up every morning and that's not, that's not happening in my heart every day. Right? And so what would happen?

[2:59] And so what we, the best that we can see is what happened to the disciples when that happened to them. Right? And so John chapter 20, I think is one of the most important passages for when it, when it comes to disciples and disciple making.

[3:17] But before we get there, let's just pray. Father, we have just sung about your name being the highest and your name being the greatest.

[3:31] It stands above them all. Lord, and we sing that and what a great song that is. Lord, it stirs our hearts because it, it, it, it pulls out the faith that we hope to have.

[3:47] It, it, it echoes the desires that you've given us. It is, it is, it is what the Old Testament prophet talks about has deep calls out to deep.

[4:04] As people of God, we know that to be true. And so this morning, as we come to your word, Lord, we want that to be true right here. Lord, that, that when your word speaks, we, we, we, we say, Lord, that your name is the highest, not ours.

[4:24] It's not our will, but yours. That we would decrease, that you would increase. It's all over scripture. And yet how often we would confess it's not all over our lives.

[4:34] And so, Lord, we just humbly come to your word now, Lord, and ask that you, by your Holy Spirit, would speak. Give us hearts to receive.

[4:52] Not what your word necessarily says, but we would receive the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, John chapter 20, you will know that every time we, we come to the Bible, every time we read a passage in the Bible, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, there is an emotional context to that passage.

[5:24] And this is no different. As we come to John 20, we, we kind of jump straight into the chapter. And it's easy for us to forget, actually, what the context is, what has come before, right? And there is something else going on.

[5:37] And you'll know that if you were here a few weeks ago, we were in Matthew chapter 7 and we saw how, well, excuse me, Matthew chapter 4. And we saw how, how Jesus called the first disciples.

[5:49] And he said, what did he say? He said, leave your nets, follow me. That's the context of this passage. They had walked away from all that they know, leaving their fishing nets behind them.

[6:07] Jesus had called them to follow him. They had walked away from their profession. And just imagine, imagine if that was, we don't have to imagine too hard because this is exactly the same call as we've discovered, that the Lord makes on us, to leave the, leave the entrapments of the world.

[6:26] He had called them to walk away from the religious power structures that existed at the time. To follow him. And they had experienced, if you remember, miracles, healings, teaching.

[6:40] They had heard about the crucifixion. How Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

[6:53] They'd heard about that. They were still grappling with that. But they hadn't really heard about resurrection. Not in clear, crystal clarity.

[7:05] And so, in our context here in John chapter 20, we come after Jesus had been crucified. The most horrific death anyone could experience.

[7:19] And these disciples are full of fear. You remember, everyone deserted Jesus. I mean, John was there at the cross because Jesus said to John, John, here's my mother.

[7:33] Take care of her. But we also know from other passages that eventually they all ran away. Until Mary Magdalene comes back to them with a crazy story.

[7:48] The tomb is empty. And they discover that Jesus has resurrected to life. So John then picks it up in verse 19 of chapter 20.

[8:01] And he says this. On the evening of that day. So this is the same day that Jesus has been resurrected to life. Like, that's crazy, isn't it?

[8:14] Just stop there. Someone has come back to life. And it's not a Lazarus or Jairus' daughter type coming back to the life who needed someone else. Jesus has overcome death himself without any external help.

[8:28] How does a dead person do that? Unless they're God. Let's not go down that rabbit hole. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week.

[8:39] What day is that? Sunday, right? Great. So the door's been locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. So the Jews were out to get the disciples.

[8:54] They knew that. The Jews had taken away the Messiah. They knew that. They were like, we're next. And so Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.

[9:11] God's gracious response to those who are in fear is to speak words of peace. And when he had said this in verse 20, he showed them his hands and his side.

[9:26] And then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

[9:40] And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. In saying those four words, receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus is ushering in a new era.

[10:03] We have to see this. Theologically, Jesus is not working old covenant. He's working new covenant. He's not, if you want to argue this point, he's not working old testament.

[10:15] He's working new testament. Right. And he's saying this is now the era of the Holy Spirit. Which is the era that we are now living in.

[10:27] A few weeks later, it's recorded by Luke in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter one. That while staying with them. That is the disciples.

[10:38] This is the same kind of time within these next few days. So while staying with them, he, Jesus, ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem.

