- Good morning.
It's a good day to be in the house of the Lord.
God is already moving, He's been moving.
Aren't you glad that we have the gift of the Holy Spirit?
- Yeah. - Yes.
And so He's gonna move today.
He's been moving, He's gonna continue to.
Let's see that our hearts are open for a couple
other things real fast.
Tuesday, November 19th, we are going to have
the African Children's Choir here at Springhouse.
And we want you to be here.
You do not want to miss this very special event, okay?
So we will have childcare for preschool ages.
We will be open similar to a midweek gathering
that's on a Tuesday night.
Come and bring a friend.
This is a real special event.
This group travels globally and they're gonna be here
in Smyrna at our church on November 19th.
So we want you to make plans for that, okay?
After, so that's that.
Okay, you got that?
We good?
Aren't you glad Pastor Barbie is back in the house?
- Yeah. (congregation applauding)
- And we changed her job title to shenanigans coordinator
while she was gone.
And so we're waiting for that to get started.
Guys, let me tell you, if you missed Thursday night,
you missed a real treat.
I want you to go back to the live stream
and listen to Pastor Barbie's message.
And there's two more weeks in this little mini series,
but man, it's poignant.
And I can tell that she's been on sabbatical.
Either like been through it or downloaded both sides
of that coin, but it's real powerful and we're rich.
So I want you to download that and watch that online
and then come on Thursday if you can at six o'clock
and catch up with that series.
If you've noticed across the way in our parking lot,
we have a basketball court and it is open.
And I just wanted to say thank you to Pastor James and Dana
for installing this basketball court for us.
It looks so professional and it was done by James and Dana.
It wasn't like we hired a bunch of people to come out.
They put it in and guys, it's been such an enhancement
to our church.
Everybody's talked about it.
Hopefully it'll be an epicenter for ministry
toward the Lord.
And so just thank you for your hard work
and your fingerprints on our ministry.
Well, thank you for the, thank you for the Janssons.
And then I want to say we are rounding the end
and the close of our series, His Church.
And it has been a rich series.
Who's been blessed by what the Lord's been doing
through this series?
Man, He has really been teaching me and growing me,
growing our family, but we are heading to this thing
called Christmas and it's coming quick.
So today we're gonna talk about the Holy Spirit, go figure.
We've been talking about the Holy Spirit, right?
We're gonna talk about the Holy Spirit.
And next week, Pastor Justin is gonna bring part two
of today's message entitled, "Wake Up."
And so we're doing Acts 19 and 20, 19 today, 20 next week.
And we're tag teaming the close of His Church series.
And then the next week we're gonna talk about Thanksgiving
and then we're gonna be into Advent, okay?
Now there are more chapters than 20 chapters
in the book of Acts.
And I do encourage you to continue to read and see
how the Holy Spirit was moving in Paul and his journey
and all of the stories in scripture on how he utilized,
how the Lord utilized His Holy Spirit
to transform people's lives.
Continue to read and lean into that.
But I wanted to give you a heads up of where we're going to
be in the next few weeks.
Does that sound good?
All right, with all of that, we're gonna be in Acts 19.
Would you stand with me and would you read like you're
cheering for the best football team on the planet?
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road
through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.
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."
So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"
"John's baptism," they replied.
Paul said John's baptism was a baptism of repentance.
He told the people to believe in the one coming after him,
that is in Jesus.
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus.
When Paul placed his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues
and prophesied.
Father, I thank you for your word.
I thank you that it is alive and active and I thank you,
Lord, that you're going to use it to transform us today, God.
Let the things of me fall to the ground and the things
of you stick for eternity.
In Jesus' name, and everybody said amen.
Well, we are in Acts chapter 19 and that surely is not
the entire chapter, but I'm gonna be telling you
and unfolding the story that happens in Acts chapter 19
through the message today.
But I really wanted to focus in on these top six verses
talking about the Holy Spirit.
Aren't you glad that we have the gift of the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit, we have access to the gift
of the Holy Spirit.
