Faith In And For The Holy Spirit by Jim Cymbala

my name is Jim symbol I'm so happy to be here tonight and excuse the way I look when I saw you looking so comfortable I feel so out of place I spoke to my assistant just yesterday and I said I don't have to wear a suit there do I both times I speak she's I said it's rather casual I remember that she said no they said they're taping something and you have to wear a suit and shows how important communication is because I'm the only one in the suit and all of North Carolina I think tonight but it's it's a joy to be here so forgive me god is great isn't he isn't our God great well amen let's put our hands together and just praise him for his greatness I want to talk to you tonight about having faith in and for the Holy Spirit I'm not going to use the term revival much because we all know what it is we all long for it a lot of us have read a lot of books about the different revival times but I want to couch all of my comments in the terms of the New Testament which doesn't really speak so much to that word but talks about really revival being a restoration revival revitalization revival re getting back to life the way it was at the beginning the way God intended the church to be which was a spirit-filled holy spirit permeated lead governed Church so as live people who live in the new covenant era we have to be people of the Holy Spirit Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father he's not here now he's coming again when he when he says two or three are gathered I'll be there he's speaking of course of his presence through the person of the Holy Spirit who is called the Spirit of Christ God's only representative on earth at this moment is the Holy Spirit anytime of quote revival is a time of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit where hopefully God is restoring the church his people back to what was in the beginning his original plan for the church not Baptist or Pentecostal or Methodist or Lutheran or those who are not Calvinists or or Arminian but the church as we find it in the New Testament that's why he gave us the book of Acts and the letters the epistles so that we wouldn't have our own vision and blueprint for his church it's his church not my church so many people visit me and say what's your vision for the Brooklyn Tabernacle I didn't know I was supposed to have one I thought that's why God gave us the New Testament oh there's a specific application granted and there are things God leads you to do based on your gifting and personality and where he's placed you but really the reason he gave us 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus and the book of Acts is he's saying this is the way it's supposed to be not the way you grew up not what you read in some book about the Welsh revival or the Great Awakening all of that is judged by the Word of God to get back to what God intended his church to be when he gave birth to it in the second chapter of Acts and although my remarks are going to be kind of a running commentary on some verses that we're going to read through I never was more sure that I'm speaking about the right thing than I am tonight although I was somewhat unsure as I was praying in my room because as you'll see the comments that have preceded me including the video lead perfectly to what I want to talk to you about on the Holy Spirit the book of Acts if anybody first let him come to me and out of his belly will flow rivers of living water this he spoke of the Spirit which had not been given yet because Christ had not been glorified but to start off I wanted to tell you about the wonderful power there is in the Holy Spirit to pray get people to pray and to change somebody you know my wife and I started in the inner city more than 30 years ago and we've seen some marvelous conversions our church our Carol's choir almost 300 people is made up of stories that would stagger your mind of how God has changed people but we have one that has just stood out and I learned about this person by a young a woman in the choir coming to me and entreating me to pray some years ago she was a former Miss Mississippi who had finished second runner-up to the winner that year and she came to New York and she became a model and then she came to our church and although she had been raised and quote a church setting she really had not committed her life to the Lord or whatever her situation was she wasn't walking close with the Lord and God began to work in Wanda Getti was her name then and became Wanda Bruckner and she married five children still model and she came to me one day and said pastor there's an impossible situation except for God in a guy that I've been working with that I met through my job impossible this guy is as far out as you can get I said what's his name she just said Danny I said I've ever met him she said no he's come to the church but you've never met him he if he doesn't meet God he's going to die I said she said but I got some people fasting and praying with me because I'm believing God for Danny this is the story would you please watch that says it's like oceans of praise and adoration to the Savior that's what it is because it's all just a reminder to us as Saints as followers of Jesus Christ to say listen I know it's hard but there is something so much I don't got to know that's not the story they're supposed to go past this there's my pretty wife I didn't think you'd say this [Music] that Danny on a fashion shoe here we go someone is touching your face and touching your hair you become somewhat conversationally intimate with that person almost