Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] There we go. Right, we're on. Okay. Good morning once again, and thank you all for coming today.
[00:00:12] Good to see everybody and yeah, thank you for coming on this very awesome special day where I'm looking forward to getting to the pool just now.
[00:00:24] The.
[00:00:26] The weather was kind to us and. Yeah, looking forward to that.
[00:00:32] So two weeks ago, I started speaking about the Holy Spirit and it was really quite an introduction to the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:43] I feel like.
[00:00:45] I know in my life it's definitely been a bit of a mystery to me until you. Yeah, I really started pressing into the Lord and learning more about him and then. And so as you do that, you learn more and more about the person of Jesus and the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:01:05] But the focus of two weeks ago was who he was.
[00:01:11] Who he is. Sorry, who he is.
[00:01:14] And that if he went home with one thing, it was that God is one.
[00:01:20] Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.
[00:01:24] And so that is like the most important thing I wanted you to go away with is that the Lord is one. And yet we know that God exists in three. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's not something that we can explain easily, but it's something so true and so apparent in the scriptures that we. That it actually is. One of the foundations of. Of our Christian faith is that we serve a triune God, but He is one God.
[00:01:55] And it's not something we understand, but it's something we must believe in because it's clear in the scriptures. I really gave a lot of scriptures. It's fine, Gif. We'll do it later. Thanks.
[00:02:08] We will.
[00:02:09] Sorry, where was I?
[00:02:15] A lot of scriptures last week. There were a lot of scriptures last week.
[00:02:18] I realized that. But I hope that you. What I was trying to do was show you that it's all over. It's all over the Bible. Okay.
[00:02:32] Yes. So the. The fact that God is one and that he exists in three persons is that he is so perfectly and beautifully unified.
[00:02:43] Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So unified that they are of one mind.
[00:02:50] So one thinks one, the other one thinks as well.
[00:02:53] Okay? One mind, one will.
[00:02:58] Their wills are always perfectly aligned. There's never a discussion or argument between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you know, and their actions are always in perfect harmony as well.
[00:03:15] And one of the things that I picked up when I was reading through all of this was the way the Bible speaks about this, the way God Jesus spoke. And so in Acts 1, Jesus says, Wait here until you receive the gift my Father promised you.
[00:03:34] Then in John 14, he says, I will send the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. The Father will send. And then in Matthew 28:28, he says, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. And then the disciples watched him leave to go to heaven, and they did not see him again. So what did he mean?
[00:03:58] I will be with you always by my Spirit. That's how. United and one Jesus. And the Spirit is his Spirit, the Holy Spirit is his Spirit and is God's Spirit.
[00:04:10] And again in John 16, Jesus says, but if I go, I will send him to you.
[00:04:16] But in the verse before, he said, the Father will send him. So you see how united it's all one. That's the language we see there, is that.
[00:04:26] That's how one they are.
[00:04:29] And the amazing thing about this is that the application for us is, do you remember Jesus prayer when he says, father, let them be one as we are one.
[00:04:42] That's huge.
[00:04:44] Let us be one. The body of Christ all over the world, but even here, let us be one as the Father and I are one.
[00:04:53] That's huge.
[00:04:56] That's a very.
[00:04:59] That is being extremely and totally and perfectly united, okay?
[00:05:06] And so today I want to just hopefully show you a few things. And one of them, being, is how desperately we need the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:18] How we cannot do without the Holy Spirit. We simply cannot.
[00:05:24] John Bunyan says this. I'm not sure if you know who John Bunyan is. He's the author of Pilgrim's Progress, which is one of the greatest books beside the Bible ever written, I think, in my opinion. But he says some think that the love of the Father and the blood of the Son will do without the holiness of the Spirit of God. But they are deceived.
[00:05:45] So you can think on that yourself, search the Scriptures.
[00:05:52] But I believe that is a very true statement, because we need the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:58] The Holy Spirit is God.
[00:06:03] He's not, as I said last two weeks ago, he's not just some abstract force that exists.
[00:06:10] You know, I think maybe even subconsciously we might think of the Holy Spirit like that, but it's not.
[00:06:17] He's a person.
[00:06:21] And so.
[00:06:27] I wanted to ask a question today which is a question and many questions which I ask myself all the time, because the Bible does say that we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, okay?
[00:06:43] Because it's not just.
[00:06:44] It's not just an easy thing. We have to really understand it and we have to really work it out through this life.
[00:06:51] And I want you to ask, are you Happy with your life?