And one of the things that I want us to understand,
and this is what we've been trying to convey
over the last several months, is there is God the Father.
We can get our mind around God the Father somewhat
because he is the creator of the universe.
He is Father God.
And we can get our mind around God the Son
in flesh, Jesus Christ.
But for some reason beyond those two,
when we talk about the mysterious Holy Spirit,
we kind of get disconnected a little bit,
but I want you to understand that the Holy Spirit
is a person.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And it is a precious gift, the Holy Spirit,
he is a precious gift that's been given to us
from Jesus Christ.
And every one of you, under the sound of my voice,
have the ability and the opportunity
to have access to this Holy Spirit.
And can I just tell you something?
I don't know how people live life without him.
I don't know how you do life without the Holy Spirit.
It's so difficult, life is so hard.
There are trials and tribulations
and things that we can't anticipate,
this broken, torn down world.
And I'll see people walk through harsh circumstances,
really, times where they're grieving,
times when they're panicked, and all these things.
I'm saying, "Lord, I don't know how people do it
without the foundation that's found in you."
You have access to this God.
Have you ever been in a situation where you needed help?
When I put this slide up this morning in my slideshow,
the Beatles song went in my head.
You know the Beatles song I'm talking about?
♪ I need somebody ♪
Yeah, that song.
I need help.
I am learning more and more in my life.
Every day, I don't just need help,
I need help for the help I'm receiving.
I need so much help in my life.
And for some reason, I find myself in these places
where I need help and I don't reach out,
I don't say I need it, but boy, I need it.
Man, have you ever heard of this cereal?
This is called Sugar Smacks.
Now, Sugar Smacks has changed its name to Honey Smacks
because parents didn't wanna buy a cereal box
that had the word sugar on it.
So they just changed the name.
It's the same cereal, sugar puffed.
So when I was in high school,
when I was in high school, I used to eat Sugar Smacks.
Big bowls of Sugar Smacks, right?
And I would eat these bowls before I would go to school
and there was a particular day I'd walked into the school
and it was about 9.30 in the morning,
it was the second period, it was a Spanish class,
and I walk into that class and I sit down
and I don't know what caused me to do this,
but I take in my hand and just kinda brushed
against my cheek and I realized there was a Sugar Smack
stuck to my cheek.
Friends, it was 9.30 in the morning.
I had spoken to several people in that last two hours
and not one person told me,
"Kevin, are you saving some breakfast for later?
"Kevin, you got something stuck to your face.
"Kevin, you might wanna brush off your,"
listen, I need help in my life.
If I've got a wild hair sticking out of my head,
I need a friend to come and say,
"Let me pluck this out for you."
If I'm wearing something that doesn't make sense,
I need a friend that'll say, "Hey, let me call you on this."
And my breath is bad.
I need a friend.
I need help.
And guess what?
You need help too,
especially the person you're sitting next to.
You need help.
You need, we all need help.
And if we're honest with ourselves,
if we're honest with ourselves, though we need help,
we internally realize it,
but we're often adverse to asking
or receiving help when it's offered.
Because we say, psychologically maybe,
I can do it myself.
I wanna do it my way.
I don't wanna impose or bother someone else.
Just the other night,
I had an opportunity to jump in and help somebody
and they said no, and I was like, this is a fiasco.
What it boils down to is pride.
Now let me tell you something that might help you.
I wanna encourage you, this has helped me,
and I'm not 100% on this,
but I wanna encourage you, church,
to reframe your thinking when somebody offers help.
Reframe your thinking to this.
Resolve that when someone offers to help,
God is giving you an opportunity for a deeper connection.
It may not be at all about the thing
that you're helping with,
but man, how many times have I missed out
on an opportunity for a connection
because I wouldn't let somebody jump in and help me?
Because I refused the help that was being offered to me.
But of even greater consequence
than not being willing to receive the help
from the people around us,
is when we fail to understand
that you have access to the Holy Spirit
and He will help you.
You have access to the Holy Spirit and He will help you.
So often, He is the last call that we will make.