[10:49] Now, I don't want to rush over those words. You probably read those words a dozen times, probably more. What does Jesus say? He says, don't leave Jerusalem. The disciples at this point had been trained by Jesus.

[11:07] I just think about that. Just hanging out with Jesus for three years. Being trained by him personally. They had that training. They had the fame of Jesus.

[11:19] They could literally walk out into Jerusalem, say the name Jesus of Nazareth. And everybody would know what they're talking about. That's not true in our day, is it?

[11:32] They had the enthusiasm to go forward. Even with fear. Again, that's probably not true in our day. They had the experience of how ministry should be done.

[11:46] When anybody further down the road could say, Oh, John, where did you learn? Where did you learn ministry? What seminary did you go to? They could go, Jesus of Nazareth.

[11:58] Here's seminary. And everybody would be like, I see. But Jesus says, hang fire. Don't you think that's quite a strange thing to say?

[12:11] Like you've got all of these credentials. You've got all of this training. You've got all of this experience. No one can turn around and say, there's something that you're missing. And yet Jesus says, there's something that you're missing.

[12:25] Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't depart from Jerusalem. Jesus knew that these things, experience, training, ministry, fame, would only get them so far.

[12:41] What they needed was outside of themselves. And so he says to them in the next few verses, they're in Acts chapter 1, But to wait for the promise of the Father.

[12:54] What is that promise? Well, the promise was that God, and this is key, that God was going to send the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

[13:05] So not only was he going to bless this earth with Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, the second member of the Godhead, but he was also going to send the third.

[13:19] Don't you find that crazy? Like we've just finished Christmas and we celebrated the incarnation. And here is the promise that not the second is going to come, but the third is going to come too.

[13:32] The promise of the Father was the promise that the Holy Spirit would come and do a distinctive, unique work in the lives of all of God's people.

[13:48] Listen to Jesus describe that work in verse 8 of Acts chapter 1. He says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

[14:09] You're going to receive power. Now, look, this isn't a new thing. In the Old Testament, we have instances of his coming upon men and women to empower them for special service.

[14:25] And it would seem that the Holy Spirit would come, empower them, and then leave. Right? So, Beelzele in Acts chapter 31.

[14:37] In Numbers 11. Eldad and Medad. The famous stories of Gideon in Judges chapter 6. Samson in Judges chapter 14. Examples where the Holy Spirit would come upon men and women for a special time, for a special purpose, and then leave.

[14:56] But God told Joel, in the Old Testament, that that was going to change.

[15:08] He says this in Joel chapter 2. It shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit. This is what we were talking about last week, right?

[15:19] The pouring out of Christ. He says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

[15:36] Now, like, this must be said to a father, right? Because, like, how we want that to be true for our children. That our sons and our daughters would be so moved, poured into by the Spirit of God, that they would prophesy.

[15:58] Your old men shall dream dreams. Like, I can't speak anything about that. Thank you. God bless you. Your young men shall see visions.

[16:13] Got lots to say about that. Even on the male and female servants of those days, I will pour out my spirit. Which means it's not going to be the people who are sitting in the palaces and government and the people with the money and the people with the power.

[16:31] It's going to be the people that we don't even notice, those kind of people. it's what Jesus describes in John chapter 7 he says whoever believes in me as the scriptures has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water and he said this what about the spirit like you couldn't confuse that you couldn't go well Jesus what do you mean he said like I'm going to tell you what it means it's about the spirit who was not who those who believed in him were to receive do you notice that were to receive for as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified and so look the the thing that is missing the thing that the disciples are told to wait for in Jerusalem don't depart from Jerusalem was the Holy Spirit Jesus says you you need the Holy Spirit you can't do it without the Holy Spirit's work I mean it'll get you so far like clever thinking clever strategy you're naming the name of Jesus in some places will still open doors for you but you know what it's only going to get you so far

