‍Vince Vitale [00:00:42] Well, let's start with a little fun. We're going to turn like two or three people around you, and I just want you to consider this question. If you could live at any time in history, when would you choose? All right, so a little something for the history buffs out there. You go to any time and history, you get to choose. When would it be? Just two minutes, just pick something, share it, and then we'll come back together. Go for it. All right, let's bring it back together. Bring it back to together. This is where my mind's going and why I was thinking about this because I want to say when Jesus was on the earth, which there's lots of good reasons to say that, but it almost feels like such an obvious answer. You're like not allowed to give that in that sort of conversation, right? But that'd be amazing to be able to walk with Jesus, be there for the Sermon on the Mount. Think about John reclines against Jesus' chest, that would be incredible. As I was preparing for tonight, one of the things that I realized was that none of the apostles would have given that answer. Actually, not in a million years. Can anybody think of why not? Dark time. Absolutely. In Israel's history. Yeah, well said. Hey, you cheated. Mel worked on my slides. She cheated.  

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[00:02:09] The Apostles' lives in the Gospels, when they're actually walking around with Jesus, what were their lives like? It's a pretty mixed bag. Lots of good stuff. But also you think about they're often confused. They're not understanding what Jesus is saying. Right at the Last Supper, right after that, they start bickering about who's the greatest. Peter denies Jesus three times only hours after he's told he's going to do so, and he denies him the second time, and then he still denies him the third time. In Mark 14, it says that when he was arrested, Jesus, everyone deserted him and fled. That's the most depressing verse possibly in the whole Bible. It's a real mixed bag for the apostles through the gospels. If there's a halftime, half season all-star team, they're not necessarily making that team. What about in Acts of the Apostles? What do their lives look like in the Acts of the Apostles? They're not perfect. But they're love. These are the same people who are bickering about who's the greatest, and now they're literally selling everything, selling their possessions and their property to give to anyone who's in need. Their courage. 

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[00:03:35] Same people that are denying Jesus, deserting him, and fleeing. And now they can help but just shout Jesus' name from the rooftops. I think about like Acts 5; they're proclaiming the name of Jesus and they get thrown in jail for it. An angel busts them out of jail. They go right back out, proclaim the name of Jesus. They get dragged in front of the Sanhedrin. They say, look, we need to obey God- not you. They get flogged. And then it says they left the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. Utter transformation in these people's lives. And this is the critical question for us tonight. When did it happen? When did the transformation take place? It did not take place when they met Jesus. It did now take place when they walked with Jesus. It didn't take place when Jesus died. It didn't happen when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them for 40 days. It only happened 10 days later at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and descended upon them. 

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[00:04:49] When you understand the significance of the Holy Spirit, all of a sudden, the answer to whether you would prefer to live back when Jesus was on the earth, or today, actually becomes pretty obvious. In the history of Christianity, it took some time for the Holy Spirit to be fully appreciated. We've been studying the Nicene Creed, and there are two versions. There's this original version in 325, and then it was revised. And in 325, there was this belief in the Holy Spirit. It says we believe in this, we believe in that, and then it said we believe in the Holy Spirit and then end of sentence. That's all the 325 version says about the Holy Spirit. Like we know we believe in the Holly Spirit, but we're still kind of figuring out what that means. Then by 381 we have "And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the father. Who with the father and the son together is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets." And this history of Christianity that we see as a whole, I think oftentimes there's a microcosm of that in our own lives where we come to faith (many of us and this is true of me) and if someone had asked me, do you believe in the Holy Spirit? I would say, yeah, I believe in Holy Spirit. 

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[00:06:07] But that's as far as it went. I didn't have much more to add to that sentence. And what I'm hoping for tonight is just to make sure that we don't get stuck in 325. Like we don' get stuck as 325 Christians because that's the danger where, yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit, but we're actually missing out on all that he is and all that he has for his church. So, first, let's make sure we've got some of the basics. Who is the Holy Spirit? And this is the first thing that we need to make we're clear on. the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is not an it. And generally, when you refer to a person as an it, that doesn't do wonders for the relationship. He speaks through the prophets. He can be spoken to and prayed to. He has emotions. The Bible talks about us not grieving the Holy Spirit. I don't know if Adam's in the room, Adam Sebastian, but one of our members here, one of our leaders here, I love the way he just talks about the Holy Spirit. If you've ever spoken with him, one, you probably don't get through a conversation without him talking about the Holy Spirit. And two, love you brother, when he does, he drops the article. He doesn't say the Holy Spirit; he just says Holy Spirit. There's nothing wrong with saying the Holy spirt, but it just naturally comes out of his mouth, Holy Spirit and I were spending time together. 