It's like, well God, I've tried everything else,
so maybe I'll attempt to try you.
What would happen if He was our first go-to?
What type of change would happen in our lives
if He was our first go-to when we need help?
Jesus, Jesus Christ, your Savior,
promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
"If you love me, keep my command," says Jesus,
"and I will ask the Father,
"and He will give you another advocate
"to help you and to be with you."
That's the purpose.
Forever, the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept Him
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him,
but you know Him, for He first lived in you.
He lives in you and He'll be in you.
We have been given access to this incredible gift.
You know, when somebody gives me a gift at Christmas,
if I leave it in the package and set it down,
never touch it, it's worthless.
Doesn't matter how expensive, how wonderful the gift is,
you have access to this gift.
What are you doing with your gift?
So Paul here has entered the town of Ephesus.
And what he's really trying to do,
what he's looking to do is introduce the Holy Spirit
because he rides up on this conversation with the Ephesians
and he says, "Whose baptism did you receive?"
And they say, "We received John's baptism."
Well, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance.
And can I tell you, every one of us
need to get to a point where we repent,
where we recognize who Jesus Christ was and is,
and we repent.
But guys, there is more to the story beyond that.
See, here's the thing, we get our salvation.
We get our salvation, that gift of salvation,
and it gives us the opportunity to go
and be with God in eternity,
but there's still this life that we're living, right?
There's still, we don't get holy amnesia
when we give our life to the Lord.
It's not like we forget everything that we've done, right?
But as we've been talking about week after week
is that you've been given an eternity.
There's an eternity ahead of you.
And your life here on earth is about the size
of this red part of this rope.
And what you do with this determines
what happens with the rest of it.
But here's the thing, you don't have to wait
to this point right here
to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
You can have a relationship,
and you might even dare say you need a relationship
with Him during this part.
It's the only way you can survive.
It's the only way that you can get through.
It's the only real way that you can fulfill
and complete His purpose for your life
is that you have a relationship with Him right here.
But we've been given this glorious eternity from Jesus.
We need His Holy Spirit to help us navigate the waters
until we get on the other side.
So Paul has entered Ephesus,
and he's talking to them about the Holy Spirit.
And they don't know that they have access
to the Holy Spirit 'cause they don't know the Holy Spirit.
And I often say, and as I said before,
I don't know how people live life without the Holy Spirit.
So Paul has entered Ephesus,
and Ephesus is a place where demonic activity
is taking place.
And it included evil spirits,
it included sorcery and witchcraft and the like.
And the Ephesians were particularly committed
to their goddess, Artemis.
Did I say that right?
Artemis, yeah, Artemis.
This is the temple of Artemis here.
And in fact, this temple is one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world.
Now the Ephesians were completely committed
to this goddess Artemis and worshiping her
and worshiping this god and practicing sorcery
and being involved with supernatural activity.
Do you know that supernatural activity
can take place in it not be the Lord?
Okay, supernatural activity can take place
in it not be the Lord.
They were tapping in to the perverted use
of supernatural activity, which doesn't include the Lord.
And so they were engaged in these things.
So having Paul arrive on the scene
and talk with them about the Holy Spirit,
we look at his introduction,
Paul's introduction of the Holy Spirit
and he's walking upon people who have a touch point
with activity that's supernatural.
And I believe that that's important
because of what's gonna happen here, okay?
Now, these are people who knew about the way.
They knew about the way,
but they didn't have a relationship with the way.
Do you know there's a difference
between knowing about Jesus
and having a relationship with him, knowing about the Lord?
You see, here's the thing.
I believe that there are some people
who when it comes to walking life and living for the Lord,
it is basically tied down to I go to church,
I give a little money, I serve here and there,
but Lord don't mess with any of my life.
Can I tell you that he wants the whole thing?
And he has a better plan for the whole thing
than you ever will have in your life.
But Kevin, I've gone way too far.
I'm towards this.
I mean, you don't know the destructive things
that I've done.
Do you know that he knows how to take the destructive path
and make it beautiful?