[17:41] I think if uh if there's one if there's one thing that one conversation I'll say one conversation that I've had more frequently more more uh more recently than I think I've I've ever had is the need for the Holy Spirit's work a few years ago a guy called Francis Chan wrote a book called The Forgotten God the title says everything doesn't it here's what he says he wrote this he says the church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation we're not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and the presence of the Spirit of God he says there's something missing in our lives if we can credit and explain everything by our training our experience our our our our fame the people that we know the places that we've been he argues that there is there is something missing in the church and the something is a someone and that person is the Holy Spirit and the irony is that we can talk a lot about him and here I am giving a sermon about him but there is something missing in our hearts in and in our daily lives we we have somehow and I've heard this phrase fairly frequently over the years we have somehow replaced the Holy Spirit he is it has become not the father son and Holy Spirit but father son and Holy Scriptures and we've we've somehow and you know you know I love the Bible right but somehow we've idolized the Bible to the to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit and I and I know that largely we've done this and we've done this probably for good reason because there's a lot of crazies out there isn't there okay good yeah like like right you've been on YouTube all right I mean there are not jobs out there and we don't want to be like them and we we don't want to be like them but let me ask you a question have you forgotten the Holy Spirit

[20:26] Jesus says in this word this one word in John chapter 20 22 he says receive receive in that word Jesus leaves no five year or ten year plan this is the strategy of Jesus receive not work for not train for not get experiences for not network for receive it just says wait you're gonna get something from my father you just have to wait for it and look um this over the years has encouraged me um so so many times because it tells me that a lot of the really really important stuff that we think is important in church probably isn't as important as we think it is you know like we um we you know we we spend too much time right huffing and puffing about what worship songs we sing or how many times we sing them or how many times we sing the verse or the chorus or we spend too much time huffing and puffing about how budget should be spent and I'm not saying look yesterday we had a leadership meeting it was amazing right Tuesday night we had a trustees meeting it was it was amazing am I allowed to say that uh it was budget so like my eyes were bleeding at the end right um but we spend a lot of time huffing and puffing about how we spend this we spend much time huffing and puffing about the how-tos of church church government small groups kids ministry visitation ministry and all the huffing and puffing brings a house down and the problem is that we focus on these little issues and we forget that it's the holy spirit who should be the one doing the huffing and puffing because jesus says receive and he breathes he breathes power into the found so that he might bring breathe life into the lost and so it encourages me that he jesus isn't saying you know what here's what you need to do in the next 10 years he here's how you need to bring down rome he says just just receive the holy spirit yield to him surrender to him give control of your life to him wait for him don't leave jerusalem without him and so just as the the disciples were led by jesus the early church were led by the holy spirit and so in acts chapter 4 verse 8 peter filled that can i just tell you what that word means what we know what it means but um it's it's a it's a verb that demands a new and fresh filling peter filled with the holy spirit for at least the third time now i know that's controversial and i don't care receive the holy spirit john chapter 20 verse 22

[24:30] the holy spirit came upon them so that he then preached acts chapter 2 acts chapter 4 peter was filled and again look at verse 31 the early church when they had prayed praying is an act of waiting isn't it that's why most of us don't like praying because we don't like waiting like we've got stuff to do things to be places to go prayer is an act of waiting it's a it's an act of surrender isn't it when they prayed the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with same verb demands a new fresh filling the holy spirit and continue to speak the word of god with boldness acts chapter 6 the christians who had been baptized with by philip later had the holy spirit come upon them acts chapter 9 saul is converted on the road to damascus ananias lays hands on him receives the holy spirit and in acts chapter 13 he was filled with the holy spirit again and so look quickly the point for you and the point for me is that we need i need a new fresh filling of the holy spirit but we know that's true don't we paul says in ephesians chapter 5 he says don't get drunk with wine for that's debauchery but be filled with the holy spirit and the be filled there is active it's a continual filling as we've seen in those examples it was the um the famous evangelist moody who once asked why he urged christians to be filled constantly with the holy spirit and he said well i need the continual infilling because i leak and i feel sometimes like the outlet is is is bigger than the inlet isn't it like i leak quicker than i can get filled and so all i'm left with is trying to do things in my own strength and frustration and that's when things really start to get tiresome you see sin and this includes taking back control and trying to be self-sufficient sin because let's call it what it is sin and sanctification listen carefully sin and sanctification can't operate in the same place if you're not growing in the lord if you're not being filled by the spirit there's probably sin somewhere because sin and sanctification they don't they can't operate at the same time when when when we sin the sanctifying work of the holy spirit ceases to be effective in our lives what does that look like literally we can't ignore we can't ignore the voice of god and claim at the same time to be guided by him we can't we can't do that it's an impossibility galatians chapter 5 verse 16 paul says but i say walk in the spirit which means it's not so much a special occasion as it is a daily occurrence we are to be filled with the holy spirit when we are speaking with our spouse when we are speaking with our children when we are speaking with the boss at work when we're speaking with the barista at costa when we're speaking with the postman but crucially he says