instantly and when I met him he was still mr. fabulous I mean he had a head on his black cashmere and he was drinking his martini and living on top of the world and at the time I didn't realize that he was on the beginning of the slide downward as a hairdresser makeup artist for a lot of celebrities and fashion magazines and you know at one time I was pulling in $3,000 a day that was my rate for me being in the studio but that kind of all fell apart you know I began to overdose a lot on photoshoots and once you start overdosing you cross the line and when you cross that line you become an insurance risk and suddenly I was more or less blackballed in the business did you know who you were did you have any kind of sense of who you are even when I was at the height of this amazing career I always felt like I didn't really belong I always felt like empty and lonely and just like out of place it was through relationship through time and through listening to some of the details of his life and then through kind of seeing him sliding downward that I knew this is this is someone I have to share the gospel with I was willing to let go of my family and my friends and my career and everything that I knew everything that I knew that was my life I was really but I wasn't willing to let go of the drugs I was just praying I was petitioning God specifically for Danny's salvation knowing that everything else that was wrong would straighten out so that was that was the the sole focus of my of my prayer for him I just thought she was crazy to be honest I thought she was like a religious fanatic if that was my impression she oh she's a beautiful girl she's really sweet which is a religious fanatic by the time our lives had become intertwined he was losing weight at a very fast clip he was no longer wearing cashmere I had the sense of wow if he doesn't find God he's gonna die he's gonna die drug had just taken me through a point where I one day uh my whole world had collapsed and I took a garbage can and I pulled it between my legs and I began to cut up anything that had my name on it I cut it up and I walked out of a 5,000 square foot law and pulled the door behind me and I I just never went back and I began to live in the street but why did you why did you cut up your card why did you enjoy your identity I think I just didn't want I knew that I would die on the street and I didn't want to be recognized I didn't want my family to be called that I mean I was resigned to the fact that I was gonna die on the street and that was it did you do drugs out here oh yeah sure just sit around here and you're so funny in the mornings you'd see just all syringes around here I had an agent that I used to call from the streets every couple of days collect from pay phones and every once in a while she would say just go wander this model from Ford's been calling you know she wants you to call her so I would call longer because I knew I could make a few dollars I didn't know that you could go out and do heroin for $20 I said if you'll come to church I'll give you the $20 there because I'll meet you there at the church to give you the money and somehow I would make him come in and you know then he would hear the gospel and then I'd give him his money and he'd go on his way I just simply remember this her saying Camino gaining the daily calling in the Lord he's gonna set you free and I said well you know what that'll never happen cuz I will never call on the name of the Lord she said well I just want you to remember that you know when you're really backed up against the wall when you call him an authority to set you free I had gone from this kind of celebrated you know person to this crazy man living on the streets and you know talking to themselves laughing cursing like an animal living on the street you know where one voice just started spewing filthy language in my head just filthy words like unconnected disjointed filthy words while the other voice was accusing and then another voice had joined in that was just laughing and laughing and laughing I was starving to death I had gotten down to a hundred and eight pounds I had hepatitis A hepatitis B hepatitis C all at the same time I got off the train I remember that and I remember kind of stumbling to this hospital that I saw when I woke up I was in a hospital bed and I was laying like in my own vomit and all the voices were screaming in my head but there was just one moment where I heard like a sweet voice that said the day you call it a name the Lord is going to set you free and then right behind that all the voices kept screaming in my head and then again I heard that the day you call the name Lord is gonna set you free and that's when I began to just cry out to God and you know just I didn't know how to pray I know really what I was saying I was just saying you know genes have helped me saving yet you're my only hope but I have no other hope you know and that's the moment that I'll never forget because it was like at that moment that the Spirit of the Living God just swept into that hospital room at that moment all the voices in my head stopped and like all the fears and all the phobias just dropped away from me and I knew that I was in the presence of God and you that the Spirit of God was in the room healing me and changing me I went directly from that hospital up into a Christian rehab and and I just began to devour God's Word you know it was like I was like a hungry man just feasting on the Word of God the first chance that I got I wrote wand of that letter and I told her kind of everything I opened this letter and it's from