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[00:07:35] And it's just something so personal and so relational about it, because there's just this understanding the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit's not a force. An impersonal force. Sometimes we think of Him that way. A force interacts on anything and everything the same way. It doesn't make distinctions between people. Like gravity does not wake up and think, I'm going to interact with Vince differently today because Vince is having a really hard day. A force doesn't do that, but a person is relational and can interact with each of us, even tonight, in the very specific and personal ways that each one of us needs. Second, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is the Lord, the 381 Creed says, the giver of life. One God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. And, interestingly, even though in the early centuries there were some historical debates about how to understand the divinity of Jesus, the divinity of Christ, you really, on the whole, don't have that about the Holy Spirit. There's an understanding from quite early on that the Holy Spirit is the Lord. And when people began to dig into this, you realize in the scriptures, He's there right at the beginning. 

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[00:08:51] In creation, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Right at the beginning in Genesis, when creation takes place, the spirit is involved. And then all throughout the Bible, whenever God is referred to as speaking, whether the Bible uses God or Spirit of God is synonymous and interchangeable. If the Spirit God speaks, then God has spoken. And if I could just make a footnote here, maybe we'll do like a whole week on the Trinity. But I just want to make a footnote here to say, the fact that we worship one God in three persons, the Trinity, should give us so much confidence. And that is something that we should absolutely embrace and be eager to share with other people. And sometimes I feel like a lot of Christians are almost embarrassed about that, as if there's like some bad math going on or something. One plus one plus one equals one or something like that. Yes, it's a complex concept. And should we be surprised about that? It's talking about the nature of the infinite God. But it is such a blessing that we worship a trinity. It means that God is love. 

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[00:10:06] There was never a time where God was not love because there were always three divine persons that were in perfect community and relationship with one another. God doesn't need to wait until he creates so then accidentally, coincidentally later he can he can express his love. That's just part of who he is. It's his nature, it's eternal, it's inherent, intrinsic within him. God is father. Francis has been teaching us about the fatherhood of God. That's his nature. God was always a father eternally because there was always the divine son. No other God can say that. In fact, how many times is Allah referred to as father in the Quran? Zero. Hundreds of times in the New Testament. It's a difference in the actual nature of God because it's one God in three persons. God is love. He's not just loving. God is father. He doesn't need to wait until he creates to have someone to father. So embrace the Trinity. All right, a second foundational question, the Holy Spirit, a divine person of the Trinity. Now a second question, who has the Holy Spirit? We've got to be clear on this. And here there's a really significant distinction between pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost. 

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[00:11:33] In the Old Testament, in general, the Holy Spirit came upon specific people at specific times for specific purposes-- all sorts of purposes, leadership, artistry, writing poems, all sorts of reasons. He visited people. But that means that you can get a prayer like the prayer of King David, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me," because it wasn't necessarily permanent. And the Holy Spirit could be withdrawn from a person, even if they were following God. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is given to all Christians as a permanent indwelling. Comes to live within us. Jesus said no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Born of the Spirit. Not a temporary state, you are born into a new and permanent existence. Paul said no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The only way you can say Jesus is Lord authentically from your heart. I hope you say that every day and you're intended to as a Christian. And that means you have the Holy Spirit every single day. Peter said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Again, not you may or you may not. You may be visited by the Holy Spirit or not, but a promise that you will when you repent and you are baptized. 

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[00:13:12] So if you are here tonight as a follower of Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. Next foundational question. What are the signs of having the Holy Spirit in your life? And this is where things get really exciting. Because what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life is utterly remarkable. It's been such a blessing to me even this week to just work through some of this. And this list is not even close to exhaustive. I'm just going to pick out some of the things from scripture that the Holy Spirit is desiring in your life. And the first one, which is where we were last week and where we've been dwelling as a church, gives us confidence in our status as children of God. That God is our Father. This is first and foremost, and Francis took us last week to Romans 8, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That is what the Spirit does. And then Galatians 4, which Francis also referenced last week, 4, 6, whenever you see a because in Scripture, you take note. 

