1 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:10,760 Good morning, Springhouse. I am glad that you are 2 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,680 here this morning. If you are new to Springhouse Church, my 3 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:18,280 name is Kevin and I serve as the lead pastor here, and it's my joy 4 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:20,960 to welcome you. I'd love to shake your hand after the gathering today. 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,840 Thank you, guys. For those who are giving and coming, we do use these 6 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:30,080 resources to help those who are in need. A couple of announcements this morning before 7 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:33,820 we get rolling along. Well, I say before we get rolling, but, boy, 8 00:00:34,220 --> 00:00:38,180 y' all came prepared to have church today, and I'm thankful for the 9 00:00:38,180 --> 00:00:42,180 Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit in his presence. First 10 00:00:42,180 --> 00:00:46,140 of all, if you have the capacity, I invite you, I encourage 11 00:00:46,140 --> 00:00:49,700 you to come on Thursday night to our midweek gathering. Pastor 12 00:00:49,700 --> 00:00:53,660 Barbee has now done two sessions that have been just rich 13 00:00:53,660 --> 00:00:57,540 and full, and you can catch those online if you 14 00:00:57,540 --> 00:01:01,300 were not here. But if you have the capacity to come on 15 00:01:01,300 --> 00:01:05,160 Thursday nights, I invite you to do so. I promise you will not regret 16 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,960 it. We are doing, Rabbi, the words of the teacher. And, 17 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:12,280 man, it's just been incredible. So come and be a part of that on midweek, 18 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:16,440 6 o' clock to 7 o'. Clock. We have children's ministry and youth ministry available 19 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:20,280 during that time. And then next Sunday, I hear there's a chili cook 20 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:24,240 off. And, you know, we want to invite 21 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:27,360 you to be a part of this. Angie Beshears was the winner last time, and 22 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,850 I think she's planning on continuing to hold that title. 23 00:01:31,570 --> 00:01:35,370 But see, here's the. But here's the deal. If you come, it means you're bringing 24 00:01:35,370 --> 00:01:39,370 chili. If you come, you're planning to bring 25 00:01:39,370 --> 00:01:42,970 something as well, right? So you're bringing chili. If you go and be a part 26 00:01:42,970 --> 00:01:46,970 of this. Okay? So come. You don't have to participate in the contest, but you 27 00:01:46,970 --> 00:01:49,410 do have to bring some chili. Okay? If you're gonna be a part of this 28 00:01:49,410 --> 00:01:53,250 next Sunday in the fellowship hall immediately following this gathering, 29 00:01:54,210 --> 00:01:58,210 we invite you to be a part of that. So we are 30 00:01:58,210 --> 00:02:02,090 continuing our series Abide you guys keep coming back 31 00:02:02,090 --> 00:02:05,890 for more. Praise the Lord. He's stepping on my toes, and 32 00:02:05,890 --> 00:02:09,570 I pray that in a real wonderful way, he's stepping on yours as well. 33 00:02:09,570 --> 00:02:13,490 Because when we change, we become like Jesus. When we 34 00:02:13,490 --> 00:02:17,170 change, we become like Jesus. And man, I'll tell you, I don't look a whole 35 00:02:17,170 --> 00:02:20,650 lot like Jesus. And I want to look more like him today, tomorrow, and the 36 00:02:20,650 --> 00:02:24,090 next day. And so we're going to continue down this road. And man, 37 00:02:24,570 --> 00:02:28,070 I just apologize ahead of time if I offend you. I pray that. That you 38 00:02:28,070 --> 00:02:32,030 would continue to make this your church home. But boy, we just 39 00:02:32,030 --> 00:02:36,030 wanna come from the truth of God's word and all grow. Amen. So we're 40 00:02:36,030 --> 00:02:39,990 continuing down the road of abide. And we've been in John 15 and 41 00:02:40,070 --> 00:02:43,990 we're gonna spend some time in John 15 this year. But we're going to see 42 00:02:43,990 --> 00:02:47,750 what Jesus does in the setup of us getting to John 15 43 00:02:47,830 --> 00:02:51,670 today by going back one chapter to John 14. Because Jesus 44 00:02:51,670 --> 00:02:55,270 does have some things to say that sets us up for the principle of abide. 45 00:02:55,270 --> 00:02:58,630 So if you'll stand with me and everybody say the word. 46 00:03:00,530 --> 00:03:04,370 Okay, Holy Spirit, espresso this morning. Let's really read with some 47 00:03:04,370 --> 00:03:08,290 gusto and some strength this morning, loudly the word of God. 48 00:03:08,290 --> 00:03:11,610 Here we go. If you love me, keep my 49 00:03:11,610 --> 00:03:15,370 commands and I will ask the Father and he 50 00:03:15,370 --> 00:03:19,130 will give you another helper to be with you and 51 00:03:19,130 --> 00:03:22,450 be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. 52 00:03:22,850 --> 00:03:26,850 The world cannot accept him because it neither sees 53 00:03:26,850 --> 00:03:30,850 him nor knows Him. But you know Him. For he 54 00:03:30,850 --> 00:03:34,630 lives in you and with you and will be in you. I messed that 55 00:03:34,630 --> 00:03:38,630 up. I will not leave you as orphans. I will 56 00:03:38,630 --> 00:03:42,630 come to you. Before long, the world will not see 57 00:03:42,630 --> 00:03:46,430 me anymore, but you will see me because I 58 00:03:46,430 --> 00:03:50,110 live. You also will live. On that 59 00:03:50,110 --> 00:03:54,030 day you will realize that I am in my Father 60 00:03:54,190 --> 00:03:57,710 and you are in Me. And I am in you. 61 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,320 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one 62 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:06,000 who loves me. The one who loves me will be 63 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,840 loved by my Father. And I too will love them 64 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:13,760 and show myself to them. And one more from the book of Galatians. 65 00:04:13,999 --> 00:04:17,280 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 66 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,360 peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 67 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:25,240 gentleness and self control. Father, I thank you that your Word is 68 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,080 alive and active today. I pray for the conviction of your Holy 69 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:32,860 Spirit. I pray, Lord, today that you would change our 70 00:04:32,860 --> 00:04:36,620 hearts and we would look more like you leaving this place than we came. Let 71 00:04:36,620 --> 00:04:39,980 the words that are mine, that are meaningless, fall to the ground. And let everything 72 00:04:39,980 --> 00:04:43,940 you have for us stick for eternity. Thank you for the privilege to sit under 73 00:04:43,940 --> 00:04:47,940 your Word today in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Amen. You may 74 00:04:47,940 --> 00:04:50,340 be seated in the presence of the Lord. So 75 00:04:52,260 --> 00:04:56,180 we're continuing down the series 76 00:04:56,180 --> 00:05:00,080 here of. Of abide. Of abide. Abiding 77 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,080 in Jesus. Abiding in Jesus. 78 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,520 We started a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, rather, 79 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:12,480 with this understanding that there's some 80 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,280 foundational work that we need to cover some ground we need to 81 00:05:16,280 --> 00:05:19,960 cover to really put us in a place to really understand and 82 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,840 dissect what it is to abide in Christ, to remain in 83 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:27,800 Christ. And so we started from the standpoint which I think 84 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,580 is a very good standpoint point for every Christian is that you 85 00:05:31,580 --> 00:05:35,500 belong to a kingdom and you have a king. You belong 86 00:05:35,500 --> 00:05:39,420 to a kingdom and you have a king. And might I suggest this 87 00:05:39,420 --> 00:05:43,300 morning, he is not a king because you say he's a king. He's a 88 00:05:43,300 --> 00:05:47,100 king because he's a king. He's a king because he's a king. 89 00:05:47,100 --> 00:05:51,020 And you belong to this kingdom, you belong to his kingdom, 90 00:05:51,020 --> 00:05:55,020 which means that as your king, he has given the 91 00:05:55,020 --> 00:05:58,860 right to rule and reign over your life, which means that 92 00:05:58,860 --> 00:06:02,720 this is not a democracy on the throne. We don't 93 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:05,880 have a voice in it. He is the king that rules and reigns from his 94 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,440 throne. And he is sovereign and he is good. He is good. 95 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:13,320 Regardless of what you think, regardless of what you say, regardless of what you believe, 96 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:16,840 regardless of your circumstances, I'm here to tell you this morning that 97 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,440 God is God and he is a king. He is a king. 98 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:25,080 He's the God of the universe. So we belong to this 99 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:29,040 kingdom. And what we did is we looked back at 100 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,910 the Old Testament and we looked at God's people, Israel, and. 101 00:06:32,980 --> 00:06:36,740 And we looked in Jeremiah how Israel was exiled into Babylon. 