[28:34] walk in the walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh like they don't go together you walk in the spirit you won't sin you sin there's no way that you can walk in the spirit and here's my proof text verse 17 galatians chapter 5 for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do paul says in the same way that wine controls you if you drink too much ephesians chapter 5 we need to be controlled by the spirit and he demands full control full control that's why some of us get frustrated in our walk with god because we're trying to use god rather than surrender to god we want him to endorse where we're going rather than to surrender to where he's leading although you can raise your hands in worship unless there is a level of submission to the presence and power of the holy spirit listen it's just empty celebration now notice with me too that this phrase both in john chapter 20 and in acts chapter 1 they are both commands wait in jerusalem receive the holy spirit this is not a suggestion this is not a suggestion for conservative shy introvert british people that we can opt out because oh it might get a little bit too messy what do you mean breathe on me jesus don't you know that's weird well don't you know jesus did a lot of weird things and this isn't the top of the list this is a command paul says be filled that's a command and yet somehow we've relegated it to nah it just must be for the pentecostal type or or you know for the extrovert type now look what does that mean well it means this that any follower of jesus who is not knowingly and willingly in surrender to the holy spirit is living in sin i can't put any clearer than that if this is a command from jesus and paul then if we're not doing it if we're not walking in that that's disobedience that's sin and none of us want to sin right good i love you boys it's just like come on so look okay so this begs the question why do we need the holy spirit well notice in our text in john chapter 20 again that there is a link here between being filled with the holy spirit and mission look what he says verse 21 as the father has sent me even so i'm sending you

[32:34] that's the mission part and we'll talk about that next week so if you want to know what we're talking about next week we're talking about that next week okay but look to do the mission what you need well you need the holy spirit to be sent out by jesus you need the holy spirit even jesus needed the holy spirit right at what point do we go well you know what it was good for jesus good for the disciples good for the apostles it's good for those charismatic types but for me i'm pretty clever my training is pretty good i went to seminary and everything like if jesus needed the holy spirit to accomplish the mission guess what do you think we need it even more probably the answer is yes and so then after saying look as the father has sent me i'm sending you he then said receive the holy spirit it's exactly the same thing as we read in acts chapter 1 that we just read you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you what's going to happen you're going to go and then be witnesses in jerusalem right where you are now and that's going to expand to judea it's going to go all the way to samaria and even to the ends of the earth so this isn't a power listen to me very carefully this isn't a power to speak in tongues and to do supernatural signs and have them end there like some kind of show this is an anointing for empowerment to be able to be the people who follow the mission that jesus has given us this isn't an anointing so that we'll know good theology you should know good theology right you should you should work your mind know good theology but this is an anointing so that we'll know good theology i've met lots of people who know really really good theology and i don't even think they're saved having good theology is not an indicator of anything apart from probably a bit of a brain box this this is anointing so that we can live in the world in such a way as to bring the kingdom to bear wherever we go because the gospel is the king has come and the kingdom is at hand it said of the the great 18th century preacher george whitfield that he used to start preaching at five o'clock in the morning just heads up i'm not going to do that one sunday a man was on his way to church and he met the philosopher an outspoken critic of whitfield david hume and surprised at seeing him on his way to hear whitfield the man said i thought you didn't believe in the gospel and hume replied i do not but that man does because whitfield's life bore testimony and he couldn't ignore it he couldn't explain it away couldn't rationalize it if you look at all the major revivals that have taken place over the centuries it's the holy spirit that has anointed and empowered men and women to live out the gospel of god and and it's it's a result and as a result significant cultural social