He knows how to take ashy situations
and make them beautiful.
You've not gone too far that he can't get in
and redeem something and change something and course correct.
This is the Holy Spirit of God we're talking about here,
the person of the Holy Spirit.
So we have access to the Holy Spirit
and we get to be in relationship with him.
Now, I'm not an investor, okay?
I'm not an investor,
but there are people here who are investors
and good investors will only invest in people, places
and things that yield a good return.
Like that's what investors do.
They find opportunity to invest in things
that are peaceful places or things
that are gonna yield a big return.
Now here's the thing.
Have you ever invested in someone,
resource, energy, time,
to find that the return is little to nothing?
Now sometimes the Lord will call you to that type
of relationship.
But ordinarily we want to invest where there's reciprocation.
And I wanna encourage you that if you are investing
and pouring into a relationship with someone
and all they do is take and draw from you,
and I'm not telling you to lay that relationship down
because the Lord may have put that relationship
in your path, but what I am telling you is recognize it
for what it is.
Because sometimes you will end up pouring out
all that you've got to one place
and you're not being filled up by the Holy Spirit
and by the things that He has for you,
people in your life that He has for you,
to speak into your life and to fill you up.
So here's the thing.
We serve this God who's not only interested
in yielding a return, but His return,
His return goes unrivaled and unparalleled.
There is no greater relational investment
than the one made with the Holy Spirit.
There is no greater relational investment
that you can make than the one made with the Holy Spirit.
Because when you make an investment here,
then you're making an investment
in every other relationship you have in your life.
Every other relationship is affected by the investment
that you're putting in this relationship.
There's a story when I was in college
and man, my calendar was just this crazy.
I just was doing all types of things.
And there's this group of friends that I would roll with
and they wanted me to come over and hang out with them.
It was around Christmas time.
They were at a Christmas party.
And I just basically had stood them up multiple times,
honestly, just because I had other things,
either more important things I needed to do, I thought,
or my calendar was full or whatever it was.
And they invited me over to this party
and man, I started to feel bad
'cause I hadn't hung out with them in a very long time.
And so, what I did is I went to the store
and I bought some really big gifts, really, really big gifts.
And what I decided, I'm gonna go over to the party.
I'm just gonna drop these gifts on the doorstep
and I'm gonna leave.
And so I did, I went out, got some big gifts,
I wrapped them, they were beautiful, put them on the thing.
And then I looked at my phone,
30 minutes, an hour, three hours.
Well, maybe, surely they haven't gotten these gifts yet
'cause I mean, surely they would text me,
"Thank you," or something like that, you know?
Well, the next day, 'cause I'm thinking,
does somebody steal it off the porch, what's going on?
The next day, I just texted the group.
I said, "Ho, ho, ho."
And one of the girls in the chat responded with one phrase.
She said, "Presence, CE, not presence, TS."
And it stabbed me right through the heart.
Kevin, I don't care what you can give us,
what we want is you.
And can I tell you, the Holy Spirit wants you.
He wants you.
He's not concerned so much
about what you can produce for Him.
He's not concerned about your, you know what,
your righteousness is compared to filthy rags.
God, I did this, I did this, I did this,
look at all of these things I did,
I'm bringing it to you, God.
Here's my gift to you.
And you know what He says?
I want you.
More than any of that, I want you
because I have some things to share with you.
I have some truths to speak over you.
For that insecurity or that identity
that you're struggling with, those cracks and crevices,
when that person lied to you,
do you know that the Spirit of truth
will combat all lies in your life?
The Spirit of truth will come in
and infiltrate those places that the world has tainted.
And He will do a mighty work
and He will redeem those places
so that you're walking on a firm
and sure and strong foundation in Him.
Because you are a son and a daughter of the most high God.
The Holy Spirit should not be a checklist item
on Sunday morning when you need a miracle.
He doesn't want your stuff, He wants you.
The Holy Spirit really begins to show up
and show out here in Ephesus.
Remember I told you that they had been messing
with supernatural.