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[00:14:31] This is actually why God sent His Spirit. Because you are his sons. Because you are his children, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who cries out, Abba Father. So this is not just like one of a myriad of things that the spirit does. It is because we have been adopted as God's children that God sends his spirit who cries out Abba Father. And I love even in these verses how you see in Romans 8 there it says "We cry Abba Father." Then you see in Galatians 4 It says, it's the Spirit who cries out Abba Father. And yet it's a Spirit who's bearing witness with our spirit. It's like, are we crying out or is the Spirit crying out? That's how deep the indwelling and the union is. And then Ephesians 1 just bringing confidence to all of this, having believed, so again, anyone who has believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit, guaranteeing, I love the strength of that word, guaranteeing our inheritance. Why? Again, you inherit because you are children until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. 

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[00:15:44] Because of the Holy Spirit, we can be utterly confident and assured of God's fatherly love for us. And that is so important. And if there is one place that the enemy is going to attack, it's going to be specifically on that point because that is what God wants for us more than anything. When I used to interview people for seminary, people who were applying to come to seminary to train as pastors, my top interview question was what does God think of you? And I would ask that question and at least four out of five times people would start squirming in their seats, and then they would start to recount to me every way in which they failed and didn't meet some sort of standard over the last month, and then they will tell me |"But I'm really committed though to doing better next month." And Francis has been preaching on this and he's writing on it. This is huge, guys. If you find Raphael and JJ later and you ask them, what does your dad think of you? And if they give you an answer like that, I would be absolutely devastated. 

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[00:17:15] Children have to be absolutely assured of the love of their father, of their parents, for them. We cannot miss that. Second, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us intimate knowledge of God, which is such a blessing. Have you ever had an awkward question where somebody says, "Do you know Johnny? Johnny Brown." And you're racing in your mind and you're trying to think, do I know Johnny. It sounds familiar. They seem like they're saying it in a way where I think I'm supposed to know Johnny. I think I met Johnny once. Or I watched him on YouTube a couple times. And you're like, what do they mean by know? Does that count as knowing someone? You have those awkward conversations when you think, do I actually know someone? But the beautiful thing is that if somebody asks you, do you know the Holy Spirit? Do you know God in light of the Holy Spirit? I don't care what they mean by know. You just give a confident yes. Yes, I know God. I know God better than I know anyone in my life. And here's why. Because Jesus says, John 14, I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. 

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[00:18:44] The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. Just take a second on the intimacy of that language. The God of the universe, person of the Trinity, he lives with you and will be in you. I don't know if Oshish [sp] and Lydia are in the room tonight, but I was thinking Lydia thought she knew Oshish before they got married. But there's a whole other level in which you come to know someone when you actually live with them. Now Lydia's saying, how come nobody told me? Holy Spirit invites us into that depth of knowledge of God, not just knowing about him. We can learn all sorts of stuff about him from textbooks up here, but that intimate relational knowledge of the person that you live with and who's actually within. Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin. What a blessing. Not condemnation. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but conviction of sin. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. And I'm so thankful for this. This is such a big part of my story. Before I was a Christian, I would never admit that I was wrong. I would never ask for forgiveness. always rationalized that I was the one in the right. 

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[00:20:31] And then I gave my life to Jesus. And a couple days later, I woke up in the morning with just a flood of conviction. Again, not condemnation, but conviction. All these ways that I had hurt people, that I had convinced myself, no, they were wrong. I was right. And now all of a sudden by God's Holy Spirit, I could see clearly. And it was like I was compelled. And I remember I sat down at my parents' table and I just started writing one letter after another just asking for forgiveness from people just one letter, after another. And I take no credit for that because it's the literal opposite of what was in me, of what I had produced in my flesh. But the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin. He also brings power to resist sin. So I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And I remember again my story when God finally began to bring conviction of sin, and in my arrogance and pride, I thought, okay, I can see that that's wrong now. I guess I'll just stop that. In my strength, I guess, I'll just turn that switch and now I'll live a good life. I just felt flat on my face. And then tried again and fell flat on my face, and tried again and fell flat on face. It is only by surrendering to the Holy Spirit that I've known any victory over sin. 

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[00:22:03] Sometimes that has come where God, in his power, has just completely changed something. Sometimes that's been a long fight with him over many years. The Holy Spirit empowers us to bear fruit. We're not just saved from something; we're also saved to something. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And you can't get those fruits anywhere else. They don't sell them at Safeway, not even Whole Foods. That's kind of what we do so often, which we try to find somewhere we can find that fruit, we can kind of manifest it in some way, where we can have control over it. We try to find it in anything other than God. And this is what a successful life looks like. Man, we, I, get worked up about so many other things. I spend so much of my mental and emotional energy on things that have nothing to do. with that fruit. I was reminded today that I had a friend in college, someone I really looked up to, still living passionately for the Lord, and he would end every day with these fruit in front of him, and he would just slowly walk through each one. 