102 00:06:36,820 --> 00:06:40,300 And in this exile, God did not say, I'm just gonna deliver you, I'm gonna 103 00:06:40,300 --> 00:06:44,220 free you. I'm gonna set you free, or I'm going to rescue you. He didn't 104 00:06:44,220 --> 00:06:47,380 say that to them. That's what the false prophet said. But what God's word was 105 00:06:47,380 --> 00:06:50,380 stay. I want you to stay planted. I want you to build houses, I want 106 00:06:50,380 --> 00:06:53,940 you to marry. I want you to do your life. And so Israel had to 107 00:06:54,180 --> 00:06:58,020 come about this understanding that it was about learning how to live as God's people 108 00:06:58,020 --> 00:07:01,980 inside a culture that did not share their faith. And that is the world that 109 00:07:01,980 --> 00:07:05,960 we live in today. We live in a world living as God's people 110 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:09,880 inside a culture that does not share the same values or faith 111 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,800 that we share. And so we're learning how to walk this 112 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,720 journey under this understanding that 113 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,360 we are belonging to. We are people who belong to the kingdom of God 114 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:25,600 in this context or in the shell of living within the world. 115 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:29,840 And that on the surface, with our flesh and by ourselves, is 116 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:33,800 very hard to do, very difficult to do. But here's the thing. We don't have 117 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:37,630 to do it alone. We don't have to do it alone. Jesus 118 00:07:37,630 --> 00:07:40,110 never said, you belong to my kingdom, now figure it out. 119 00:07:42,510 --> 00:07:46,390 He never said, do this on your own strength in Fact, I 120 00:07:46,390 --> 00:07:49,390 would go as far as saying, he knew that we would not have the ability 121 00:07:49,470 --> 00:07:53,310 to do anything. Part from him, part from him. And 122 00:07:53,310 --> 00:07:57,310 so we live in the kingdom, we're in this kingdom, and 123 00:07:57,310 --> 00:08:00,430 we live also in this world. And so 124 00:08:01,310 --> 00:08:04,710 we have to come to terms with this question. Will we be 125 00:08:04,710 --> 00:08:08,370 formed by the world we live in, live in? Or will we remain 126 00:08:08,370 --> 00:08:12,130 rooted in the kingdom to which we belong? And so 127 00:08:12,130 --> 00:08:15,530 last week, we looked at what it was like to be planted, 128 00:08:15,930 --> 00:08:19,690 where we were, where we are. And so the first week we looked at capacity, 129 00:08:20,330 --> 00:08:23,930 we said, whoa, we need to slow down. I believe part of 130 00:08:23,930 --> 00:08:26,970 Israel's problem was is they weren't paying attention. And in 131 00:08:26,970 --> 00:08:30,330 2026, how many believe it's very hard to pay 132 00:08:30,970 --> 00:08:34,690 attention? Well, part of paying attention is not us having our life 133 00:08:34,690 --> 00:08:37,930 tidy and all together and going before the Lord and saying, hey, Lord, now I'm 134 00:08:37,930 --> 00:08:41,830 ready to. It is about us emptying our lives, emptying 135 00:08:41,830 --> 00:08:45,030 our agendas and saying, lord, why don't you fill me up today? Why don't you 136 00:08:45,030 --> 00:08:48,430 tell me what I'm supposed to do? And so it gives us the capacity to 137 00:08:48,430 --> 00:08:51,830 hear. But then the next step we looked at is being 138 00:08:51,830 --> 00:08:55,710 planted. So many of us, the moment something gets hard, the moment we 139 00:08:55,710 --> 00:08:58,630 see something we don't like, we uproot, we leave, we just jet, we're out of 140 00:08:58,630 --> 00:09:02,470 here. I'm run. I'm done with this. And so if 141 00:09:02,470 --> 00:09:06,350 we will carve out time enough to pay attention and 142 00:09:06,350 --> 00:09:10,190 we will stay put long enough to hear his voice, I 143 00:09:10,190 --> 00:09:12,990 believe God will do something, and he'll give us the answer to this question. And 144 00:09:12,990 --> 00:09:16,870 so what we uncovered last week was faithfulness is often 145 00:09:16,870 --> 00:09:20,390 proven not by where you go, but by where you stay. 146 00:09:20,630 --> 00:09:23,990 Now, this principle rocked some of your world last week. How do I know? Cause 147 00:09:23,990 --> 00:09:26,950 some of you called and emailed and talked to us and all of those things. 148 00:09:27,190 --> 00:09:30,910 Okay? But faithfulness is often proved not by where you go, but by where you 149 00:09:30,910 --> 00:09:34,750 say, now I'm gonna say something offensive. Are you ready? Get your radar 150 00:09:34,750 --> 00:09:38,730 up. Okay, Here for just a. Okay. Some of the reasons 151 00:09:38,730 --> 00:09:42,450 why we get offended by things like this is because we often 152 00:09:42,530 --> 00:09:46,370 make choices in our lives. And then what we want is the word of God 153 00:09:46,770 --> 00:09:50,130 to submit to our choices so we feel good about what we did. 154 00:09:51,170 --> 00:09:54,970 And what happens is in that type of mindset is he is no 155 00:09:54,970 --> 00:09:58,850 longer God on the throne. We become God on our throne. And so 156 00:09:58,850 --> 00:10:02,570 what we can't do is try to take the word of God and let it 157 00:10:02,570 --> 00:10:06,570 wrap around our world, even if we have made, and some of us have, me 158 00:10:06,570 --> 00:10:10,470 included, made bad choices. We've made left terms. We have left when we 159 00:10:10,470 --> 00:10:14,190 weren't supposed to leave. Now, here's the key to this, the key to this principle 160 00:10:14,190 --> 00:10:18,190 is this obedience. If God tells you to go, 161 00:10:18,910 --> 00:10:22,510 you better go. If God tells you to stay, 162 00:10:23,470 --> 00:10:27,390 you better stay. But faithfulness is 163 00:10:27,390 --> 00:10:31,390 often proven not by where you go, but by where 164 00:10:31,710 --> 00:10:35,310 you stay. Because in 2026, we have a propensity 165 00:10:35,470 --> 00:10:39,310 to uproot and run the minute things get hard, the minute things get uncomfortable, the 166 00:10:39,310 --> 00:10:43,250 minute the. The things coming at us that we don't like this. And so 167 00:10:43,250 --> 00:10:47,250 what we did is we uncovered some questions last week that feed 168 00:10:47,250 --> 00:10:51,050 into this principle. Deception always promises an easy way out. 169 00:10:52,730 --> 00:10:56,209 Deception always says, this is an easy way out. Go ahead and just leave. The 170 00:10:56,209 --> 00:11:00,050 false prophets told Israel, they said, leave. God's going to rescue 171 00:11:00,050 --> 00:11:04,050 you. Don't unpack. That was not the word of the Lord. He 172 00:11:04,050 --> 00:11:07,770 said, stay in a hard circumstance in a culture 173 00:11:07,770 --> 00:11:11,650 that doesn't share your faith. So these were the questions. What does God 174 00:11:11,650 --> 00:11:15,450 ask us to consider before we actually uproot and move? Number one, 175 00:11:15,450 --> 00:11:18,250 am I moving out of emotion or discernment? 176 00:11:19,370 --> 00:11:23,250 Number two, have I slowed down enough to hear from God? 177 00:11:23,250 --> 00:11:27,010 We're going to talk about this one a little bit more today. Am I 178 00:11:27,010 --> 00:11:30,010 honoring a commitment I have already made? 179 00:11:31,690 --> 00:11:35,000 Is this a season or am I just uncomfortable? 180 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:39,880 Have I invited wise counsel or those 181 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:44,080 just in agreement with me? Am I 182 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,600 being sent or am I running? And 183 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:50,840 lastly, will this produce greater fruit 184 00:11:51,560 --> 00:11:53,800 or just greater relief? 185 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:59,760 And so we've gotten to a place on this journey where we're saying, 186 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,180 okay, Lord, I understand I must empty 187 00:12:03,180 --> 00:12:06,860 myself. And now I understand that I'm not 188 00:12:07,020 --> 00:12:10,700 going anywhere. I've decided I'm going to stay right here. 189 00:12:11,500 --> 00:12:14,780 Now what? And I believe that when you clear out, make space, and you stay 190 00:12:14,780 --> 00:12:17,980 put where you are, we are now in a position 191 00:12:18,780 --> 00:12:22,700 to listen. Would you say listen? Have you ever been 192 00:12:22,700 --> 00:12:25,980 talking to someone and out of your mouth as you're talking to them, you say, 193 00:12:26,140 --> 00:12:28,650 are you listening to what I'm trying to tell you? 194 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:34,200 Are you listening to what I'm trying to say? If you've 195 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:38,120 got kids, are you listening to what I say? Some 196 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:42,040 of us listen to, respond instead of listening to 197 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:46,000 what's really being said to us. And if we will clear out 198 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,760 margin in our lives and we will stay long enough, 199 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:53,600 we are now in a position to actually listen 200 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:57,130 to the word of God. But not just listen to the word of God, we're 201 00:12:57,130 --> 00:13:01,010 also looking to Obey the word of God. 202 00:13:01,090 --> 00:13:04,970 Listen and obey. But 203 00:13:04,970 --> 00:13:08,610 the question begs itself, to whom am I listening? 