Well, it says in verse 11, it says,
"God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,
"extraordinary miracles through Paul
"so that even handkerchiefs and aprons
"that had touched him were taken to the sick
"and their illnesses were cured
"and the evil spirits left them."
Some of you have seen that type of thing
attempt to be done on TV.
Some of you may have sent in 1995 to get your healing.
Mastercard, Visa card, accepted, okay?
Here's the thing.
You cannot take places in Scripture
and just plop them somewhere and just say,
"We're gonna apply this wherever we want."
If the Holy Spirit wants to move the way He wants to move,
He'll do it.
And you actually can't stop it.
He'll do what He's gonna do.
But in this moment where we see this extraordinary move
of God, I believe it's because these people
already had a touch point with the supernatural
and God said, "I'm gonna show out way bigger
"and way badder than anything else
"that you guys have ever seen."
So much so that you just have to touch a napkin
and you're healed.
Because God is out to get the glory for Himself.
He's out to get the glory for Himself.
So it's not a license for us to just say,
"Okay, this is happening here,
"so we must insert it into what we're doing."
There were people there who needed to know Jesus
and I believe the Holy Spirit was operating above and beyond
so that this could be true.
The primary job of the Holy Spirit
is to point people to Jesus.
The primary job of the Holy Spirit,
when the Holy Spirit moves on your behalf,
when He provides that miracle,
when He provides the touch, when He heals,
when He does those things, all of those things, my friends,
are for Jesus to get the glory.
It's for the sinner in on Christ.
It's all to point to Him.
He is the center.
He is the focus.
He is the one who gets the glory and the credit, amen?
The Holy Spirit's job is to point people to Jesus.
So everything we're doing, if the Holy Spirit's involved,
it should be a conduit to point people to Him.
So some of the Jews in this passage,
they start going around
and they start casting out evil spirits, the word says.
And it mentions seven sons of Scaeva,
which there was an issue here
because when they went and started
to cast out the evil spirits, this is what they were doing.
They said, we're gonna cast out this evil spirit
in the name of the Jesus that Paul believes in.
Be healed in the name of the Jesus
that Paul's talking about, right?
In other words, they did not identify themselves
in any way, shape, or form with a relationship with Jesus,
yet they were using His name, right,
to cast out the evil spirits
that were happening in the thing.
Here's the thing, the evil spirit jumped out and said this.
I know Paul.
I know Jesus.
I don't know who you are.
Can I tell you, your enemies know who Jesus is.
Your enemies know who,
your demons, they know who Jesus is
and they shudder at the name of Jesus.
But let me tell you, this evil spirit said,
you know what, you don't lay claim to Jesus.
I don't know who you are.
You know what it says?
He jumped on them and beat the snot out of them.
They ran out of the house naked and bloody.
These are people who were casting out,
remember that scripture that said,
some people will cast out demons in my name
and the Lord Jesus say, I have no idea who you are.
I hope nobody understand my voice is in that population.
Do you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit will never empower you
to do anything in your own name.
The Holy Spirit empowers you to do things
in the name of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus.
That's where we get to say,
I'm gonna lay my hands on you in the name of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the one who's working through you.
It's not, you're just a vessel.
You're willing, you're walking in obedience.
And guess what the Lord loves?
He loves an obedient child.
If you don't know Jesus, you don't know the Holy Spirit.
You can't know the Holy Spirit
without first knowing Jesus.
And I pray that everyone here has been introduced
to the savior of the world.
And if you haven't, man, today's the day of salvation.
Today's the day that would transform your life
for all eternity.
And I would invite you into a relationship with this.
God, I'd love to talk to you after this is over about that.
And so the people hear what's gonna happen,
what happens to these seven people.
And the word tells us that they were seized with fear.
Would you say fear?
They were seized with fear so much so
that it says those who believe began to come forward
and confess things that they were done.
They were so shocked about what happened
that they just started confessing their sin.
Oh, oh, I did this, I did this, I did this, I did this,
I did this.