Danny and he began to tell me about how he had become a Christian I came and I stayed with her and and her husband in their apartment and we went to Brooklyn Tabernacle house our symbol I said something from the pulpit I was like sitting in the second row and said you know you want to hear a great miracle he goes you think Park got parting the Red Sea was a big miracle well Danny Velasco got saved in the city right there in the place went nuts they all knew me as this hundred new town drug addict you know that was living on the street and they had all been praying for me I'll be sitting in Brooklyn Tabernacle and I look up and I see him sitting in the car and it just it breaks me all over again it just breaks me I know that God is real and he's surgery and that he was as close as the mention of his name and whoever calls on the name of the Lord woman so amen whoever calls on the name of the Lord let's put our hands together in that amazing come on let's thank God for Danny Velasco we praise you Lord he was as close as the mention of his name whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved you know al I've found that a lot of people who are serious about God have faith in the Holy Spirit but what they're lacking and what we struggle with is faith for the Holy Spirit faith in the Holy Spirit and his work is different than faith for the Holy Spirit and we live in a day now where somebody's got to get a hold of God and somebody's got to hold up a different paradigm or a different model of how to do church because just since I was here two years ago I can't tell you all the stuff I've heard and seen as I've traveled around the country and around the world of the declension of real Christianity in churches today it's astounding how many know what I'm talking about say Amen I mean it's scary it's not I'm not trying to be melodramatic this is this is heavy-duty stuff even groups and churches and denominations that have just given lip service to the Holy Spirit for decades or even a century you know just know know openness to the Holy Spirit no belief in what he can do and if samuel chadwick the great methodist preacher said christianity is hopeless without the Holy Ghost it's hopeless you can bang the Bible all you want and get people to look inside and be introspective without the wind of the Holy Spirit the whole thing comes - nothing comes - absolutely nothing but self effort and depression and but forget though those groups of people now people at least thump the Bible and preach the Bible destroying over the Bible now overboard like nothing you cannot believe now in Baptist churches Pentecostal churches Nazarene Church all kinds of churches they're not even preaching the Word of God anymore not even using the Bible as a reference are you living the same country as I am do you know what I'm talking about and these are becoming the models has all the spiritual weight of popcorn as just nothing to it and it's becoming the craze I talked with my friend Warren where's be who a lot of you know of or know him he and I talk every week or a couple times a week and I thank God he prays for me every single morning as a picture Carol and I and our family and extended family my children and grandchildren and we talk in one day he just about broke down he broke down on the phone and he's not an emotional man but he broke down and said I'm struggling brother because this place where he was at with his wife he said their entire into antinomianism there's nothing wrong God's grace is so great that nothing's wrong nothing's wrong because God understand you're going through something you're sleeping with somebody or you're you're messing around with this or whatever don't worry what's a little pornography God understands you know that nobody's perfect I mean it's really weird do I get any witness hear from you do you do is this what you're also sensing I mean I talked on the phone to some friends they have like brother weirds me and Dave Wilkerson some other friends Tony Evans and some other guys and we were just talking to going wow Ravi Zacharias was just at our church two Sundays on Palm Sunday was there and spoke and we were chatting before the meeting and and and we were alarming each other things he saw and had heard and seen I had not and things I was experienced he said no that's not true I mean by the way isn't he a wonderful gift to the body of Christ Ravi Zacharias he was so good he preached on on the love of God from Hosea I never saw him get so emotional the Spirit of God was on him he preached the Prophet who married a prostitute sometimes though he gets so deep I mean I have no idea what he's saying I mean one time I was in moody church and I heard him speak I lost them for at least 10 minutes I just kept going Amen it sounds good to me I've no idea what you're saying but praise God I mean wow so brilliant oh my goodness what I'd like to do talk about talking faith in and for the Holy Spirit is do nothing more than not do an exhaustive study but read a whole bunch of verses in the book of Acts about the Holy Spirit and and could could we ask God to help us to clear our minds of our biases these you know what I've learned look at me for a second we'll start reading in acts 2 in just a second here's what I've learned you know with the first thing God said to Abraham on this walk of faith the first thing he ever spoke to Abraham the first words was leave your home leave your home leave what you're used to and step out I have something better for you you don't know where you're going that's okay I know where you're going that was the first thing and I