[00:06:55] Are you happy that you are living.
[00:07:00] Are you happy that you are living your heart out for God?
[00:07:03] If you stood before God today and he asked you that question, what would you say?
[00:07:09] Would you say, are you happy with what you're doing?
[00:07:13] Would he commend you for it?
[00:07:18] Are you doing what God wants you to do?
[00:07:22] Are you where God wants you to be?
[00:07:25] Are you with who God wants you to be with?
[00:07:29] Do you include God in all your decision making?
[00:07:34] Do you speak with God daily, seeking him in his word as though he was truly the greatest treasure in the universe?
[00:07:42] I hope some of these questions are really probing you.
[00:07:48] Are you seeking his kingdom first, above everything?
[00:07:54] Is God your first priority?
[00:07:56] Above everything else? You see, this is what it means to be a Christian. This is what it means to give your life to him and make Him Lord. This is what it means.
[00:08:09] And I believe this is what he expects from us as well.
[00:08:14] He expects those things.
[00:08:22] And some verses.
[00:08:24] I'm not going to quote the verses, but you will recognize them.
[00:08:29] Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. Do you.
[00:08:36] Do you really also says, if you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you. That's what God says, which is one of my favorite promises that I hold on to. If you seek God with all your heart, you will find Him. There is no doubt.
[00:08:58] And then another verse in Revelation, which is a scary one, but it was actually spoke last weekend with Denver In Revelation 3, since you are neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out my mouth.
[00:09:13] That's the question about, are you all in for God? Why are you sitting on the fence?
[00:09:23] And this is why it is so incredibly essential that we have the Holy Spirit.
[00:09:30] I mentioned that Jesus came as a man and he had to be fully man. He had to be. And so everything he did here on earth was through the power and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
[00:09:43] And so we have to. There is no other way. We have to do the same.
[00:09:47] We are right with God because of the Spirit that lives within us.
[00:09:51] Left to our own devices, we just.
[00:09:53] We will fail.
[00:09:59] And also this is how we can be so sure that we belong to God, which you will see in a moment, is that His Spirit lives in us.
[00:10:15] So if you can picture that scene where you stand before God and you ask him, like, how can you be sure you're going to be with me? Well, that's the answer. We are sure that we are with God when we have His Holy spirit. Living in us.
[00:10:29] Ephesians 1, 13, 14 says, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, in the praise of his glory.
[00:10:58] I love the way Matt always prays and he says, we are sealed in the finished blood of Jesus.
[00:11:05] Now, learning a bit about, about the seal, that in those times, people, I don't know if it was everyone or important people, but they used to have a ring, signet, I think that's what you call it, with an emblem or something that was only unique to them. And if this letter or seal was stamped with that, it means that it was their possession, especially in terms of a property.
[00:11:30] There are other examples, like if a letter was sent, a message was sent, if it was stamped with that ring, it was. That letter has come in the authority and in the word of that person. And you can be absolutely sure of it.
[00:11:45] And so that is the language that's used here is that when we receive the Holy Spirit, that is God's stamp on us, that we belong to Him.
[00:11:58] Isn't that awesome?
[00:12:00] That we are his possession, we are his property, which again, don't take that negatively. That is awesome. We belong to the King, to the God of all creation.
[00:12:12] And that is how we can be so absolutely sure.
[00:12:22] And again, it is why I find it so important, why it is so heavy on my heart now to be preaching on this topic of the Holy Spirit, because we need to know Him. We need to know who he is, what he's like, how he works.
[00:12:39] I think for many people this is a bit of a mystery.
[00:12:46] And also when the Holy Spirit does come, abide in us and work in us and through us, that we recognize it, we recognize that it is him because we've learned about him in the Word.
[00:13:10] Again, I'll explain that more in a minute.
[00:13:16] And you will know that the Holy Spirit is in someone by the effects, by the fruits of their life.
[00:13:23] It's like the wind. Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus, the wind, you don't see it coming, it goes wherever it wants. But you can see the effects of the wind.
[00:13:32] And so likewise it is with the Spirit.
[00:13:35] You can't see the Spirit, but you can see the effects that he has on people and through people.
[00:13:43] You see the fruit.
[00:13:45] You also, on conversely, see the fruit of someone without the Spirit of God. And that's clear in The Book of Galatians, I think.
[00:13:55] But that's really good to know that it's not like something magical, you know, a tree by the fruit it bears.
[00:14:06] And people should know us, people should know that we are children of God because of the fruit that we bear.