204 00:13:09,490 --> 00:13:13,090 Who am I listening? If I stay and I hear, am I able to 205 00:13:13,090 --> 00:13:16,890 obey? Who am I listening to? Now, here's what we believe. We believe that 206 00:13:16,890 --> 00:13:20,650 Jesus gives this answer. He says, when it comes to 207 00:13:20,650 --> 00:13:24,430 obedience, this is what we think. Jesus said. He says this. Try 208 00:13:24,430 --> 00:13:25,030 harder. 209 00:13:28,150 --> 00:13:31,990 Try harder. When it comes to obedience, try. You meant try 210 00:13:31,990 --> 00:13:35,590 harder. Do more. Try more. 211 00:13:36,790 --> 00:13:39,430 Keep going. Try again. Try again. Try again. 212 00:13:40,150 --> 00:13:43,750 Jesus invitation is not try 213 00:13:43,910 --> 00:13:47,830 harder. His answer is, receive the helper. 214 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:52,800 Receive the helper. Who is the helper? 215 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,200 It's not your spouse. It's not your 216 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:00,800 friend. It's not even your 217 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:04,640 pastor. It's the Holy Spirit. The 218 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:08,640 helper is the Holy Spirit of God. Now, I grew 219 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:12,520 up as a Baptist boy, before that, a Catholic boy. And we didn't talk 220 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:16,480 a whole lot about the Holy Spirit. And so today I wanted to 221 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:20,340 just do some fundamentals today because that's, you know, on this journey we gotta 222 00:14:20,340 --> 00:14:24,100 start back to the beginning and kind of look at some things. But this 223 00:14:24,100 --> 00:14:28,100 here represents God. We believe here at 224 00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:32,060 Springhouse, we believe the word of God says that God is three in one. 225 00:14:32,060 --> 00:14:35,820 How does that work? Three in one? God is God the Father, 226 00:14:36,700 --> 00:14:39,740 God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 227 00:14:40,620 --> 00:14:44,420 All three are God. So for me to say, this is 228 00:14:44,420 --> 00:14:48,340 God, I could say, he is God. He is God. 229 00:14:49,380 --> 00:14:53,140 We have God the Father, the vase, God the 230 00:14:53,140 --> 00:14:53,540 Son, 231 00:14:58,740 --> 00:15:02,580 And the water represents God the 232 00:15:02,580 --> 00:15:03,300 Holy Spirit. 233 00:15:10,580 --> 00:15:14,310 This is God. The accurate way for me to 234 00:15:14,310 --> 00:15:18,190 describe what just happened here is this. He is God. 235 00:15:19,310 --> 00:15:22,430 He is God. Not, they is God. He is God. 236 00:15:23,150 --> 00:15:27,070 Okay. God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son, 237 00:15:27,070 --> 00:15:30,550 God the Father carries the authority in the 238 00:15:30,550 --> 00:15:34,030 triune. He's God the Father. How do we know that 239 00:15:34,510 --> 00:15:38,310 Jesus, when he got baptized, God the Father opened the clouds of heaven and said, 240 00:15:38,310 --> 00:15:41,920 this is my son to whom I am well pleased. 241 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,680 Why did Jesus go to the cross? We believe Jesus went to the 242 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,640 cross because Jesus loves me. Yes, I know. And guess what? Boo 243 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:54,000 Boo, he does love you. But his 244 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,920 motivation to go to the cross was not his love for you. What 245 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,600 drove him to the cross was obedience to his Father. His Father 246 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:05,760 has the authority. In fact, Jesus said, all authority has been given to 247 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:09,680 me on heaven and earth by my Father. So 248 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:13,360 there's Father, God. Okay, then we have Jesus. 249 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,920 Jesus as God. Jesus lived on 250 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:21,840 the planet for 33 years in a human shell. I want 251 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,080 you to touch someone and say, I feel you. 252 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:29,520 Jesus, when he was here embodied. He was 253 00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:33,200 God with flesh wrapping around him with a 254 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,040 skeleton. You could touch him, you could feel him, you could 255 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:40,800 hear him, you could. You could smell him. You could do it for 33 years, 256 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,960 three years at the end with his ministry. Jesus Christ was here on 257 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:48,880 the planet. Jesus was fully man and he was fully God. 258 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:53,120 Well, I tell you, today, Jesus Christ is no longer here. 259 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,320 The Bible tells us that Jesus ascended into heaven. He's alive 260 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,040 today, and he's what? He's sitting at the right hand of the 261 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:05,680 Father. Okay, so you have Father God, creator of the universe. You have 262 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,590 Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God, and then he. 263 00:17:09,739 --> 00:17:12,299 He just leaves us, like, out there to figure it out? 264 00:17:13,579 --> 00:17:17,259 No, he gives us an incredible 265 00:17:17,579 --> 00:17:20,379 gift called the Holy Spirit. 266 00:17:21,659 --> 00:17:25,019 And the Holy Spirit is available to all 267 00:17:25,339 --> 00:17:29,299 believers. You have access to the 268 00:17:29,299 --> 00:17:32,979 Holy Spirit, you have access to the Holy 269 00:17:32,979 --> 00:17:36,779 Spirit. And so we get in a little bit. Not in trouble. Because 270 00:17:37,099 --> 00:17:40,970 here's the nuance of this. If I were to say, 271 00:17:40,970 --> 00:17:44,890 rich, this morning, Jesus told me to 272 00:17:44,890 --> 00:17:48,410 go give a cup of coffee to this person who didn't have money. 273 00:17:49,290 --> 00:17:52,730 You could go on with that statement because Jesus is God. But it's 274 00:17:52,730 --> 00:17:56,610 inaccurate because Jesus is not here in 275 00:17:56,610 --> 00:18:00,250 the flesh talking to me and telling me to do anything. The 276 00:18:00,250 --> 00:18:04,090 accurate statement would be the Holy Spirit of God told me this 277 00:18:04,090 --> 00:18:07,420 morning, right, to give the cup of coffee to that person 278 00:18:08,460 --> 00:18:12,380 who we're in relationship with in our day in, day out, it's 279 00:18:12,380 --> 00:18:16,300 this precious Holy Spirit. When you've heard the voice of the Lord, 280 00:18:16,300 --> 00:18:20,220 it is the Holy Spirit. And so we're 281 00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:24,020 looking at this series called Abide. Now, we're going to dive 282 00:18:24,020 --> 00:18:27,980 into the word abide later on the series. But I want to give you 283 00:18:28,140 --> 00:18:31,940 a synonym right now. A cinnamon roll. That's what I was 284 00:18:31,940 --> 00:18:35,620 thinking. A synonym to work with. And that is 285 00:18:35,860 --> 00:18:39,820 remain. Jesus says, remain in me. Abide 286 00:18:39,820 --> 00:18:42,500 in me. Remain in me. Everybody say, remain. 287 00:18:43,940 --> 00:18:47,820 Now, when Jesus says, remain in me, that is 288 00:18:47,820 --> 00:18:51,220 not the starting point of your relationship with Jesus. 289 00:18:53,540 --> 00:18:57,260 That is an invitation. It's a directive. It's a 290 00:18:57,260 --> 00:19:00,740 command. But that is not our starting place with Jesus. 291 00:19:01,930 --> 00:19:05,930 Our starting place with Jesus. Our starting place 292 00:19:05,930 --> 00:19:09,770 with Jesus. When he rolls upon the disciples, what are the 293 00:19:09,770 --> 00:19:13,570 first words that come out of his mouth to the disciples? What is 294 00:19:13,570 --> 00:19:17,129 it? The words follow me. 295 00:19:17,610 --> 00:19:21,410 How many here believe that the invitation to follow 296 00:19:21,410 --> 00:19:25,250 Jesus is available today? Raise your hand. I 297 00:19:25,250 --> 00:19:29,050 believe that the invitation to follow Jesus is available today. 298 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:34,280 He says, follow me. His first words to his disciples isn't 299 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:38,280 remaining me. His first words are an invitation, which is follow me. And in 300 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:41,480 that process of following him. This is what this means. 301 00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:46,080 I lay down my will, I lay 302 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,800 down my way. I lay down what 303 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:53,680 I want. I lay down my perceptions. I 304 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,520 lay down my opinions. I surrender how I 305 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:00,680 want things to go. This is what it means to follow 306 00:20:01,860 --> 00:20:05,580 Jesus. Invitation isn't for us to believe and incorporate 307 00:20:05,580 --> 00:20:08,420 some idea into what we are building. 