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[00:23:38] He'd just say the word love, and then he'd just spend time with the Lord. Was I loving today? Did I love you well? Did I love others well? Did I know your love for me? Every day he would just end the day walking slowly through each of these fruits of the Spirit. And I just loved it. When I would see him, I'd say, "How's it going?" And because this was his practice, he'd give me the most amazing answer about all the deep things that God was doing in his heart. I'd have no idea what he had actually done that day. I would have no ideas whether the circumstances of life were taking him up or taking him down, but I knew how he was doing in the deepest sense. The Holy Spirit blesses us with spiritual understanding. What a gift. Jesus says, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." I have to kind of smile at the self-control there. If I have many things that I think you should know, I tend to just blurt them out. But he said you can't bear them, but when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. And again just focusing in on all the beautiful language in scripture. He could have just said, he will tell you all the truth, right? Very abstract up here. Very different, intimate, relational sense. He will guide you into all the truth. 

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[00:25:06] 1st Corinthians 2: what we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that-- again, whenever you see words like that, you key in. So that we may understand what God has freely given us. And then, this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the spirit, explaining spiritual realities with spirit-taught words. You know, I was reading that this weekend when Hal [sp] was baptized. Hal got baptized this weekend. [Applause] it's quite amazing. I hope when I put these scriptures up there you don't read those as things that were true some time way back when. We live the reality of these scriptures today. Diana got up and testified about Hal's story and at one point she said there was just this point in her story where Hal was journeying to Christ and it was just amazing that she walked up to me. And I hadn't used this language. I don't even know where this language came from. And she said, "I think I know what I need to do. That God is telling me I need to repent." And Diana was just in awe like where did that understanding come? How was she able to even explain that spiritual reality when it hadn't been kind of given to her by someone else? 

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[00:26:41] It's literally this scripture taking place before our eyes. Words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. And you may experience that with your reading of the Scriptures, that all Scripture is God-breathed. It's breathed by the spirit. And I tried reading the Scriptures before I gave my life to Jesus, and it was just like an old dusty textbook. But then with the Spirit, it's a letter. It's a letter from a friend from someone who you know. You can hear your friend's voice when you read through the scriptures. The Holy Spirit helps us pray. That's not even really strong enough. He prays with us and for us. Romans 8, "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. I find that such a relief that even the apostle Paul says I don't know what I ought to pray, but that's okay. The spirit of God intercedes for us, and therefore we can have confidence it is in accordance with the Will of God. I am so thankful for that. I have so much more confidence now in my prayers together with the Holy Spirit than I would if I'm just trying to figure out what I should be praying. 

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[00:28:12] Some of you may even find that God gives you a prayer language. The scriptures talk about speaking in tongues. And some of you might find that when words fail, when you know you need to pray-- this scripture talks about this wordless groan. When you know that you need to pray and words just won't cut it. You're not even in a place to formulate the words. Even if they would cut it and you just find that something's coming out of your mouth and it's like just an intimate language between you and God, him ensuring that you can communicate to him in a way that you need to. Some of you may have had that experience. Happy to talk with anyone about that after if that's a new idea. The Holy Spirit gives us direction, and this is exciting, sometimes in supernatural ways. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So the Holy Spirit leads us in ways that we never could have led ourselves. None of us would have been thinking, oh, there's a good idea. I've got a good here with my human reason. Let's go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Only the Holy Spirit could know that was specifically what Jesus needed at specifically that time and he could lead. 

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[00:29:29] And then the biblical language, I just noticed in this next passage, is often so much stronger. The way that the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit leading us is so much stronger than the way that I tend to talk when I talk about having a sense of where God might, all these qualifiers, want to be leading. And here in Acts 16, Paul and a group of disciples were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. They tried to enter Bithynia, but the spirit would not allow them to. And I just want to ask, does your faith have room for that type of experience? When is the last time you made a decision and took a step not because it made sense to you, but because the Spirit directly led you or forbade you in some way? I hope, as I ask that question, that some things come to mind. And if not, that's something that we want to push into as a church, because again, this is not the way things were in some grand old past. This is the same Holy Spirit that lives within us. Holy Spirit gives us gifts to serve the church. We've spent time here, so I won't linger here, but how encouraging. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. No one left out. Every single person given a specific gift by the Holy Spirit for the church. 