[00:14:17] And without the Holy Spirit, as I said earlier, we do not have life. Remember, the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters in the beginning.
[00:14:25] He was ready to bring order to chaos. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He brings order to chaos. He brings life. He brings new life in us when we give our lives to him, when we repent of our old life. That's what's going to happen today as a public declaration of what's already happened in their hearts.
[00:14:51] And without the Holy Spirit, we cannot build Jesus kingdom, We cannot build his church without the Holy Spirit.
[00:15:00] Psalm 127:1.
[00:15:04] Unless the Lord builds His house, the builders labour in vain.
[00:15:08] And so we have to be so careful and so aware that we don't come with our own minds and our own wills when we are coming together or building his kingdom.
[00:15:23] We have to let the Spirit of God work within us as a community as well.
[00:15:32] And so the Lord, I really believe, is building his church. He's building his church globally and he's building his church here in Chisamba.
[00:15:43] And one of the questions I had is, are you a part of that? Are you a part of what Jesus is doing here at the end of last year?
[00:15:55] Preach the sermon on showing up.
[00:15:58] Do not know. It was not showing up. It was, do not neglect the gathering of the saints.
[00:16:04] And ever since then, I've just been so aware that God is building something here. You know, every week there comes a word.
[00:16:16] And again, I believe that it's the Lord bringing that word. Not just me or Mark or whoever is here preaching God is building his church.
[00:16:24] And are you here receiving that Word as a part of what he's doing here? Are you here bringing your gift to the church? Are you coming here willing to receive from what God is doing here in our gathering?
[00:16:48] And yeah, and, and the Lord is wanting to use us. He has chosen to work through us in building his church.
[00:17:01] You see, he's not going to just do it out of nothing. He's chosen to work through us, chosen to partner with us in the building of his kingdom, which is amazing. It's a heavy weight, but it's amazing. And all we have to do is give ourselves to him and let him do his work in us and through us.
[00:17:27] And as we'll read right now in 1 Corinthians, the Holy Spirit gives us gifts.
[00:17:35] He gives us special supernatural gifts.
[00:17:38] And he uses it to do exactly that, to build his kingdom for the benefit of the body, for the benefit of Jesus body and the building up of his church.
[00:17:52] In 1 Corinthians 12, 7, 11. We can read now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. See that the effects the working out of the Holy Spirit in our lives is given not for us, but for our good, for the body's good.
[00:18:15] So to one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom.
[00:18:20] To another a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit.
[00:18:26] To another faith by the same spirit.
[00:18:30] Have you ever met a person with a gift of faith?
[00:18:35] It's quite amazing, you know, normal situations where you would be freaking out. Like I was in a situation that not too long ago. And then I spoke to my brother Denver, and man, he's definitely got a portion of a gift of faith because he helped me through it. And some people just have it and some people don't.
[00:19:01] So but together we have it.
[00:19:06] Gift of faith. There we go. To another gift of healing by that one spirit to another, miraculous powers to another. Prophecy, prophetic word is supposed to build someone or the body up. It builds us up because it's a word from God to another, distinguishing between spirits to another, speaking in different kinds of tongues.
[00:19:37] I know that that one makes many people feel uncomfortable, but it's here in the Bible, speaking in different kinds of tongues. And I went back and forth, looking at cross references, trying to figure out exactly what that means.
[00:19:55] Go into it now. But there it is, speaking in different kinds of tongues.
[00:20:00] And to still another, the interpretation of tongues.
[00:20:04] All of these are work of one and the same spirit, One Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who is doing all of this.
[00:20:16] And he distributes them to each one as he determines it's his will, how he distributes his gifts for the benefit of the Body of Christ.
[00:20:29] I hope you see that there's. There's many more.
[00:20:32] We'll leave it at that for now.
[00:20:37] And now I'm going to read through four passages from Acts. This was the early church. This is when the church started.
[00:20:44] This is what happened.
[00:20:45] This is not a story. It's a historical event.
[00:20:48] Remember that. Sometimes I read the Bible and I forget that it's actually a historical document.
[00:20:56] So Acts 2, 1:13, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place for me.
[00:21:07] Let me read first. Sorry. Otherwise I'm Going to stop all the way through, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house that they were sitting.
[00:21:24] They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
[00:21:33] Now there were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation under the sun. Sorry, every nation under heaven.
[00:21:42] When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one of them heard their own language being spoken.
[00:21:54] Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?
[00:22:01] Then how is it that each of us hear them in our native language?