[36:35] social change has taken place when the holy spirit gets hold of you it's for the purpose of change think about philemon in the new testament there's a guy called philemon in the new testament and um if you if you if you if you go too quickly through the new testament you'll miss it because it's like a page right um he was a former slave owner but just think about it could you get is there is there anything i don't know whether there is anything worse about a man who owned other people he was a he was a slave owner and he met christ encountered the gospel he had a slave called um onesimus and onesimus came to know christ and they both started following jesus and were like us commanded to surrender the control of our lives to the holy spirit and so paul writes to philemon and he says this in in verse 16 of philemon because there's only one chapter right uh he says this that he is no longer and he's talking about onesimus he is no longer a a slave to you he is more than a slave he's a beloved brother especially to me now he will mean much more to you both as a man and as a brother in the lord like what's the point like when the holy spirit comes and disrupts he disrupts like he's disrupting social orders and asking the people of god okay you gotta live that out in the power of the holy spirit how do you do that when you've got a man who was once the owner of other men and a man who was owned and they both get saved and they're both then called brothers and so you read the same story throughout history whether it's the the revivals in america under in new england under jonathan edwards or whether you read about the welsh revivals where people were getting saved no longer going to the pubs and the pubs were closing down because the pub owners were getting saved like how do you deal with that like how do people walk in that well the only way that you can walk in that and we all go well yeah but what about the pubs that are out of business the pub owners were going no I'm giving whatever this is I'm giving it to jesus that's called surrender it's not called being put out of a life a livelihood i'm reading a book at a moment called when jesus met hippies and um hippies still exist they just drive aldis right um i'm convinced uh and um it's got it's by a guy called andrew whitman and actually um i've spoken to him a couple of times and he um is coming over to south hampton he's doing a talk um at king's church in south hampton and it's on our it's on the it's on the website um i would just encourage as many of you to um to come out to that but the book is about the impact of the jesus movement in the 1960s which is you know where calvary chapel came from and um it's not so

[40:36] much the impact of the jesus movement but the impact of the holy spirit what happens when a group of people just go i'm just going to surrender control to the holy spirit and look i i!

[40:47] encourage you to get the book read the book come out in march um to that and you'll read you'll you'll read about the impact of the holy spirit on guys like chuck smith k smith lonnie frisbee john wimber you may have heard of um and the impact of the jesus movement on martin lord jones who i wasn't aware of but he sent one of his assistants to calvary chapel in costa mesa during the jesus movement because he had heard a revival was going on and chuck smith came back to london with him to meet chuck smith to meet lloyd jones it's the impact of the holy spirit on the people of god and so so look the question should be this do i have the anointing of the holy spirit on my life you might say i'm just going to get theological on you at a moment and i'm not prepared to answer that question we all have the holy spirit good sold agreed second question do you have the anointing of the holy spirit on your life do i have the anointing of the holy spirit on my life well you might be asking this morning how do you go about getting this anointing you might be saying you know this doesn't sound like my life it doesn't it doesn't sound like you know there's revivals happening well how do you how do you go about getting that anointing like there's only one condition i can find in the bible and i might be wrong and i'm i'm not happy to be wrong i'm never happy to be wrong but like i'll take it right um there's only one condition i can find in the bible the only way a christian becomes anointed by the holy spirit i'll give it to you and then i'll talk a bit the only way a christian becomes anointed in the holy spirit is when they hand over the reins to him now let me expand on that so that so that there's no misunderstanding back in acts chapter one we noticed that jesus said to the disciples stay in jerusalem and wait what do the disciples do well they went to jerusalem and they waited and i know that the the answer in my own life and maybe what you're thinking is that yeah that that's pretty that's it's a pretty dangerous thing to give up control isn't it it's a pretty dangerous thing it's a risky thing to hand to surrender and it was risky and dangerous for the disciples but it wasn't what they wanted but what the lord was asking them to do and that's called surrender that's called giving up control and obedience is largely surrender isn't it because because obedience is god asking us to do something and actually in our flesh in our natural person the person like that sinful nature we don't want to do that and so when we do that thing what is that called that's surrender i'm going to do lord what you're asking me to do not what i want to do this is the life that is yielded to a king understands that there is a king this is a life that is yielded to a different kingdom not this one jesus said in matthew chapter 6 no one can serve two masters for either he will hate one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other you can't serve god and money you see god's plan is