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[00:31:00] And then the Holy Spirit empowers us to share Christ with others, which can be daunting and can be daunting in your own strength and in your power, but that's not how we do this. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. What I want to do is just see if we can personalize that. I've run through a bunch of the ways that the Holy Spirit is designed to work in our lives. Which one do you want to turn into a prayer? Is it a spiritual understanding or is it that you need that help to pray or is that you need to know that you're loved by your heavenly Father? You need to have that intimate knowledge with God. We ran through about 10 of those things. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to share Christ with others. Turn in threes or fours, and let's see if every one of us-- because again I just don't want this to be like okay so now on a test I know the 10 things that the Holy Spirit can do in your life. No, let's ask the Holy Spirit to turn one of those into a prayer for each one of us tonight. Well, let's share that with each other and then for the rest of the night we'll sort of make that our prayer Holy Spirit would you provide that in my life. 

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[00:32:15] One more foundational question about the Holy Spirit. How do we keep in step with the Holy Spirit? I love that language since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Let me ask you this question. If you were to give an estimate, what percentage of the time do you think that the Holy Spirit is trying to interact with you in some way? Anybody want to give a guess? I think I heard it. 100. And how do we know that's the case? Because of everything we just looked at, a hundred percent of the time, you need the things that the Holy Spirit gives. The fruit of the Spirit, all the other blessings from the Spirit that we just spoke about, we need those things continuously. We can't even acknowledge that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit. But then a second question, what percentage of the time that God, that the Holy Spirit is trying to interact with us, do we actually notice? Do we actually acknowledge that he is present and interacting with us? And I asked that question to a group of about 30 Christian leaders sometime last year. I asked them actually to anonymously write down a percentage and just sort of hand it in. And in that class of 30, 10% or less was said by over half the class, and only five people said a third of the time or more.

[00:33:56] And when I saw that, I thought, whoa, this is a big deal. This a big problem, because what will that do in relationship? What does that do to a relationship? If you are even only aware that someone is trying to interact with you 10% or less of the time that they are actually interacting with you. And, biblically, this is not the way the Holy Spirit communicates, but so often we treat him that way. He's like a superhero that we can call on in specific emergencies, but he's not typically part of our day-to-day. But the Bible tells us to keep in step with the Holy Spirit. That language is so different. Step by step, moment by moment, walking through life together. And so it is so essential, and this takes time, that we get to know the Holy Spirit's voice. It takes time and intentionality, just like getting to know anyone's voice. Many of you know my wife, Jo. She is from England. And so we are separated by a common language. The first time she met my family 17 years ago; she's sitting talking with my Uncle Big. Yes, Uncle Big, the patriarch of our Italian-American family. 

[00:35:17] And Jo's really trying to make a good impression and they've been talking. Jo's just kind of talking away for about 20 minutes. And then finally he stops her and he says, "Doll, everything you say sounds so beautiful, but I can't understand a word of it." And, look, sometimes that's our starting point with the Holy Spirit. Everything you say sounds beautiful, but I don't understand a word of it. It takes time and intentionality to get to know someone's tone and their mannerisms and their phraseology. When Jo, as a British person, says something like, "Oh, that wasn't completely awful," it took me some time to realize that's actually a high compliment. I got the really significant compliment, but that was not initially instinctive to me. If Jo says something like that wasn't a complete disaster, it was actually really good. But it took time before I could instinctively smile when she says something like that and realize what she means. It's a process of learning her language, and really is a process which I often was not and am not good at, but when it goes well, it's a process of thinking the best. You trust the person that you actually know. And so even when something sounds weird to you, you don't dismiss it, you don't immediately get defensive about it just because it didn't make sense to you or it's not the way you would have said it. 

[00:36:47] You approach their words with a positivity, a curiosity, you remind yourself, I know this person is for me, so if they're speaking in my direction, I want to take that seriously. I want to find the most charitable interpretation of it that I can. And as I think about that, I've gotten through a very similar process in coming to understand the language and the voice of the Holy Spirit in my life. And I think of lots of examples, but it's like when I sense that the Holy Spirit is speaking to me and it doesn't make sense to me, I have a decision point then. Do I dismiss? Thanks for watching! Do I get defensive? Do I reason myself out of it or do I approach it with positivity and curiosity and test it? And I think of one time I was walking through an airport and I was about to sit down at a table to write the conclusion to a book on suffering. And then the last chapter was why does God allow suffering? And this is what I'm about to do. And then I walk past a sign for the all faith prayer room, the inter-faith prayer room. And I had never in my life had any inclination to go and visit an inter-faith prayer room despite many times in airports. 