308 00:20:09,620 --> 00:20:13,300 Jesus invitation is to leave what we are building and 309 00:20:13,300 --> 00:20:17,299 follow Him. In other words, he says it this way. Pick up your 310 00:20:17,299 --> 00:20:20,180 cross and follow me. How often? 311 00:20:21,140 --> 00:20:24,860 How often? He says daily. Daily. Pick up your 312 00:20:24,860 --> 00:20:28,300 cross. That means you know what it says to Kevin. If I picked up my 313 00:20:28,300 --> 00:20:32,250 cross on Tuesday is not sufficient for me on Thursday, 314 00:20:32,250 --> 00:20:36,090 Friday and Saturday. I have to pick up my cross daily because 315 00:20:36,330 --> 00:20:40,290 I'm told to die to myself daily. Let me tell you something. I 316 00:20:40,290 --> 00:20:44,210 may get up at 6, 5, 6 in the morning feeling like, hey, I've got 317 00:20:44,210 --> 00:20:47,290 nothing I'm holding onto. I look like Jesus. I tell you, by the time I 318 00:20:47,290 --> 00:20:51,290 get to 6pm it's another whole story. I need 319 00:20:51,290 --> 00:20:55,290 to die to myself every single day. The invitation 320 00:20:55,370 --> 00:20:59,330 is to pick up your cross and follow him. And that's hard because 321 00:20:59,330 --> 00:21:03,270 what we do is we approach the throne and we say this, Jesus, 322 00:21:03,270 --> 00:21:07,070 look what I've built. Jesus, look what 323 00:21:07,070 --> 00:21:10,950 I've done. Look what I have earned. God, have you seen my bank 324 00:21:10,950 --> 00:21:14,150 account? I tell you what, Jesus, this is what I wanna do. Let me pick 325 00:21:14,150 --> 00:21:18,070 up my cross and follow you. But let me bring along the things that I 326 00:21:18,070 --> 00:21:22,070 have done. Let me bring the castle I built. 327 00:21:22,470 --> 00:21:25,750 Could I follow you in the corridors of the castle I've built? 328 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,480 And the invitation is to destroy that sucker 329 00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:35,240 and follow Jesus. And follow Jesus. So here's 330 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:39,000 the thing. You cannot remain before you make 331 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,520 the choice to follow. You cannot 332 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:46,240 remain until you make the choice to follow 333 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,560 and to follow. Are you ready for this? To follow means to 334 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:54,400 obey. Let's say that together. To follow means to 335 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:58,370 obey. To follow means to obey. Why slow down 336 00:21:58,370 --> 00:22:02,330 and empty ourselves? Why stay planted? Because we want to 337 00:22:02,330 --> 00:22:06,290 be a people who obey. We want to be a people. 338 00:22:06,290 --> 00:22:10,090 Jesus says, if you love me, you will 339 00:22:10,090 --> 00:22:13,890 keep my commands. So this tells me 340 00:22:13,890 --> 00:22:17,850 a very simple truth. Loving Jesus looks 341 00:22:17,850 --> 00:22:21,210 like obeying his commands. Loving 342 00:22:21,290 --> 00:22:25,210 Jesus looks like obeying his commands. I 343 00:22:25,210 --> 00:22:28,250 choose to obey because I love him. 344 00:22:29,850 --> 00:22:33,770 I choose to obey because I love him. Keith and 345 00:22:33,770 --> 00:22:37,370 I. Keith Cole and I were having breakfast this week and we were just laughing 346 00:22:37,610 --> 00:22:41,610 at the simplicity of scripture and how complex we make it. 347 00:22:42,409 --> 00:22:46,210 Do not take scripture and try to make it say something. It doesn't. It 348 00:22:46,210 --> 00:22:50,210 is very plain. It is very Straight on. Jesus is not into 349 00:22:50,210 --> 00:22:53,560 trickery. He's not trying to say things to mess you up. 350 00:22:54,750 --> 00:22:57,230 Jesus wants you to look like him. 351 00:22:58,510 --> 00:23:02,390 So loving Jesus looks like obeying. So let's look at very simplistic 352 00:23:02,390 --> 00:23:05,950 truth here. Okay? Number one, he says. 353 00:23:05,950 --> 00:23:09,869 Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my 354 00:23:09,869 --> 00:23:13,670 commands. Well, this should. We should be asking an 355 00:23:13,670 --> 00:23:16,430 obvious question here. What's the obvious question? 356 00:23:18,030 --> 00:23:21,540 What are your commands? If you raise your hand, if you love Jesus, 357 00:23:22,980 --> 00:23:26,820 raise it high. Proud are we, proud to love Jesus. Okay, 358 00:23:27,700 --> 00:23:31,140 keep your hands up. I didn't tell you. Put them down. Listen, 359 00:23:33,300 --> 00:23:37,140 if you love Jesus, you will obey his commands. 360 00:23:38,660 --> 00:23:41,620 Put your hand down. If you love me, you'll keep my commands. What are your 361 00:23:41,620 --> 00:23:45,580 commands, Jesus? I love this. I love this. We don't have to search. 362 00:23:45,580 --> 00:23:49,380 It's in the next sentence. I love it. This is. This is 363 00:23:49,380 --> 00:23:52,740 my command. Say it. Love 364 00:23:53,060 --> 00:23:56,940 one another as I have loved you. We do 365 00:23:56,940 --> 00:24:00,940 not like this. Let me tell you 366 00:24:00,940 --> 00:24:04,859 why we don't like this. We don't like this because we think we have 367 00:24:04,859 --> 00:24:08,580 this figured out. We don't like 368 00:24:08,580 --> 00:24:11,460 this. We think this is so shallow. 369 00:24:12,340 --> 00:24:16,140 And what we fail to realize is we stand before Jesus 370 00:24:16,140 --> 00:24:20,070 just like those Pharisees who say this is 371 00:24:20,070 --> 00:24:23,950 so shallow. Let me give you 613 other reasons of things 372 00:24:23,950 --> 00:24:27,550 that we should do in order to earn our way 373 00:24:27,870 --> 00:24:31,630 to you, Jesus. Why did I say 613? 374 00:24:31,630 --> 00:24:35,510 We're talking about the law, the Torah. 613 different 375 00:24:35,510 --> 00:24:39,470 commands and we probably, we could add a million to them. Now Jesus didn't 376 00:24:39,470 --> 00:24:43,350 say, here's my command. Kevin, make sure you do the speed limit down 377 00:24:43,350 --> 00:24:46,720 the interstate. I'm going to hell. 378 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,520 No, this was not his. This was not is. He says, this is my 379 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,360 command. Love one another as I have loved you. 380 00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,319 That should beg another question, should it not? 381 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:07,280 How, how do I, how do I. 382 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,800 How do I love? How do we love one another? This is what Jesus says. 383 00:25:12,990 --> 00:25:16,830 Greater love has no one than this to 384 00:25:16,830 --> 00:25:20,630 lay down his life for his friends. Now I'm going to tell you, 385 00:25:20,630 --> 00:25:24,590 I'm pretty sure I would lay down my life for Shari, Hadassah, 386 00:25:24,590 --> 00:25:27,550 Lucy, Ruby, Nora and Eliana. 387 00:25:29,230 --> 00:25:33,190 But beyond that. Listen, some of 388 00:25:33,190 --> 00:25:36,590 us can't even get up off our couch to go help somebody who needs their 389 00:25:36,590 --> 00:25:40,550 tire changed. Or we can't even get off our 390 00:25:40,550 --> 00:25:44,510 couch to go to a hospital and visit somebody who's been in an accident 391 00:25:44,510 --> 00:25:48,390 or is in need. We are so self centered in 392 00:25:48,390 --> 00:25:52,030 our lives, we can't let alone lay our lives down 393 00:25:53,390 --> 00:25:54,350 for our friends. 394 00:25:58,430 --> 00:26:02,430 Matthew, chapter 22 I love this. I'm telling you, you can't make this stuff up. 395 00:26:03,230 --> 00:26:06,950 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees and the 396 00:26:06,950 --> 00:26:09,130 Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, 397 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,400 they got together. One of them was an expert in the 398 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:19,240 law. This is what they were. They studied the law. They could tell 399 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,680 you, this is what you're not supposed to do. This is what you're not supposed 400 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,240 to do. This is what. I can quote it, 613 of them. I can just 401 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,520 boom, boom, boom, boom. I can tell you what you're not supposed to do. And 402 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,600 this is what it said. This is funny to me. 403 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,830 One of them, an expert in the law, 404 00:26:37,580 --> 00:26:40,460 tested Jesus with a question. I'm going to tell you right now, 405 00:26:41,820 --> 00:26:44,380 if Jesus is standing in front of me, 406 00:26:46,220 --> 00:26:48,620 there's not one question I'm about to ask. 407 00:26:52,060 --> 00:26:55,860 But this tells us a lot about the state of the Pharisee who's 408 00:26:55,860 --> 00:26:59,660 asking this question. Because Jesus is standing 409 00:26:59,660 --> 00:27:03,430 right before them, and they have no idea who he is. I'm 410 00:27:03,430 --> 00:27:07,070 gonna test you, Teacher, which is the 411 00:27:07,070 --> 00:27:10,950 greatest commandment in the law? I bet you he had some ideas 412 00:27:11,350 --> 00:27:15,310 because he was an expert. Experts have ideas, right? So he 413 00:27:15,310 --> 00:27:18,470 did this to test him. So, Allen, I know what the. I know what the 414 00:27:18,470 --> 00:27:22,390 greatest three, and I'm ready to rattle them off to you. This is what Jesus 415 00:27:22,390 --> 00:27:25,750 said. Do the speed limit. No, this is what Jesus said. 416 00:27:28,070 --> 00:27:31,990 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul 417 00:27:31,990 --> 00:27:35,530 and all your mind. This is the first and 418 00:27:35,690 --> 00:27:39,290 greatest commandment. And the second 419 00:27:39,370 --> 00:27:42,850 is, like it, love your neighbor as 420 00:27:42,850 --> 00:27:46,690 yourself. Now, we like to put a little period there, and we move right 421 00:27:46,690 --> 00:27:49,850 along. But Jesus wasn't done saying what he was saying. 