[44:49] for jesus to be exalted in every place jerusalem judea samaria to the ends of the earth for jesus to um be seen as king in this king in his kingdom and that's the difficulties that we all face exalting him when we surrender when we give up control that's what we're doing we are exalting jesus we're exalting the name we're joining in with that song that his name right chuck swindle says this we don't lack for knowing we lack for doing do we we don't we live in the information age we still living in the information age why not yeah okay right we're living in the information age we have so much information our brains can't contain all that information and swindle wisely says look we don't lack because we don't know we lack because we don't do it's not that we need more information we need more yielding to his rule and his reign in our lives paul said in romans chapter 6 don't be uh do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourself to god as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to god as instruments for righteousness which means that there are only two options when it comes to living in the kingdom and to to to surrendering to the work of the holy spirit we either serve god or we serve something else that's it we are either being sanctified or we're sinning we are either obeying or we're disobeying we serve god or we serve something else we're not giving a third option paul says stop doing what you are doing wrong take a decisive step in allowing yourself to be used for righteousness how do you do that you submit you surrender you give up control so these disciples having come off the back of a turbulent turbulent last three or four days they knew about the cross they knew about sins being forgiven they knew all of that they hadn't really grasped resurrection and then jesus comes and says hi guys i'm sending you out there where you don't want to go you'd much rather be locked in this room but before you do that you need to wait because unless you wait you're not going to be able to live out in power the principles of the new kingdom so will you again join me in yielding our lives again to our great king and asking for the anointing of the holy spirit that we need and by faith receiving it today joe and jenny are going to come and lead us in a few songs and as they do so just a couple of maybe i want to say calls to action things for us to to do we often say you know um let's think about this and that's just shorthand for uh let's not really do it let's think about it

[48:49] and then we can we can make up our minds whether we really want to do that and then hopefully time will come and normal will be up here reminding us of the notices and we can go and drink coffee we think about it without doing it and so a couple of things i want us to do this morning number one if you like me feel that we need a fresh anointing a new fresh filling of the holy spirit i want you to ask you ask the lord for it like you don't ask don't ask me for it right we we don't we don't ask each other for it we ask the lord for he's the giver and so if if you feel like you need that this morning in the quiet of this space as the music is played just just ask jesus for it and then by faith receive it and then as we are as we are singing you know there is there is this misunderstanding i think a lot of times in our worship about what it means to raise our hands in worship and there's a number of ideas but you know the fundamental one is simply soldiers when they surrender what do they do they lift their hands and for many we recall a time when we belonged to another king in another kingdom and the bible says that we have been released from that because jesus is good and he saved us and we've been born again we've been given a new life and we've been placed in a new kingdom but many of us haven't actually surrendered and so maybe that's you this morning and you've never actually in your heart said lord i'm just surrendering to you and maybe in worship this is an opportunity for you to acknowledge that by raising your hands and surrendering and then the third thing i would say is simply maybe you feel like you do walk with the lord maybe you do feel like you have the life of the spirit with you maybe you do recall one time where you just did you did say lord i'm just surrendering to you but maybe you know that was a while ago and so i want to encourage you to ask the lord if there's anything that you're seeking control over or keeping control over for him just to show you those things and then release you from those things and for some for some of you that will need then some prayer and so for some of you i just want to encourage you to come and find prayer and that doesn't need necessarily to be from like that doesn't need to be from me like i'm no holier than you right like i'm not a prayer dispenser i'd love to pray for you honestly my joy and honor to pray for you but like there's plenty of people here that know how to pray and would love to pray for you and so you can turn to someone and say would you pray for me and they'll pray for you i know they will and so just in the quiet of this space let's just wait on the lord and let's not leave this place

[52:50] until we're ready to leave father thank you that you've promised that you would give us exactly what we need to live out this life that you've called us to live we're also we we recognize so readily that we hold on to things so dearly that you've already commanded us to let go of and yet somehow we still hold on to them we cherish them might even we say that we love them and maybe we're not experiencing the life that you've promised the life that you've said is actually just a normal christian life because we're in sin we don't see it as sin but it's disobedience so this morning we just we we want to give these things to you lord whatever it may be maybe it's our career it's our jobs maybe it's our children maybe it's our parents maybe it's a situation that we're we're not too sure about how it's going to work out and we've been thinking about it and we've been planning for it and yet we still don't know and we're a little bit anxious about it but we give that to you as well maybe it's a whole bunch of unknowns that we have lord we want to just say this morning that we trust you we trust you with these things and giving them away might seem risky to us and it might even seem dangerous to us but it's only risky and it's only dangerous if we don't trust you and so we want to say lord we do trust you lord we've given you our lives lord we want to give you everything else lord as we give you these things lord we pray that we would know a fresh new filling of your spirit this morning thank you lord in jesus name who

[55:40] Thank you.