[00:38:12] And as I walked past that sign, I just had this deep sense of conviction that I had to go to the inter-faith pray room. And then I started to look about where the inter-faith prayer was and realized that it was in a different terminal and I had to walk a long way to get to the interfaith prayer room, but it was at the point where it would have felt disobedient to not go to the prayer room. And I walked into the prayer and there's one guy and he was sitting in the corner and he just slumped down, his face in his hands, crying, and I sit down with him and he shares about all the suffering that he's going through, him and his brother it was, and he had shared about suffering you would never want anyone to experience. And then after he had shared, he just said, "Why would God allow so much suffering?" And literally I was going to sit down and write on that specific question, and God turned around. But if I didn't make that turn, then I don't get to know God's voice if I don' test that with positivity. I remember a guy in church, I had a conversation with him after a service, he identified himself as a non-Christian, that he had grown up in a Christian home now he's a non-Christian. We had a good conversation about a tough question. He said, thank you so much. Left. I'm watching him walk out the back of church and there was just this deep sense of the Holy Spirit saying, "Ask him if there's anything else he wants to say."

[00:39:43] And it didn't make sense. We had had a full conversation. He was leaving. He was the one who had ended the conversation. He was one who was walking out of the building. And so I excused myself in the conversation I was in, walked out the back of church into this alley. I think I kind of scared him. But I just said, "Sorry, I know it's a little awkward, but I just wondered, was there anything else you wanted to say?" And before I finished the sentence, he just blurted out, he said, "I just really want to recommit my life to Jesus." And it was just like on the tip of his tongue. And I never could have known, but the Holy Spirit knew that that was like about to come out of his mouth. And so I just want to encourage us. In my life often this has looked like Holy Spirit U-turns where I've done whatever I think I should do in my strength, in terms of what makes sense to me, in terms how I would have planned it or strategized it. And then there's just this deep sense that something else, which doesn't make sense in my human reasoning, and then I have a decision point do I make the U-Turn and find some awkward way back into conversation or do I carry on in my way? But the amazing thing is that when you make these Holy Spirit U-turns, you build up more and more evidence of what the Holy Spirit's voice sounds like in your life. And you build more and evidence of His faithfulness when you respond in that way.

[00:41:08] And the really cool thing in my life now is that I probably still get the same biological feeling in my stomach in those situations. But years ago, that biological feeling was one of like uncomfort and anxiety. Do I really need to walk back out into the alley in the back of church and find an awkward way back into an uncomfortable conversation? Now, I probably get the same biological feeling and it's one of excitement and expectancy because you build up evidence over time that when you feel that and you get to know what that feels like when you're interacting with the Holy Spirit, and you build up evidence of God's faithfulness when you respond to him and say yes, and then all of a sudden maybe you feel that same thing biologically and you start to get excited because you know that what that means is that God is about to do something really significant. Before I finish, I want to turn our attention to two really crazy claims that Jesus made about the Holy Spirit and invite us to actually believe them. 

[00:42:17] The crazy claim number one is John 16, and we've kind of already touched on this. I tell you the truth. We always take notice when we see that. I tell the truth, it means I know you're not going to believe me here, but I'm serious. It is to your advantage, Jesus says, that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Do you really believe that? Do you believe that we are actually better off today with the Holy Spirit within us than we would be if we were 2,000 years ago walking with Jesus right beside us? I think sometimes you can read that and almost feel like Jesus is just kind of being polite. He's like letting us down easy that he needs to go. Like when somebody's like breaking up with a dating relationship and they're like it's better for you. This is not Jesus being polite. He says that up front. I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage or to your benefit that I go. We are better off with the Holy Spirit. And then that second crazy claim, again, very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me, so really important as we read this, to realize that's you. This is not some superhero Christian. "Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. And they will do even greater things than these." That's ridiculous. "Because I am going to the Father."

[00:43:57] And then what's the context for this? Couple of verses later, we see the context. "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. Do you believe that? Do you believe that the same Spirit by whom Jesus did all that he did lives in you? The same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead operates in you? There's actually a theological debate about when Jesus was doing his miraculous works, was he operating like in his specific unique divine power as the second person of the Trinity? Or had he divested himself of his divine attributes to come down and live Philippians two, this human life? And then Luke talks all the time about how Jesus is operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that could it be that Jesus is in the same power that we operate with? By the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, I don't want to get into the weeds of that debate, but let me just put the question this way. What did Jesus do during his life on earth that it is not possible for us to do as his church? It's probably a couple things. We cannot make atonement. We cannot just forgive sins against others. There's a couple of things. 