422 00:27:50,490 --> 00:27:54,490 There's one more sentence in that little thing, and it's a very important word to 423 00:27:54,490 --> 00:27:58,250 kick it off. And that word is all. Would you say, all 424 00:27:58,500 --> 00:28:02,410 right, all the law. Okay, 425 00:28:02,410 --> 00:28:05,970 all the rules that you can come up with. All of the rules that you 426 00:28:05,970 --> 00:28:09,530 could come up with of the good, or good, good, goodest, bad, whatever. 427 00:28:09,770 --> 00:28:13,770 All the rules, and he wasn't done. And that 428 00:28:13,770 --> 00:28:17,730 law. And he says, the prophets. Who are the prophets? The voice 429 00:28:17,730 --> 00:28:21,530 of God. The voice, people of God, the ones who are bringing voice to 430 00:28:21,530 --> 00:28:25,490 God's word. The ones that are saying the things of God. So 431 00:28:25,490 --> 00:28:28,570 the rules and what God is saying, he says 432 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,440 all. All of the law and the prophets. Hang 433 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:38,160 on those two commandments. I'm telling you this 434 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,680 morning. I have it on good authority to say that if you're going to do 435 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:45,040 any two things in this lifetime, love the Lord, God, with all your heart, soul 436 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,800 and mind, and love each other the way he's loved you. Love each 437 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:52,680 other the way he has loved you. There are 438 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,400 other things. There are other things that we need to be 439 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,280 doing in our refinement and growing like him, and we're going to talk 440 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,240 about those. The starting place is to love God with all your heart, soul 441 00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:06,680 and mind and to love each other. 442 00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:12,160 Love each other as he has loved us. I want to love Jesus, but I 443 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,480 don't naturally love like Jesus. And Jesus agrees with you. 444 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:20,200 If there's nothing you get from this message 445 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,720 today, I want you to understand this. 446 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:29,490 You need the Holy Spirit. You need the 447 00:29:29,490 --> 00:29:33,450 Holy Spirit. Jesus said this. If you love me, keep my commands. 448 00:29:33,690 --> 00:29:37,250 And then he puts this conjunction. There any grammar nerds in here? 449 00:29:37,250 --> 00:29:40,490 Conjunctions. Love it. Okay. And. 450 00:29:41,610 --> 00:29:45,570 And I will ask the Father. Okay, here's 451 00:29:45,570 --> 00:29:49,050 the thing. In other words, Jesus is saying this, James. He's saying, 452 00:29:50,090 --> 00:29:52,390 if you love me, keep my commands. But you don't know how to do. 453 00:29:53,980 --> 00:29:57,900 Hannah, if you love me, keep my commands. But you can't do that. Dustin, 454 00:29:57,980 --> 00:30:01,780 if you love me, do you love me, keep my commands, but you don't have 455 00:30:01,780 --> 00:30:05,660 the strength. You cannot do that. So. And in addition 456 00:30:05,820 --> 00:30:09,820 to. I'm gonna ask the Father. I'm gonna ask the 457 00:30:09,820 --> 00:30:13,260 Father, and he will give you another 458 00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:17,420 advocate, a helper to be with you 459 00:30:17,580 --> 00:30:20,660 and to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. 460 00:30:21,460 --> 00:30:25,300 Jesus asked the Father to give you a gift, and that is the Holy Spirit. 461 00:30:26,660 --> 00:30:30,580 You have access to this Holy Spirit. You have access 462 00:30:30,900 --> 00:30:34,860 to the Holy Spirit of God. So 463 00:30:34,860 --> 00:30:38,860 what about those other 613 things that we have 464 00:30:38,860 --> 00:30:42,700 to obey? Ezekiel says this. I 465 00:30:42,700 --> 00:30:45,660 will give you a new heart. This is the Lord speaking. I will give you 466 00:30:45,660 --> 00:30:48,220 a new heart. If I get a new heart, it means my old one. 467 00:30:49,970 --> 00:30:53,930 Okay, I will give you a new spirit. That means my old spirit. Not 468 00:30:53,930 --> 00:30:57,730 worth a thing. And I will put it within you. I will put my 469 00:30:57,730 --> 00:31:01,490 spirit within you. And cause you to what? Walk in 470 00:31:01,490 --> 00:31:05,410 my statutes and be careful to obey my 471 00:31:05,410 --> 00:31:09,090 rules. This tells me that his spirit, if 472 00:31:09,090 --> 00:31:12,770 it's dwelling within me, I will be walking 473 00:31:12,930 --> 00:31:16,680 in righteous ways. This is what 474 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:20,640 Paul says. If you walk by the Spirit, you 475 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,040 will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 476 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,840 Are you with me? Paul doesn't say, I want you to fight harder. Do harder. 477 00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,760 Put more accountability tools in your life. Get all these programs. He says, walk 478 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:36,600 by the spirit. Walk by the spirit. Walk 479 00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:40,400 by the spirit. And I love this 480 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,330 one. You will receive what power. You 481 00:31:44,330 --> 00:31:48,330 will receive what power. Excuse Me, you will receive what 482 00:31:48,810 --> 00:31:51,530 power. When the Holy Spirit 483 00:31:52,570 --> 00:31:56,490 comes upon you, you are powerless 484 00:31:56,569 --> 00:32:00,490 against your sin. You are powerless against the 485 00:32:00,490 --> 00:32:04,370 evil in this world. You are powerless against the temptations of 486 00:32:04,370 --> 00:32:08,050 your flesh. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you are 487 00:32:08,050 --> 00:32:11,970 powerless. Without the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a good thing to have. 488 00:32:11,970 --> 00:32:15,870 Do you agree? Morning. The Holy Spirit of God is 489 00:32:15,870 --> 00:32:19,030 available to you, and he gives you power to 490 00:32:19,110 --> 00:32:23,030 overcome all of these things. Here's the thing. Jesus 491 00:32:23,030 --> 00:32:26,470 saves you. The Holy Spirit sustains you. 492 00:32:27,750 --> 00:32:31,590 Jesus saves you. The Holy Spirit sustains you. 493 00:32:31,750 --> 00:32:35,430 Guys, we have to become a people. We 494 00:32:35,430 --> 00:32:39,230 must become a people who understand the importance of 495 00:32:39,230 --> 00:32:43,220 the involvement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must 496 00:32:43,220 --> 00:32:47,020 become. I beseech you. It is so important. Now, with that, 497 00:32:47,180 --> 00:32:50,820 I have grown up and I have learned a lot about what the Holy Spirit 498 00:32:50,820 --> 00:32:54,780 is not. Because I have seen people use the 499 00:32:54,780 --> 00:32:58,580 Holy Spirit in ways that are not lining up with God's word. So let's look 500 00:32:58,580 --> 00:33:01,780 a little bit at this. What the Holy Spirit is not. Holy Spirit is not 501 00:33:01,780 --> 00:33:05,660 a force. This is not Star Wars. Okay? 502 00:33:06,860 --> 00:33:10,850 He's not a feeling. Pain. Now, I've gotten 503 00:33:10,850 --> 00:33:14,610 goosebumps before. Goosebumps are not an indicator. Only 504 00:33:14,610 --> 00:33:18,370 indicator that Holy Spirit's moving in your life. Sometimes pain 505 00:33:18,370 --> 00:33:20,250 is. And it's the Holy Spirit. 506 00:33:24,810 --> 00:33:28,330 He's not a personality in a 507 00:33:28,330 --> 00:33:32,330 magazine. He 508 00:33:32,330 --> 00:33:36,300 is not a dove. We use a dove to symbolize him. He 509 00:33:36,300 --> 00:33:38,820 is not a bird. He is not a dove. 510 00:33:40,100 --> 00:33:43,980 He's not a manipulator. He's 511 00:33:43,980 --> 00:33:47,700 not a controller. And he will never 512 00:33:47,780 --> 00:33:51,500 contradict his own word. If God 513 00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:55,460 is. If God is. If the Holy Spirit of God, if the true statement of 514 00:33:55,860 --> 00:33:59,450 this up here that I have, if I can say he is God, 515 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:04,080 then the Holy Spirit is not going to tell you to do something 516 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:08,080 that contradicts what he has already said. Are you with me? 517 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,640 Never. It will never contradict his word. He'll never contradict his word. 518 00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,800 So if that's what the Holy Spirit is not, this is what the Holy Spirit 519 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,880 is. The Holy Spirit is a counselor. 520 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,360 Anybody need some counsel? He's a better counselor than 521 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:31,160 Oprah. He gives better gifts than 522 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,920 cars. The 523 00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:38,720 Holy Spirit is a strengthener. Anybody feel weak? Need 524 00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:42,480 some strength? Holy Spirit's a strengthener. What about a guide? 