And not only are they confessing it,
the word tells us that they brought all of their scrolls
in this witchcraft practice, all the, and they burnt them.
Here's the thing, friends, we can get along
and butt along the road of confession,
but boy, when it comes to getting rid of the vices,
that's another whole, that's another whole level.
I did this wrong, I did this.
You know what, I'll even go as far as say,
we can become so accustomed and comfortable with confession
that we forget that the next step is there waiting for us.
Guess what, you're not supposed to do it on your own strength.
The Holy Spirit is inside you.
I confess that I did this.
Now get rid of what's keeping you going back there.
And guys, sometimes that's a relationship.
(congregation murmurs)
Because you're allowing somebody to speak into your life
and motivate you in a direction that is opposite
of walking and looking like the one you say you believe in.
So it says they were seized with fear,
but what was the fear, where was the fear coming from?
Guys, I don't believe the fear was coming
from the Holy Spirit.
The fear was coming from, they just saw seven guys
get beat down in their bloody and it freaked them out.
So they're like, oh, I don't want any part of that.
Listen, fear is a motivator.
It is a motivator.
And guess what, here's the great thing,
God can use the motivation.
Can I just tell you something?
Hey, we're not gonna play that.
Y'all look at this later.
All right, go ahead, next.
Love will always triumph fear.
Love will always triumph over fear.
Y'all wanna see that video now, don't you?
Don't you?
We'll post it.
Love will always triumph over fear.
What is God's motivation?
As a third grade child, I was told to put my hand
on an open flame, to feel how hot it was,
to see how long I could keep it there.
And then when I moved back, the person said,
that's how hot hell is, and if you don't know Jesus,
that's where you're going.
And now go tell everybody else
that they're going to that same place.
God does not use fear tactics in that way.
God is a loving God.
He loved the world so much that he gave his one
and only son that whoever believes on him
will have everlasting life.
He loves you, he loves you.
His motivation to change our lives is bathed in love.
It's not bathed in fear.
But that candle got me saved.
But love changed my life.
Love changed my life.
Can I tell you, we've said this before here,
you cannot defeat your demons
if you're still enjoying their company.
You cannot defeat your demons
if you're still enjoying their company.
People who work in the business
of identifying counterfeit money,
there are people who are employed all across the States,
their job is to identify counterfeit money.
Do you know that it would stand to reason
that those people would study
what counterfeit money looks like?
They would just be able to know the ins and out
of what a counterfeit dollar bill, $5 bill,
whatever it is the counterfeit money looked like.
Do you know that they do not spend time
with the counterfeit money?
They spend time getting to know the real deal.
Because the closer you are to the real deal,
the easier it is to sniff out the counterfeit.
And if you stay close to the Holy Spirit,
if you stay close to this God Almighty,
if you get to know his voice,
the counterfeits can come all day long,
but you're gonna be able to identify them very quickly,
very easily, because you know the real deal.
You know the real deal, you know who the real God is.
The Holy Spirit will give you the strength
to come and clean up and get rid of things
that cause you to stumble.
I remember when COVID hit the scene in 2020,
I am so thankful that God had a plan for the plan.
I was in Florida, I was on a vacation with Sherry in Florida,
I had my phone off and COVID hits the scene.
And can I tell you, my phone was blowing up.
I had it off, I never had my phone off,
I had my phone off.
I turned it on and it's message after message
after message after message.
Most of the message is saying,
you need to shut the school down.
Things are going, the world is over.
I mean, just the craziest, just one,
everybody's opinion, fear, fear, fear, fear.
Do you know I am so grateful that I was away
from everybody here in my life,
because I said, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do?
And he spoke to me.
Do you know that the Holy Spirit, if you know his voice,
100 people might tell you to go right,
but he may be telling you to go left,
and it's not a problem at all for you to turn
and go the direction he's told you to go,
because you know his voice.
You know his voice.
And if you know his voice, you don't have to worry
about what anybody thinks or anybody says,
because you know he's gonna sustain you,
he's gonna cover you, he's gonna provide for you.