[00:45:32] But if we're talking about his miracles, the way he loved people, the way he had just the right words for just the situation, or even a word of knowledge by the Holy Spirit that he couldn't possibly have known, but he knew it at just the time that he needed it in a conversation. All of that is available to us. Do you believe that? Do we live that way? Far too many people settle for being pre-Pentecost followers of Jesus. Sure, I deny Jesus sometimes, but the Apostle Peter denied Jesus three times after being told he was to do so. Can I really expect to do any better? Yes! Pentecost screams an enormous yes to that question. And the enemy deceives us in both respects. We look at the disciples pre-Pentecost, and we think, well, it can't get any better. It couldn't be better than the disciples. Well, yes, it's to our advantage, it's our benefit that Jesus goes and the Spirit comes. And then we look at Jesus pre-Pentecost. And we go, well, it can never be that good for me because he was Jesus. And, again, that's a lie. 

[00:46:53] That's not what the Bible says. "Whoever believes in me," every one of us who believes in Jesus, as his church, together, corporately, will do what he's been doing and even greater things than Jesus. Jesus knows we're not going to believe it. He says, "Very truly, I tell you." Jesus' last words on earth before he ascended to heaven. Typically a person's last words are important. Do you remember what they are? We've looked at them already. But you will receive dynamin when the Holy Spirit comes on you. But you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Does that Greek word look like any other word that you know? Dynamite. You will receive dynamite when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Being a Christian is as much about a change in power as it is about a change in belief. When someone asks you about Christianity, about what Christianity is, do you talk about beliefs or do you talk about an utter transformation in power and in life? I hope you talk both. Don't be a Christian atheist. Lots of people are living as Christian atheists. Christian in belief, atheist in power. Christian in belief but functionally we never trust God for anything beyond what we already feel we can do on our own abilities like 325 Christians.

[00:48:35] We can affirm, I believe in the Holy Spirit, but then the sentence ends there and we never push into all that the Holy Spirit has for us. Tozer put it this way, he said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirits had been withdrawn from New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop and everybody would know the difference." When is the last time that you trusted God for something that you know is just so ridiculously far beyond your ability to produce? Something that would simply be utterly impossible if not for the Holy Spirit living inside of you. I've always thought one of the saddest things in life is the way that expectations for life fade over time. For many people when you're a kid you have these great expectations for a life. I can remember as a young kid-- this probably just shows how weird I was, but I can remember as a young kid going out into the backyard and thinking I can fly. Anybody else ever do this? Thank you. Thank you so much. I knew you were here for a reason. I knew came all the way up here for reasons, so I wouldn't be the only one. 

[00:49:53] I can remembers standing in the backyard and closing my eyes and just thinking if I just somehow like concentrate enough, I'm just going to open my eyes and find myself off the ground. But it just symbolizes. I had these big dreams for who I would become, what I could be involved in. And then, for many people at least, one day you wake up and you don't even know how it happened and somehow that childhood idealism just turns into an adult realism or even a cynicism and you lose that. You just wake up and you stop dreaming, you stop thinking that God can do big, big, things. You experience just those harsh realities of the world. But when Peter addressed the crowd at Pentecost, when the dynamite came on the disciples, this is the first thing he did. When he addressed the crowd, he quoted the prophet Joel and he said, In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people." And then he says, "Your sons and daughters, your children will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams again."

[00:51:14] And so often when I think about the Holy Spirit, I think of the Holy Spirit as an invitation to reclaim under the Lord, that childhood idealism, a redeemed childhood idealist. And I think that there's a kind of progression here. I'm convinced of that, that it has to start with the young people. That the sons and daughters are going to prophesy. And then the young men will see visions. And they will spur on the old men, which is where I'm getting to, to dream dreams again. And so I want to encourage in particular the young people in this room, don't wait. Don't sit around and stare at us old folks who are exhausted trying to figure out how to get our kids to sleep. Don't wait. Your time is now. Most of the heroes that you think of in the scriptures were dead by the time they were my age. You are not too young. And the reality is that you think you're too young and that your time is going to come until you wake up one day and then you think you are too old and you've missed it. There is never going to be a day when you wake and you think now's my time for me to really go all in with the Lord and with his church and for his church.