have found spiritually God's been applying that to my life and I see that as such a hindrance for people they want God to do something but they're not leaving what they grew up in you know God knew do a new thing but I ain't changing I'm not changing one of my views I'm born and reared this way praise God I'm gonna die this way I mean who would in sports in anything in science who thinks that way as Finney said who would who would 10 years after starting school still be going over ABC and it's so hard for us to read the Bible without the lenses of over what we're already committed to so God can't break in and show us anything new because oh we don't believe that well what do we do matter what you believe or I believe don't we want to know God's truth is there something better than we're experiencing must God have something better do we only have to talk about what happened 100 years ago or 200 years ago I mean can we show somebody something better than just stories about what used to be aren't people really longing for where's the beef I talked to a minister not long ago of a well-known church in Texas and he said to me this remark and I don't totally agree with him but I saw his point he said you know a lot of these revival people in these holiness people you know what I don't get about them how come if they're so close to God they don't produce more converts where's the fruit they look down at everyone else and say you're not praying you're not digging you're not searching so where's your beef where's your fruit Jesus said you'll know a tree by its fruit not by his doctrinal statement by its fruit he had a point that's why I'm driven back again and again the book of Acts into the epistles like Alexander White said he never like to be more than a couple feet away from his New Testament I like to keep that New Testament have a way miss New Testament I put in leather that I blesses me so much keep it with me just reading trying to catch the aroma and the rhythm of how it was in the beginning not how what you grew up in or when I grew up in listen I grew up in a church that preached Jesus but they wouldn't want a black person within a hundred yards of the church this were my ethnic ancestors and aunts and uncles your Eastern European polish Ukrainian that's what I am so what am I supposed to do follow the tradition of my elders be a bigot and a racist the rest of my life talk about God and the Holy Ghost but just don't like people a lot of people are like that they're talking about God and they walk with God they just have no use for people they're always getting alone with God listen you can't love the head without loving the body this is how you know people who are really love God and are close to God they have they weep over God's people they want to be with God so if they weep over the daddy velasco's because they see people the way Jesus sees them well listen I'm here to encourage you and encourage myself I've ever preached this before it's not really a sermon I just thought we could look at some verses together and see what do we learn about the Holy Spirit but take off your glasses take off your glasses of what you're used to and what I'm used to and I don't want to be controversial that's the last thing I want to be I want to stay on a controversial subject subject but I want to talk about things that I think we all can affirm and agree on because I know at this conference we have different denominations and different doctrinal emphases but let's talk about the person the beautiful person of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit Oh God what would I Carol do without the Holy Spirit I never went to seminary or Bible School where God put me oh my goodness and there's so many problems and without the faith in the power of the Holy Spirit what would I do I wouldn't go to church this Sunday because only God could help me only God could help me but I'm glad where I am because I can't depend on anything else it's God or bust it's not in the culture where I am go to church maybe where you live it's in the culture to go to church some where you live some of you live in a place where you know it's hard to know who's just going and who's a real born-again Christian in the inner city that's not so much so you don't need a scorecard there to tell the Christians it's not in the culture they want entertainment they go to Broadway why would you go to some silly Church acts 2 verse 1 x1 let's go to acts 1 start at the beginning so when they met together they asked him the risen Lord Lord where are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel he said to them it's not for you to know the times or dates the father has set by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and to the ends of the earth after he said this by the way he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid them from their sight acts 2 verse 1 when the day of Pentecost that feast came they were all together in one place suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting they weren't kneeling or standing they were sitting they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them acts 2 verse 38 Peter replied repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off for all whom the Lord our God will call what we notice here in these passages a couple of things I just want to touch on we know from acts 1 there were 120 at least in acts 1 and it seems like all of them and maybe more were there in acts 2 including Jesus's mother Mary and the beginning point was to be filled with the Holy Spirit God's intention for the Christian religion was that