And he will give you favor in the midst of your obedience.
And so it says, in this way, the word of the Lord
spread widely and grew in power.
When those people were giving up all of those things,
God can use a tumultuous situation and get glory from it.
But then this man, Demetrius, shows up.
Now, Demetrius, he really loved the goddess Armatus,
I keep saying that name, Artemis, Artemis.
He really loved this goddess, Artemis,
because he made silver shrines to this goddess,
and it was his place of employment.
It was his livelihood.
In other words, it was his couch and the big screen TV,
just in time for Sunday football or Monday.
It was the pool in the backyard, the hot tub.
Like everything, it's the food in the fridge,
it's the comfortable car, it's the shoes.
Like he's got all of this going on, right?
And so Demetrius is there, and Demetrius has got
all this going on, he's saying, "Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa,
"wait a second, wait a second."
When you're talking about the way,
like it's pulling people away from investing
into me capitalizing off of the goddess that I serve, okay?
And so Demetrius begins to stir the pot.
You know anybody who's ever stirred the pot?
Know anybody who's ever stirred the pot?
So he begins to stir the pot and interject things
that causes confusion, causes a great deal of confusion.
Sometimes we're okay with the idea of the Holy Spirit,
but we don't want them to come in and really mess up
what we've got going on.
In other words, God, tell me what to do.
I'll do anything you tell me to do,
just don't take this and this and this away from me.
Don't mess up my schedule here, don't mess up what I want,
don't mess up my job, my comfort.
God would never tell me to put that pretzel dog down.
He just would never tell me to put that pretzel dog down.
He would never tell me to stop eating ice cream.
I mean, it's a blessing.
I mean, he provided the job to get me in my freezer
to provide the ice cream.
He would never tell me not to eat the bowl of ice cream.
We can reason our way into anything, right?
The Holy Spirit wants to infiltrate your life
so you look more like Him.
Can I tell you, may I tell you,
this may be something that you've believed
because somebody's told you this,
I don't believe that the Holy Spirit, His job,
is to make you have a great life.
He's there to change your life.
We're not here to live as people in the world
who have the biggest and baddest and wonderful things
and we're so comfortable.
We're here to be ambassadors to a kingdom
that's everlasting, ambassadors to a king
that doesn't belong to this world.
And we belong to His kingdom.
Ergo, we do not serve a God of confusion.
We do not serve a God of confusion.
And so they started to say, "Great is Artemis!
"Great is Artemis!"
And they overshouted so loud
that Paul could not get in the way.
He couldn't keep preaching.
Just, "Great is Artemis!"
To us in our culture, it's great is my job,
great is my retirement, great is my best,
great is my bank account, great are my clothes,
great is my lifestyle, great is my preferences.
And so we shout louder so we can dull out
the distraction of hearing the truth.
There is only one way truth in life
and it is Jesus Christ.
It is Jesus Christ.
The word tells us God is not the author of confusion
but of peace.
Can anybody use some peace today?
And so I believe, Brad come on up here.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is like a life jacket.
I want you to imagine for a second,
by the way, he just got married last week.
(audience cheering)
He and his beautiful wife.
Yeah.
I want you to imagine that
you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
I'm not talking about like, you know,
the middle of the surfing waves where you see the beach.
I'm talking about the middle middle of the Atlantic Ocean,
nothing around, okay?
There are moments in our life guys
where we are in an ocean sized problem.
The storm is rolling, we're in it deep.
And now I believe that you're a pretty fit guy.
I think you probably could swim a bit
but there are gonna come a point when you wear yourself out
because you're trying to get there by yourself.
So what do you need?
You need?
I need help.
You need help.
He needs help.
But the Holy Spirit is like a life preserver.
It's like a life jacket because here's the thing.
When he puts this on and he's in that ocean,
he can continue to try to swim as much as he wants.
He can continue to do it in his strength,
but still he's gonna wear himself out.
Even if he has the wife preserver on, right?
It's not until he concedes to the life preserver
that he's able to rest, he's able to calm,
he's able to breathe.