525 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,640 I tell you right now, as I'm walking in my life, I need 526 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:50,480 a guide. I need the Holy Spirit to tell me 527 00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:54,280 where to go. He's a 528 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,200 faithful friend. Let me tell you, people 529 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:02,000 here on Earth, they're not faithful friends. They try. We try. 530 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:06,480 He's a Faithful friend. He's a helper. 531 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,400 He's a helper. Guys, I need help. 532 00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:15,640 Ask my wife. I need help. Ask the staff at 533 00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:19,480 the church. I need help. Ask my closest friends. They really know he 534 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,180 needs help. I need help. I need the help of the Holy 535 00:35:23,570 --> 00:35:27,410 Spirit. Do you need help? Anybody here 536 00:35:27,410 --> 00:35:28,450 could use some help. 537 00:35:33,730 --> 00:35:37,410 Miles Monroe and R.H. hori put it this way. The Holy Spirit of God is 538 00:35:37,410 --> 00:35:41,090 a person and he is the most important person 539 00:35:41,170 --> 00:35:44,890 on the planet today. He's the most 540 00:35:44,890 --> 00:35:48,890 important person on the planet today. I got to get rolling here. Here 541 00:35:48,890 --> 00:35:52,660 we go. I ministered to the youth 542 00:35:52,660 --> 00:35:56,580 group, became the youth pastor. And they were in a season where they 543 00:35:56,580 --> 00:36:00,500 were investigating and learning about the Holy Spirit. And in that season 544 00:36:00,500 --> 00:36:04,420 they were learning some things and experiencing some things that didn't necessarily 545 00:36:04,420 --> 00:36:07,980 line up with God's word. At least it had evolved to that. And so when 546 00:36:07,980 --> 00:36:10,620 I walked in, I was picking up on all sorts of things because there were 547 00:36:10,620 --> 00:36:13,500 prophetic words going forth that did not line up with what the word of God 548 00:36:13,500 --> 00:36:17,340 says. There were things happening, there was emotionalism, there were things going on in 549 00:36:17,340 --> 00:36:21,190 there that weren't necessarily what. It wasn't all 550 00:36:21,270 --> 00:36:25,190 packaged with the word. It just really wasn't 551 00:36:25,190 --> 00:36:28,270 the Holy Spirit, it wasn't within his character. And so I went in there to 552 00:36:28,270 --> 00:36:31,750 teach and the only thing the Holy Spirit would give me to teach them for 553 00:36:31,750 --> 00:36:35,670 six months to teach to you for six months was this. The primary job 554 00:36:35,670 --> 00:36:39,670 of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus. The primary job 555 00:36:39,670 --> 00:36:42,630 of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine how many object lessons I had to come 556 00:36:42,630 --> 00:36:46,630 up with in six months time to teach the same lesson week after 557 00:36:46,630 --> 00:36:49,930 week? Lord, can I move? No. The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to 558 00:36:49,930 --> 00:36:53,810 point people to Jesus. And I wanna tell you today, the primary 559 00:36:53,810 --> 00:36:56,610 job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus. Over in John 560 00:36:57,330 --> 00:37:01,170 16:12 it says, I have much more to say to you, says Jesus, 561 00:37:01,250 --> 00:37:04,930 more than you can bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, 562 00:37:05,250 --> 00:37:09,170 he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He 563 00:37:09,170 --> 00:37:12,490 will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to 564 00:37:12,490 --> 00:37:16,370 come. Now this is what he said. He, the Holy Spirit 565 00:37:17,010 --> 00:37:20,690 will glorify me. He, the 566 00:37:20,690 --> 00:37:24,650 Holy Spirit will glorify me. The primary job 567 00:37:24,650 --> 00:37:28,210 of the Holy Spirit is not for us to have a woo hoo experience. 568 00:37:29,410 --> 00:37:32,970 The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to 569 00:37:32,970 --> 00:37:36,570 Jesus. Jesus is going to be lifted up. You know, when we get there, who 570 00:37:36,570 --> 00:37:39,090 are we going to be exalting? Who Are we going? It's going to be Jesus. 571 00:37:39,330 --> 00:37:42,980 It's going to be Jesus. And so. So I want to 572 00:37:42,980 --> 00:37:46,860 hammer this simplicity of this point home. I need five volunteers quickly 573 00:37:47,020 --> 00:37:50,140 to come down here. Five. Just stand up and come. Five volunteers. 574 00:37:56,619 --> 00:38:00,540 Okay, hold this sign. Hold this sign. 575 00:38:00,700 --> 00:38:02,980 I would like you to take these signs. I want one of you to go 576 00:38:02,980 --> 00:38:05,900 on stage and the other four of you, I would just want you to spread 577 00:38:05,900 --> 00:38:08,460 out around the room. You can go anywhere you want, but try not to make 578 00:38:08,460 --> 00:38:12,360 it perfect. Just go somewhere random in the room. Okay? All 579 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,200 right. Now, who in here looks most like Jesus? 580 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,960 Raise your hand. Who here looks most like Jesus? I need a 581 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,920 Jesus. Is it? 582 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:25,200 Come on, Justin. 583 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,040 Next week we're gonna talk about humility. Okay? So 584 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,930 no, this is perfect. This is actually great. Okay, so 585 00:38:37,970 --> 00:38:41,810 would you agree? Would you agree? Hey, guys, hit that 586 00:38:41,810 --> 00:38:44,650 next slide for me. This should be the fruit of the spirit. Let's say this 587 00:38:44,650 --> 00:38:48,370 together. Quickly, quickly. The fruit of the spirit is love, 588 00:38:48,530 --> 00:38:52,209 joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, 589 00:38:52,209 --> 00:38:56,090 gentleness and self control. Would you agree that when Jesus 590 00:38:56,090 --> 00:39:00,090 is here, let's transport back. Jesus is here. Physically, we can touch. Jesus is strong. 591 00:39:00,090 --> 00:39:03,930 Okay, Jesus. We can touch Jesus. Okay, we touch Jesus here. 592 00:39:03,930 --> 00:39:07,860 Okay. Would you believe that he is the embodiment of the 593 00:39:07,860 --> 00:39:11,740 fruit of the spirit? Would you believe that the person of Jesus is the 594 00:39:11,740 --> 00:39:15,500 embodiment of this fruit? Yes or no? Yes. Okay, so 595 00:39:15,500 --> 00:39:18,780 here's Jesus and Jesus is here in person. 596 00:39:18,940 --> 00:39:22,780 Okay. Brad, I need you to go grab that microphone for me real fast. Okay. 597 00:39:22,860 --> 00:39:26,700 All right. Now, Jesus. Jesus. What does Jesus do 598 00:39:28,460 --> 00:39:31,420 when he rolls up into our life? What is his invitation? We said it earlier. 599 00:39:31,420 --> 00:39:35,350 What is his. Follow me. Right. Okay. So here you go, Jesus. This 600 00:39:35,350 --> 00:39:38,110 is what I want you to do. Jesus. I want you to find five people 601 00:39:38,110 --> 00:39:41,870 in the room, and I want you to extend the invitation for them to follow 602 00:39:41,870 --> 00:39:45,670 you. And I want them to do what the invitation says. Head out. 603 00:39:45,990 --> 00:39:49,910 Thank you, buddy. So Jesus strolls up 604 00:39:49,910 --> 00:39:53,390 on your life and he offers you an invitation. And the 605 00:39:53,390 --> 00:39:57,110 invitation is, follow me. Okay? And so 606 00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:01,840 with that invitation, we get up 607 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,080 and we begin to follow Jesus. Yes. 608 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:10,360 Okay. Now, just as we said, Jesus is 609 00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:11,120 in no hurry. 610 00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:15,520 He's gonna take his time. 611 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,680 Okay? I know. 612 00:40:24,170 --> 00:40:28,090 Okay. Okay. What you have 613 00:40:28,090 --> 00:40:31,970 just witnessed, when these people took the invitation and they got up 614 00:40:31,970 --> 00:40:35,850 and they started walking and following Jesus, what you just witnessed was obedience. 615 00:40:37,050 --> 00:40:40,930 Are you with me? You just witnessed obedience, an obedient posture 616 00:40:40,930 --> 00:40:44,810 of following Jesus. Okay, Now, Justin. 617 00:40:48,570 --> 00:40:50,420 Did I. You cannot go. 618 00:40:56,100 --> 00:41:00,100 Okay, Justin, this is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you my phone. 