[00:22:05] I'm not even going to try and go through all those names, just telling about people from all over the place there. And he says we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.
[00:22:18] Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this mean?
[00:22:23] Some, however, made fun of them and said they have had too much wine.
[00:22:30] So can you imagine the scene?
[00:22:32] Remember, this has happened. This is true. A mighty wind.
[00:22:37] That language there is very strong. It was probably a very mighty wind that you heard in that room that they were in. Must have been pretty scary. And then to see tongues of fire separate and settle on each person.
[00:23:07] And so just skipping to the end.
[00:23:12] So you, you here, you're seeing the effects of the Holy Spirit as, as what I mentioned earlier, you don't see the Holy Spirit, but you see the effects of him.
[00:23:21] And some people were amazed. They were just, what is happening? How is this happening? But yet other people were making fun of them.
[00:23:35] They were saying, oh, these guys, they're too much wine. So we know what it looks like for someone to be, to be drunk on wine.
[00:23:42] And so in a way that's a bit difficult for us because if we were to see this, we would have probably done the same thing, right? Because we know what people look like when they're been drinking too much.
[00:23:54] But here is an effect of the Holy Spirit and people were literally confused.
[00:24:00] So that's why I'm saying that it's so important that we see in the Word what the manifestation of the Holy Spirit looks like.
[00:24:09] Okay, that's what I'm trying to put across here.
[00:24:15] We can go on to Acts 8, 14, 17.
[00:24:19] When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.
[00:24:31] When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:37] Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them.
[00:24:42] They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:24:46] Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:52] So just on the first portion, that was only Jewish people who were there.
[00:24:58] This is Samaria. The Samaritans, which we know were considered by the Jews as half Jewish at best.
[00:25:07] They did not like the Samaritans, so they could not believe this was happening to them and they had to go and see for themselves.
[00:25:19] But did you notice there that the actual point in time when the Holy Spirit came on those people was when Peter and John placed their hands and prayed for them, and then they received the Holy Spirit. It was an event in time that that happened.
[00:25:39] Acts 10:44, 48.
[00:25:44] While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
[00:25:51] The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. So now we move from Samaritans to. To Gentiles.
[00:26:04] I mean, if it amazed them that Samaritans were baptized in the Holy Spirit, now they're even more amazed Gentiles, for they had heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
[00:26:20] Then Peter said, surely no one can stand in the way of these being baptized with water.
[00:26:26] They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.
[00:26:30] So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:35] They asked Peter to stay with him for a few days.
[00:26:40] First of all, we always like to have our plan, you know, and what we said earlier about the Spirit goes where he wants.
[00:26:51] All right.
[00:26:52] And does what the Spirit wants. So. So we think to ourselves, well, and this is just something that I noticed when going through this.
[00:27:02] You would think that, oh, okay, so we have to accept Jesus, of course. Yes, 100%, and then be baptized, and then we can receive the Holy Spirit. But the order was different here.
[00:27:13] They had accepted Jesus, but the Holy Spirit had not yet come on them.
[00:27:18] And then the Holy Spirit came on them.
[00:27:20] And then after that, they were baptized in water again. I'm just reading these things because what I want to show you is how the Holy Spirit comes, how he came here in the book of Acts, and what happens when he comes.
[00:27:38] Those are the two things. How he comes and what happens when he comes.
[00:27:43] And then finally, in Acts, chapter 19. Now this is Paul. Everything that was prior to Paul.
[00:27:51] And so now we read from verses 1 to 7. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.
[00:28:03] There he found Some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
[00:28:14] So Paul asked, then, what baptism did you receive?
[00:28:19] John's baptism, they replied.
[00:28:21] Paul said, john's baptism is a baptism of repentance.
[00:28:27] He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus.
[00:28:33] On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:28:39] When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. And they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
[00:28:47] There were about 12 men in all.
[00:28:51] In most of these examples I've read, you see that there is an effect that happens when the Holy Spirit comes.
[00:28:58] Very often, if not most often, people speak in tongues in other languages.
[00:29:05] They also prophesy.
[00:29:07] That is not of your doing, that is of the Holy Spirit who comes over you and fills you. There's an overflow of the Holy Spirit.
[00:29:15] And again, we've got to be so careful because we can be so judgmental of this and think that this is some funny thing going on here.
[00:29:22] But we learn about this through the Bible, and we see what happens in the Bible, and we must recognize it and we must be open for what God wants to do in us through his Holy Spirit.