the vessel would be cleaned by the blood of Jesus so that the vessel would be made ready to be filled not touched not a trickle rivers fill they were all filled with the Holy Spirit now since the Holy Spirit is not a gas or a vapor or or a liquid or a solid but it's a person that means it would seem a totality of control by the holy spirit which in this case sends him into an ecstasy where they began to speak in ecstatic tongues of languages they didn't know but the smear gave them the ability to speak only foreigners who happened to be there for the feast understood that they were praising God and speaking of the great things he had done when they heard them speak notice this was the beginning this was the essential God had given them a commission God had given them a mission going to all the world but you cannot do it without the power of the Holy Spirit they were the only people with the message that could save people but he told them do not go Terry so how important is the filling of the Holy Spirit that they were the only people who had the message people were dying all over Jerusalem and his Samaria and in Galilee Judea Samaria Galilee they were dying and he said still don't go you're the only ones you know I'm alive you're the only ones with the message don't go because what you're going to encounter satanic strongholds opposition the wisdom that you're going to need to do this the power the bonus you do not have although you're cleansed and believe in me and you see me now risen you need something else you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you without that they couldn't do the job and brothers and sisters if anything is true this is true nothing has changed to this day we cannot do it with computers we cannot do it with talent we can't do it with cleverness and productions and relating and all those other things we need wisdom in all our communication but we need whatever this anointing and power is of the Holy Spirit we need it and a lot of you already might be pausing and say Oh where's he going because the so-called charismatic movement has had so many excesses and so many weird things people barking crow falling screaming yelling disrupting meetings doing all kinds of bizarre things that many people who are serious about God have withdrawn and said if that's the Holy Spirit I pass and that's just what the devil planned for you to do you throw out the baby with the bathwater so you go around America I have four years now and you see that pendulum it's funny but it's not funny churches are either cemeteries or insane asylums there are many exceptions to that I don't want to generalize but you know exactly what I'm talking about either north of the neck intellectualism glorying in I have super orthodoxy nobody else does we're the only ones who have it right or on the other side forget the Bible throw it out we're just going to race around the building and and and and have church praise God whatever and either one of those is a trap it's Satan's way of getting us to not focus on the one that we desperately need I will send you another comforter you cannot do that work I don't care what seminary you go to went to none of the original 12 went to any seminary they were fishing and that was the point and I want to just press that upon you isn't it amazing these people who were filled with the Holy Spirit one of them a few weeks earlier had cursed and denied he knew the Lord and now he was filled with the Holy Spirit which of us in our churches with that track record would have him preach with our sense of decency and a reputation who would have Peter preached oh yes here's Peter he's coming to preach us recently he cursed in tonight he knew the Lord and let's give him a hand as he comes up here to to speak I mean oh I'm so glad God it's not like God how many say amen I'm so glad God is a God of grace and this is the point about faith not just in but for the Holy Spirit they were all filled and they were a motley crew because after three years of living with and how important is the holy spirit what in the world did Jesus produce after three years of living with them with perfect teaching not much because when he got arrested none of them hung around and on the way to Jerusalem they were arguing all of them who was the greatest he could not get it through to them that's the limitation of preaching and teaching preaching and teaching can never do what God the Holy Spirit can do the best we can do is point people to God so they have their own encounter with God if all I do is talk and you take notes and you go home just Moorhead knowledge unless you we meet God here tonight in some new way through the Holy Spirit we're going to go back and be the same old same old in our church and I don't want to do that I want to be a better pastor I want to be a better husband God knows I want to be a better grandfather I want to be a better man of God pastor how many want to be better by the power of the Holy Spirit wave your hand at me come on better better we can be better the Holy Spirit baptism was not the conclusion it was the beginning it was the beginning they were filled with this promise this gift this overflowing of this stream and that was was to bless others you know in John 4 II he talked about if you knew it who was talking to you Samaritan lady you would ask for this water and you would drink it but in John 7 he's talking about a river if anybody third notice the qualifications if anybody first let him come to me anyone thirst that's all oh no there's got to be 20 other conditions we'll get to that in a second if anyone thirsts