619 00:41:00,900 --> 00:41:04,780 My phone is gonna have a Timer. Every time 10 seconds goes 620 00:41:04,780 --> 00:41:08,300 by, 10, 20, 30. Every single time, I want you to say in the microphone 621 00:41:08,300 --> 00:41:12,220 the words, follow me. Every single time, I don't want you to stop 622 00:41:12,220 --> 00:41:16,220 until I literally say, justin, stop. No matter what's going on, no matter what I 623 00:41:16,220 --> 00:41:19,700 said, no matter what I've done, you continue to do this until I say, justin, 624 00:41:19,700 --> 00:41:23,520 you can stop. You got it? So every 10 seconds, you start. Now, 625 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:27,320 Jesus's invitation is gonna be, follow me. Now, I want you to walk around the 626 00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,720 auditorium, okay? And I want you to do that. And then you guys are going 627 00:41:30,720 --> 00:41:34,600 to do what he says. Follow me, okay? And you're 628 00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:38,600 gonna follow him. So Jesus comes into our life and he has a 629 00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,880 voice. He's embodied. We can feel him touch. Somebody next to you say, I feel 630 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:45,640 you. Follow me. You feel. We can feel Jesus. We can 631 00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:49,530 see Jesus. If Jesus was truly here in Smyrna, Tennessee, 632 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:54,160 he would not be in Dallas. He would not be in New York. He's 633 00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:58,040 here in Tennessee in person, okay? With 634 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:02,040 his flesh and his blood. And he's saying, follow me, 635 00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:06,000 okay? And the people are following him. And I would hope to imagine 636 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,800 that if Jesus was here in person, we would all be up following him 637 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,680 and doing what he says to do. Follow me. Okay? Now 638 00:42:16,970 --> 00:42:20,490 they are following the voice of the Lord. Now here's what I want you all 639 00:42:20,490 --> 00:42:24,490 to do. Follow me. Justin, I want you. I want you all to stop 640 00:42:24,810 --> 00:42:27,050 on stage here. Justin, I want you to keep going. I want you to go 641 00:42:27,050 --> 00:42:30,050 backstage and around there. I want you to stay back there. Keep going on there, 642 00:42:30,050 --> 00:42:33,130 okay? Come on down here. That's fine. Follow me. Okay? 643 00:42:33,690 --> 00:42:36,970 Now, here we are. And we do not have 644 00:42:37,130 --> 00:42:40,490 physical Jesus here, right? 645 00:42:41,540 --> 00:42:45,300 But follow me. We still hear his voice, right? 646 00:42:46,020 --> 00:42:49,780 Now tell me if I told you to follow the voice, right now. You go. 647 00:42:49,940 --> 00:42:52,860 We'll run into each other. Like, what are we going to do? Like, where's the 648 00:42:52,860 --> 00:42:56,420 voice? Because you can't see, right? You cannot see physical 649 00:42:56,820 --> 00:43:00,580 Jesus anymore. But is the Lord still speaking today? 650 00:43:01,380 --> 00:43:05,380 Is the commission still to follow Him? It absolutely is. So we 651 00:43:05,380 --> 00:43:09,340 still have the directive, but we don't have the person. He's given us the 652 00:43:09,340 --> 00:43:13,090 gift of the Holy Spirit now. Now the gift of the spirit, 653 00:43:13,090 --> 00:43:16,970 the gift of the Holy Spirit. Anytime the Spirit's talking to us and leading 654 00:43:16,970 --> 00:43:20,930 us, he's always gonna lead us to places that yield fruit. 655 00:43:21,650 --> 00:43:25,570 Follow me. He's always gonna lead us to places that yield 656 00:43:25,570 --> 00:43:29,530 fruit. So wherever I'm going, the trajectory I'm on wherever I'm. It should lead 657 00:43:29,530 --> 00:43:33,170 me to places of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness. 658 00:43:33,250 --> 00:43:37,210 Okay? So I would like you to look at your invitation. Look at it. Literally 659 00:43:37,210 --> 00:43:40,710 look at your invitation. Your invitation. I want you to study it and I want 660 00:43:40,710 --> 00:43:43,710 you to see if you can end up where you're supposed to go around the 661 00:43:43,710 --> 00:43:47,590 room here. Based on what you see on your invitation, based on what we 662 00:43:47,590 --> 00:43:50,070 just said. So go ahead and move if you know what to do. 663 00:43:51,750 --> 00:43:55,270 Follow me. The voice is still happening. 664 00:43:56,390 --> 00:44:00,150 The people are moving in 665 00:44:00,150 --> 00:44:03,350 our lives. The Holy Spirit is saying, 666 00:44:03,750 --> 00:44:07,500 echoing the words of Jesus, follow me. Follow me. And 667 00:44:07,500 --> 00:44:10,660 whenever we follow the voice, we will end up 668 00:44:11,220 --> 00:44:14,860 in places, hopefully places that 669 00:44:14,860 --> 00:44:16,660 yield the fruit of the spirit. 670 00:44:21,700 --> 00:44:25,500 Follow me. And if somebody doesn't 671 00:44:25,500 --> 00:44:29,500 know we're going to help them out, because that's what 672 00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:32,670 the spirit does. He puts people in our life. Follow me. 673 00:44:33,710 --> 00:44:37,630 Mel has a handle on this. Mel, do you want to help someone else? Okay, 674 00:44:37,630 --> 00:44:38,270 very good. 675 00:44:41,790 --> 00:44:42,590 Follow me. 676 00:44:51,790 --> 00:44:55,790 I want you to understand. Okay, listen. The voice is happening. Go ahead and 677 00:44:55,790 --> 00:44:59,310 bring Justin back in. Go ahead and bring Justin back in. Mario. You mean 678 00:44:59,310 --> 00:45:03,310 Jesus? Jesus. Oh, okay. Jesus. Ok. 679 00:45:03,610 --> 00:45:07,530 Follow me. Justin, you may stop. Okay, listen, listen, 680 00:45:07,530 --> 00:45:11,490 listen, listen, listen. It 681 00:45:11,490 --> 00:45:14,490 wasn't about how long it took anybody to get there. 682 00:45:15,930 --> 00:45:18,970 It was about the fact that they got where they were supposed to go. 683 00:45:19,529 --> 00:45:23,490 Listen, listen, listen. There were people in here like Mel that 684 00:45:23,490 --> 00:45:27,450 knew exactly. There are some people that it takes because 685 00:45:27,450 --> 00:45:31,250 of their experience, their lack of knowledge, their lack of insight, 686 00:45:31,250 --> 00:45:34,990 the lack of help around them. It takes them. Some people had to walk around 687 00:45:34,990 --> 00:45:38,630 the auditorium to get to a place. Some people had to walk on the. 688 00:45:38,710 --> 00:45:42,670 Some people made a mistake and had to humble themselves and 689 00:45:42,670 --> 00:45:46,430 go the next direction. Do you understand what I'm saying? There is grace 690 00:45:46,430 --> 00:45:50,190 space for us to move, but where we end up should be places 691 00:45:50,190 --> 00:45:54,110 where the fruit of the spirit is manifesting itself. The Holy 692 00:45:54,110 --> 00:45:58,110 Spirit of God is available to you today to end 693 00:45:58,110 --> 00:46:01,120 up in places where the fruit of the spirit resides. Would you guys give the 694 00:46:01,270 --> 00:46:04,070 them a round of applause? Thank you guys so much. You can just put those 695 00:46:04,070 --> 00:46:04,950 signs down there. 696 00:46:08,790 --> 00:46:09,750 Thank you, guys. 697 00:46:19,670 --> 00:46:23,510 The primary job of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus. 698 00:46:26,390 --> 00:46:30,340 If they're to point people to Jesus. How do I point 699 00:46:30,340 --> 00:46:33,900 people to Jesus? How does Kevin o' Day point people to Jesus? With the Holy 700 00:46:33,900 --> 00:46:37,860 Spirit. This is what John says. He said that's not what I 701 00:46:37,860 --> 00:46:41,820 was looking for. Oh, they're taking that off. Okay, John 702 00:46:41,820 --> 00:46:45,500 3:35 says this. They will know me. Listen, stay 703 00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:48,900 focused. They will know me. By the way 704 00:46:49,140 --> 00:46:52,820 you. Come on, finish it, guys. You know this. 705 00:46:52,900 --> 00:46:56,340 By the way you love. By the way you love. 706 00:46:57,060 --> 00:47:00,980 By the way you love. That's how they're going to know Jesus. By the way 707 00:47:01,460 --> 00:47:05,220 that you love. Jesus says, I'm. He says, 708 00:47:05,220 --> 00:47:09,220 listen, I'm going away, but I'm not going to leave you 709 00:47:09,540 --> 00:47:12,900 as orphans. Says, I will come to you. 710 00:47:13,620 --> 00:47:16,020 How? Through the Holy Spirit. 711 00:47:17,540 --> 00:47:21,460 He didn't say, try to live like me. Work harder, try harder, do more. He 712 00:47:21,460 --> 00:47:24,650 said, I, the Holy Spirit, I will live in you. 713 00:47:25,450 --> 00:47:26,490 I will live in you. 714 00:47:29,370 --> 00:47:32,810 Valentine's Day, 1993. 715 00:47:34,490 --> 00:47:38,330 I asked Jesus Christ into my heart. Why 716 00:47:38,330 --> 00:47:42,090 did I ask Jesus Christ in my heart? I didn't ask Jesus Christ because I 717 00:47:42,090 --> 00:47:45,770 had a relationship with God. In fact, I can't have a relationship with God 718 00:47:46,490 --> 00:47:50,460 without having Jesus. But what I was taught 719 00:47:50,460 --> 00:47:54,380 was, father God, he's 720 00:47:54,380 --> 00:47:58,380 about to send you to hell. You are so jacked up, Kevin. You better believe 721 00:47:58,380 --> 00:48:01,300 in Jesus. You better tell everybody there's a hell waiting for them. 722 00:48:02,660 --> 00:48:05,140 This was all I knew about God. 723 00:48:06,740 --> 00:48:10,700 I didn't know that there was a Holy Spirit. I didn't understand that 724 00:48:10,700 --> 00:48:14,340 there was a God who wanted to have a real radical 725 00:48:14,500 --> 00:48:18,490 relationship with me, with little old me. And so 726 00:48:18,490 --> 00:48:22,330 when I turned 15, I got a job at a place called 727 00:48:22,330 --> 00:48:26,250 Chick Fil a. That's Christian chicken. The Holy 728 00:48:26,250 --> 00:48:27,370 Spirit's residing there. 729 00:48:30,890 --> 00:48:34,730 And I met a guy by the name of Isaac. And let me tell you 730 00:48:34,730 --> 00:48:38,490 what Isaac had. He had the indwelling of the 731 00:48:38,490 --> 00:48:42,410 Holy Spirit. And you know what was attractive about him? 732 00:48:42,410 --> 00:48:45,940 That that made me want to be friends with them. He exuded 733 00:48:46,260 --> 00:48:49,780 love, joy, patience, peace, 734 00:48:49,780 --> 00:48:53,620 kindness. And you know what? He also wanted to be my 735 00:48:53,620 --> 00:48:57,340 friend. And I saw the way that he 736 00:48:57,340 --> 00:49:01,220 loved the Lord. And I wanted some of 737 00:49:01,220 --> 00:49:05,060 that. And so I became friends with him. And 738 00:49:05,060 --> 00:49:08,580 guess what? He introduced me on a night here. 739 00:49:08,820 --> 00:49:12,500 We were a bunch of guys laying on the floor of the foyer on a 740 00:49:12,500 --> 00:49:16,500 pink car, playing a guitar. And guess what? 741 00:49:17,380 --> 00:49:19,540 I received the Holy Spirit that night. 