It saves his life.
You see, the life preserver, the life vest
does all the work.
You just have to hold on.
Are you holding on to the Holy Spirit?
Or are you floundering around trying to swim
through the depths of your issues,
the depths of your insecurity, the depths of your fear,
the depths of your needs not being met,
the relational stuff going on, whatever it is,
are you trying to swim and do it all by yourself?
'Cause I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna drown.
But here's the thing, here's the problem.
We have access to this Holy Spirit,
and so many of us wait until we're in that type of situation
to reach out to him.
And I wonder how many crises would be diverted
if we would have listened to him when we were on dry land.
But here's where I see the Spirit of God moving in my life.
See, what we want is, God, I'm struggling
in this area of finances.
What I want you to do is snap your finger,
and I want you to put me in a place of abundance
in two seconds.
And guess what?
Extraordinary miracles happen, he can do that.
But here's been my experience.
He says, "Kevin, this is what I'm gonna do.
"I want you to lean on me in that ocean of despair.
"I don't want you to kick, I don't want you to scream,
"I don't want you to holler, I want you to rest on me.
"I'm gonna keep you in that ocean,
"I'm keeping you in that spot,
"because what I want you to do is I want you
"to open up your eyes and see what I'm about to do."
I want you to see how I'm going to take your bad situation
and I'm gonna make it really great.
Because here's the thing, all of a sudden,
out of nowhere for Brad, a helicopter comes by
in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, out of nowhere.
And there he is.
And they send down a rope and they pull him up
and they save his life, right?
Now, I bet you, Brad doesn't come into church
the next Sunday and he doesn't walk in and he says,
"Guys, I gotta tell you a story.
"I was so good, I put on a life jacket.
"I swam and held myself above that water
"and I got myself back to life.
"That helicopter came out of nowhere."
You know what he's gonna do?
He's gonna come here and say,
"Guys, I gotta tell you what God Almighty did.
"Because in the midst of my storm,
"where it seemed perilous and nobody was around,
"nobody was there to help,
"a helicopter came out of nowhere
"and I know it was my God Almighty.
"I rested in him, I trusted, I leaned on him
"and he pulled me out of the muck of my heart
"and he set me on my way."
Why?
Because the primary job of the Holy Spirit
is to give who glory?
Jesus Christ.
Do you have access to the Holy Spirit?
When you're accessing him, are you telling what's happening?
Are you sharing with others the miracles
and how he's moving in your life?
Because he is constantly moving, friends.
He's constantly moving.
And so here's the invitation this morning.
Thank you, Brad.
Here's the invitation this morning.
Who needs to make room?
Who needs to get out of the way and make room?
There are people here who need a life jacket.
You're drowning, you're literally drowning.
You're here, you're smiling, but you're drowning.
And the very God I look up, I love looking up at the stars.
It's one of my favorite things.
Anybody else like looking at stars?
I go, "God, how majestic is your name?"
I believe he breathes just, and beauty comes out.
That same God is literally in the place this morning
and he says, "Child, don't leave here
"the same way you came."
I've got a life jacket for you.
Come, let me save your life.
It might not look exactly like you thought it would.
Let me, can I save your life today?
Can I give you an answer to that question
that you keep asking for, that thing you keep believing for?
Would you trust me just a little bit more?
Because I see you, I've not forgotten about you.
Would those who are gonna minister
come forward this morning?
And I just challenge all of us,
if there's anything inside you,
(gentle music)
some of you need a reminder that God's faithful.
So you've lost, something has happened.
Even this week, something's happened to you
and you just, you're going,
"God, I did everything you told me to do.
"I did all of these things and God,
"I just don't understand."
And he gets away, he says, "I want to help you.
"I want to be with you.
"I'm walking with you, I see you."
Come, come, get your life jacket.
Get lean on me.
Would you stand with me this morning?
Today could literally change everything.
Come, you can take some space in this altar space
or you can agree with one of these people here
who have access to the same God you do.
Let's worship and pray together.