[00:52:50] Now is the time. And so, man, especially the young people in the room, go for it. Get together, pray together. Learn the Holy Spirit's voice together, discern what he's saying, and then bring it to the elders. You've got a structure here. Bring it to the elders, let them test it. Invite them, invite them in, invite me in. I'd be excited about that. I'll follow you. Do it the right way, but don't wait. Now is the time. Last question, how do we step into this life? If we have the Holy Spirit, all of us, why does it so often seem like maybe some of us are more empowered by the Holy Spirit than others? And here's a verse I've always found really intriguing. "Do not get drunk on wine in with life's debauchery; instead, be filled with the Spirit." It's like a really weird connection when you think about it. What's the connection between the Holy Spirit and wine and drunkenness? Because it's not just here. At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell and the disciples are speaking in all sorts of different languages so everybody can hear, people thought they were drunk at 9 a.m. When Hannah prays in the Spirit at the beginning of 1 Samuel, Eli thinks she's drunk. What's the connection? 

[00:54:17] So, question, is this a container full of water? Anybody want to check? Will, I'm going to nominate you because you're a scientist and this is like a science experiment. All right, Will. I even brought you a spoon. Yeah. You see how much Will trusts me? I feel very trusted right now. Full of water? 

Male speaker: [00:54:58] No. 

Vince Vitale: [00:54:59] No? What's it full of? 

Male speaker: [00:55:02] That's acetic acid. It's vinegar. 

Vince Vitale: [00:55:04] See, the scientist, he said it's acetic acid. Yes, that was vinegar. Thank you, Will. You are the man. I owe you. Dinner is on me next time. I owe for that one. Yeah, thanks, bro. It was great. Point is if something can look like it's full of one thing and it can be full of something else. And that's what this verse is getting at here. I do not get drunk on wine. It can look a lot like being filled with the Spirit, but that's different than being filled with the Spirit. And the thing I want you to remember from that is you are full of one thing, even partially, you cannot be full of something else. If you're even partially full of something else that is acting as a counterfeit, that you are trying to use in your own strength to do the work that the Holy Spirit desires to do, then you cannot full of the Holy Spirit. You can only be full the Holy Spirt if you ask God to empty you of everything else that you're relying on. That's the point here in Ephesians 5. We see it again in Galatians 5: "The acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft. By contrast, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace." And I don't think that those lists are coincidental. They're connected. 

[00:56:40] Because what is sexual immorality? It's a counterfeit for love. It's filling ourselves with something that for a moment might look like love, but it's not the real thing. What's impurity and debauchery? Seeking pleasure in anything other than God himself. Anything other than the true joy that comes only by the Holy Spirit. What's idolatry and witchcraft? Maybe we don't use those terms, but it is control. I'm going to try to control the situation through whatever means I have available to me as opposed to resting in the peace of God. Thank God you are in control and I'm not the one who's in control. We're going to move into a time of worship again at the end, and I just want to encourage us. So many people just spend their life like spooning out little bits of this and identifying as Christian. Committed Christian. There's lots of things you can be committed to. It's quite different than surrender. You can spend your life on your own strength trying to spoon out little bits of the counterfeit over and over and not getting anywhere. 

[00:58:07] Or you think about Mary just pouring out the whole pint of perfume on Jesus' feet. You think about the disciples, they left everything. They asked the Holy Spirit to turn this upside down so that they could be emptied of everything else they were relying on and trusting him so that could be full, so that they could be filled to overflowing by God's Spirit. And so I want to us a minute with this, okay? I want give us a moment with this. Do not get drunk on, instead be filled with the Spirit. And I want trust that if we come before the Holy Spirit right now and ask him to speak to us, that he will give every one of you a specific word that is specifically for you. Specifically for you. Do not get drunk on this. Lay this down, surrender this down. Ask me to turn this over upside down so that you can be emptied of it so that I can then fill you with my glorious Holy Spirit. 

[00:59:19] Lord, we ask you to speak to us now. Lord, we don't want to make stuff up and we're so thankful that we don't need to. We're so thankful that you're a God who delights in speaking to us. And so I pray Lord right now for every one of my brothers and sisters. Lord, would you help them to get to know your voice by speaking to them a very specific word to fill that blank in with? And even at the same time, would you give them courage and empower them? Bring conviction, Lord, and a desire to surrender that to you and to give you everything that they might be completely filled by your Holy Spirit. Would you speak to us now, Lord?

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