742 00:49:21,220 --> 00:49:25,180 My eyes were illuminated. My mind was that there is this God who wants 743 00:49:25,180 --> 00:49:27,940 a relationship with me. Now let me tell you what happened. 744 00:49:29,060 --> 00:49:32,940 That relationship with the Lord started happening. And you know what? This is what 745 00:49:32,940 --> 00:49:36,740 happened. Did I feel goosebumps that night? I did. But soon 746 00:49:36,740 --> 00:49:40,270 after, the Holy Spirit would begin to bring up 747 00:49:40,820 --> 00:49:43,940 things in me that didn't need to be there. 748 00:49:44,980 --> 00:49:48,700 Insecurities I was carrying, healing that I 749 00:49:48,700 --> 00:49:52,140 needed, and I didn't like it. And what I did, what Kevin chose to do 750 00:49:52,140 --> 00:49:55,180 when those things came to the surface is I Said I want to cover them 751 00:49:55,180 --> 00:49:58,660 up. I want to do more to make this person like me. I want to 752 00:49:58,660 --> 00:50:01,460 buy bigger gifts. I want to do whatever I can. I don't want anybody to 753 00:50:01,460 --> 00:50:04,340 see this. And guess what? I got to a point where I was 754 00:50:04,420 --> 00:50:08,030 overwhelmed. And so what I 755 00:50:08,030 --> 00:50:11,150 decided is my life is not worth living. 756 00:50:12,030 --> 00:50:15,950 Rather than concede that I can't be in control of my life, I 757 00:50:15,950 --> 00:50:19,830 decided I'm going to take control and take my life. And 758 00:50:19,830 --> 00:50:23,230 I don't know if you've ever been in a place in your life where you 759 00:50:23,230 --> 00:50:24,430 thought, this is enough. 760 00:50:27,550 --> 00:50:31,510 And so my little red Chevy Cavalier on this street out 761 00:50:31,510 --> 00:50:35,340 here, they were building a CVS right out here. And this friend Isaac, 762 00:50:35,340 --> 00:50:39,340 this particular day. Cause this is how the Holy Spirit works. You 763 00:50:39,340 --> 00:50:42,660 ever have a friend that if you and that friend are going somewhere, you kind 764 00:50:42,660 --> 00:50:46,300 of have. You kind of have roles that you play that just are. 765 00:50:46,620 --> 00:50:49,820 You don't talk about. They're unspoken. Like, one of the things was when Isaac and 766 00:50:49,820 --> 00:50:53,380 I went somewhere, he always drove. Or whenever Isaac went there, he always was the 767 00:50:53,380 --> 00:50:57,340 driver. Well, this particular day, he had a little white Civic. And this particular 768 00:50:57,340 --> 00:50:59,860 day, he was going to the CD store. Do y' all know what a CD 769 00:50:59,860 --> 00:51:02,890 store? You know what a CD is? Okay. Y' all know what a CD is? 770 00:51:02,890 --> 00:51:06,450 Okay. So they're going to the CD store. He and 771 00:51:06,450 --> 00:51:09,930 Justin. Not this Justin, a different Justin, they was going to the CD store. 772 00:51:10,250 --> 00:51:13,010 And he left his car in the parking lot. So here I am, coming down 773 00:51:13,010 --> 00:51:16,890 this road, tears streaming down my face, and I'm going to ram my car into 774 00:51:16,890 --> 00:51:20,770 the CVS wall. That's my plan. And I'm driving, 775 00:51:20,770 --> 00:51:24,730 I'm speeding. And I come over and I turn. It's big mess over here. And 776 00:51:24,730 --> 00:51:28,460 I turn in. And all this happened in 10 seconds. But I 777 00:51:28,460 --> 00:51:32,420 looked over and I saw Isaac's car. And in 778 00:51:32,420 --> 00:51:36,220 seeing Isaac's car, something happened to me that has never 779 00:51:36,220 --> 00:51:40,220 happened again, but happened this one time. Kevin o' Day heard 780 00:51:40,300 --> 00:51:44,220 the audible voice of God. And God 781 00:51:44,220 --> 00:51:47,980 said to Kevin o', Day, I am not finished with 782 00:51:47,980 --> 00:51:51,790 you yet. And 783 00:51:51,790 --> 00:51:55,430 I slammed on my brakes and I sat there 784 00:51:55,910 --> 00:51:59,790 and I just wept. And for 785 00:51:59,790 --> 00:52:03,710 the first time in my life, I'd asked Jesus in my heart, I believed what 786 00:52:03,710 --> 00:52:06,710 he did. For the first time in my life, I 787 00:52:06,710 --> 00:52:10,390 surrendered. I surrendered. 788 00:52:11,270 --> 00:52:15,030 And can I tell you, he didn't fix me. On the next minute, 789 00:52:16,070 --> 00:52:19,770 he set me on a journey that here in my 790 00:52:19,770 --> 00:52:22,450 mid-40s, I'm still working on, 791 00:52:23,490 --> 00:52:27,490 because the God of the universe revealed himself to me. 792 00:52:27,570 --> 00:52:31,570 And Gave me the power. See, in that moment, that moment, 793 00:52:31,730 --> 00:52:34,530 I didn't have peace. But guess who had peace. 794 00:52:35,490 --> 00:52:39,450 I didn't have self control. I was trying to take things. I was trying to 795 00:52:39,450 --> 00:52:43,450 control the situation. But he had an awesome gift for me. He 796 00:52:43,450 --> 00:52:47,410 had the power that I needed and he gave it to me. 797 00:52:48,530 --> 00:52:51,250 I cannot imagine my life without Shari, 798 00:52:52,930 --> 00:52:56,770 Hadassah, Lucy, Ruby, Nora, now Eliana. I can't imagine 799 00:52:56,770 --> 00:53:00,449 not being here with all you wonderful people. I can't imagine what would have been 800 00:53:00,449 --> 00:53:03,810 had I selfishly made that choice. Not 801 00:53:03,810 --> 00:53:07,690 understanding that there is a God who breathes stars that knows and loves 802 00:53:07,690 --> 00:53:11,470 Kevin o'. Day. And that same God loves and knows 803 00:53:11,470 --> 00:53:15,430 you too, guys. You cannot attempt to do this life without the 804 00:53:15,430 --> 00:53:19,190 power of the Holy Spirit. You cannot attempt 805 00:53:19,270 --> 00:53:21,990 to do this without his presence in your life. 806 00:53:23,030 --> 00:53:26,670 And so would you stand with me this morning? I know it's time for us 807 00:53:26,670 --> 00:53:29,870 to close, but I'm just asking if you would just grace me just for a 808 00:53:29,870 --> 00:53:33,830 few moments. In the first gathering, we did not have enough prayer warriors 809 00:53:33,830 --> 00:53:37,800 down front. So I'm going to ask this because I believe that there's some people 810 00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:40,880 that need to come down. If you are a prayer warrior, would you please come 811 00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:44,440 down? Can we fill the front part of the stage here? And here's the deal. 812 00:53:45,480 --> 00:53:49,240 There's two things I want to invite you for. Number one, some of you 813 00:53:49,240 --> 00:53:53,120 here are carrying a legitimate need. You need. You have 814 00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:56,800 a problem in your finances this morning. And can I tell you, there is a 815 00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:00,680 source, there is a Holy Spirit that has an answer for your finances. 816 00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:04,610 Some of you are killing, carrying broken pieces. You need healing. Some of you are 817 00:54:04,610 --> 00:54:08,450 contending, some of you are just in places, in relationships that 818 00:54:08,450 --> 00:54:12,210 you're trying to mend. There's a lot of things going on in people's lives today. 819 00:54:12,210 --> 00:54:15,850 But listen, there is a great glorious God who 820 00:54:15,850 --> 00:54:19,490 sees you and knows you and has the answer and doesn't want you to try 821 00:54:19,490 --> 00:54:23,490 to fight that battle on your own. He wants to be involved and if 822 00:54:23,490 --> 00:54:26,890 you will come. These people are spirit filled believers. 823 00:54:28,180 --> 00:54:32,020 They're spirit filled believers. Brian has his life together, okay? 824 00:54:32,180 --> 00:54:36,020 But anything 825 00:54:36,020 --> 00:54:38,740 he has together is because the Holy Spirit of God's involved. 826 00:54:41,140 --> 00:54:45,140 Second, maybe you're like me at age when I was on that carpet. 827 00:54:45,700 --> 00:54:49,460 Maybe today was a revelation. You're like, there's this Holy Spirit. I didn't 828 00:54:49,460 --> 00:54:53,140 realize today you can leave here with the great 829 00:54:54,570 --> 00:54:58,450 offered any of us the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit of 830 00:54:58,450 --> 00:55:02,370 God. Dawn, do you have the Holy Spirit of God inside your life? How 831 00:55:02,370 --> 00:55:05,330 has it been for you? Been a ride, huh? It's been a wonderful ride. Can 832 00:55:05,330 --> 00:55:08,410 you imagine your life without the power of the Holy Spirit in it, Patty? 833 00:55:09,130 --> 00:55:12,970 The Holy Spirit of God. Come. If you've never received 834 00:55:13,050 --> 00:55:16,570 the power, if you've never asked the Lord, can you fill me up with the 835 00:55:16,570 --> 00:55:19,640 Holy Spirit? Can you give me the power I need to actually make sense of 836 00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:23,080 this thing? Are you sick of running into the same walls over and over and 837 00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:26,160 over and over again? Guess what? You might need to do something different, 838 00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:30,480 like surrender your plan and let him do the work. 839 00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:34,480 Today's a great, glorious day because people are going to get set free because 840 00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:38,160 of this great God. And I believe it. So if that is you, 841 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:42,720 come this morning. Come and receive from this great God. Let's worship 842 00:55:42,720 --> 00:55:43,040 together.