[00:29:42] I want to go back to.
[00:29:47] Because I thought this was very, very interesting. Very.
[00:29:50] In great support in Acts, chapter 2, verse 16 to 21, Peter says that what was happening at Pentecost was the prophecy of Joel coming true before their very eyes. Because, well, we'll get to it. Let's read this scripture first. So, no, this is. This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel in the last days.
[00:30:19] God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.
[00:30:24] Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.
[00:30:31] Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
[00:30:41] I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.
[00:30:46] Blood and fire and billows of smoke. Then the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on his name on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[00:31:01] So I think I've heard at least that there is confusion about the last days.
[00:31:09] But for me, this is absolute. This is Peter saying that this, that event at Pentecost was the very prophecy of Joel coming true right then and there.
[00:31:19] So the end days, the last days, started 2,000 years ago. This is Something that we were chatting with a friend recently.
[00:31:27] If the end days started 2000 years ago, where are we now?
[00:31:33] Those are the last days. We are in the last days of the last days.
[00:31:37] That was a good way to put it.
[00:31:41] But there he says we're in the last days. And this is what's happening now.
[00:31:46] The Holy Spirit is being poured out on all people.
[00:31:50] And these are the things that you can expect.
[00:31:55] Prophecy, visions, dreams.
[00:32:01] Yeah.
[00:32:06] All right. So again, just for today, and there's so much more we could go through, but I wanted to show you what happens when the Holy Spirit comes and what does it look like so that we know and we're not going to be scared off or surprised when it happens.
[00:32:28] And if it's not happening, that should even be of greater concern to us.
[00:32:33] Why aren't we seeing these things?
[00:32:36] Why?
[00:32:42] So being baptized, you remember in what Paul said there, being baptized in water is different from being baptized in the Holy Spirit. They're two separate events.
[00:32:54] And today we're going to be baptizing Craig and Amanda.
[00:32:59] And Paul told us that, that baptism in water is a baptism of repentance.
[00:33:04] It is an outward declaration. You said it so well in the prayer. How did you say it?
[00:33:11] Yeah. An outward declaration of what has already happened in their hearts. Already. They have given their hearts to Jesus and they have decided to leave their old life and to live a new life.
[00:33:26] And they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord.
[00:33:36] All right, so in conclusion, when you become a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ, the change in your life, which there has to be, there has to be a change in your life because you are a new creation.
[00:33:55] The change.
[00:33:58] And sorry. And that change should affect you and others around you.
[00:34:03] That can only be done in the Holy Spirit.
[00:34:06] It cannot be done by yourself. That's why it is so important to receive the Holy Spirit.
[00:34:17] And Jesus was our example in this. In his whole life, he operated through the Spirit, through the Holy Spirit.
[00:34:28] Remember that the Holy Spirit is the seal that absolutely guarantees us that we will be with God one day and we will take part in his future and the life that comes next after this one.
[00:34:44] That is the guarantee.
[00:34:47] So let's continue to learn about the Holy Spirit.
[00:34:53] Let's really learn what he's like, what he does, how he works.
[00:35:01] So that. Again, sorry, I know I've repeated myself, but that we can recognize it.
[00:35:07] We could recognize the Holy Spirit when He comes and he works in us and through us.
[00:35:15] And also, let's not be part of those people who, when something amazing happens in our midst to think that straight away, think that, oh, these people are drunk or they're weird or something like that.
[00:35:28] I would encourage you to, if that does come into your mind, rather grab someone, someone who you trust, ask them about it.
[00:35:37] If they can't show you in the Bible, then we'll give you reason not to believe.
[00:35:50] Okay. And you'll maybe have noticed that there have been times recently where I've really encouraged us to bring a scripture, bring a word, seek the Lord, allow the Holy Spirit to work within you and bring what you have to the body.
[00:36:11] There may be someone who is just terribly down, who needs an encouraging word. There may be someone who needs a bit of faith, who has just lost all their faith at the moment. Someone has a gift of faith, and he'll bring it and build up brother or sister in that.
[00:36:33] We. We don't have it all, but together we have. We will have it all in Jesus.
[00:36:41] Okay? And also, also, even at the end and before, I would love to see little groups of people, people praying for each other. We don't feel like we don't see that enough. And it's. And when we do see it, I just. I love it. I think it's just beautiful. It's just people are just being prompted and they're following what they believe. The Holy Spirit is putting on their hearts and laying on their hearts.
[00:37:03] All right, So I think from here we will go straight to the pool.