let them just come to me but am I ready am i really sold out am I totally consecrated have I really searched my heart if anyone first let them come to me while you're going through that for 20 years a lot of people are dying and going to hell who need your ministry and they were all filled very quickly obviously don't want to be controversial again but let's state the obviously obvious not all Christians and not all churches are spirit filled churches that is obvious threes quick proofs from the Bible I'll give you number one one of the qualifications of the seven was choose out men for you the Apostle said that are full of the holy spirit and wisdom if every Christian was full of the Holy Spirit how could that be a qualification for position of leadership that would be like choose out a Christian among the Christians no it's known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom not everyone was second proof Ephesians 5:28 is in it don't be drunk with wine but continuous present-tense be being filled with the Holy Spirit if everyone is always filled with the Holy Spirit why would Paul tell the church in Ephesus don't be filled with wine wherein is excess debauchery but be being filled keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit that's for us how are we going to help others who are lukewarm and cold if we're not where we need to be remember if you preach from your head you only reach their head if you preach from su cortisone your heart fill with the Holy Spirit you can reach their heart third proof church at Laodicea one of the seven churches Jesus was walking among Christian Church no doubt you neither hot nor cold but you're lukewarm I'm and a vomit you out of my mouth if that church was spirit filled and Jesus was going to vomit it out of his mouth then words don't mean anything I wonder how many churches in this country our Spirit ville how many pastors our spirit ville controlled and fill filled and led and anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit I'm not talking about fanaticism I hope you can look at me and hear my words and understand what Carol and I have been doing for more than thirty years that I'm not a nut I'm not for running and jumping and carrying on let everything be done to edification but yes let everything be done decently in order but not the decency in order of a cemetery the decency in order of the holy spirit breathing moving so all you pastors that are here we can go back and we can lead people into spirit Filner's that will be the judgment on me when Carol and I stand at the judgment seat of Christ not what you thought of me not what my peers thought of me some years ago I won the book a year award what am I gonna do when Jesus comes hold up my plaque for book of the year he wrote the Bible what am I gonna do hold up my you know a book of the year fresh wind fresh fire you know oh please so what we I will be judged by is did I lead the church in the way that the New Testament talks about not Evan Roberts not fini not Jonathan Edwards the New Testament and where those men can help encourage me and and it show me as instruments how these things worked out in their lives I've been I have been blessed listen when I was just in the ministry a couple years I was bothering mr. Roberts here and had his store in Chicago and spent too much money there filling my bookshelves with books that have blessed my life I thank God for my friend now I want you to also notice that wide open promise anyone believe on the Lord just be baptized believe it would be baptized repent be baptized and you'll receive the same gift we have no big thing it's the beginning it's the start of the Christian life it's not a sign of maturity the church at Corinth was filled with the Holy Spirit it wasn't mature it was carnal they had all the gifts of the Holy Spirit but they were arguing one says I'm appalled Cephas Apollo's Baptists Presbyterians no we're Assembly of God know where this are you not carnal you're thinking like men not because they didn't have a all of the holy spirit but the Holy Spirit is just the beginning I wonder if Paul and Peter and James and John if they were come to earth today and walk among our churches in America what would they say they might possibly say what are you doing where did you get the mandate to do what you're doing oh but very this is what we learn no we're not supposed to learn from men were supposed to learn from God let's go quickly so that I don't go over my time and they don't get upset with me here x4 verse 31 we can learn something there another reference after they prayed this is after Peter and John were let loose by the Sanhedrin and threatened not anymore to preach in the name of Jesus they went back to a prayer meeting they all lifted their voice up 24 verse 24 when they heard this their report they raised their voices together in prayer to God sounds kind of noisy and nice doesn't it they all raise their voices together to God in prayer oh we don't pray that way well what again how you're what you're used to I'm used to is irrelevant it's it seems like this is the way the Holy Spirit was helping people to pray back then but look at verse 31 after they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled wait a minute they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly notice they had a baptism in acts 2 but they had repeated fillings it seems the place where they were was shaken and they were all filled no mention of them speaking in tongues but the a manifestation that came about from this fresh filling was they spoke the Word of God boldly I have learned that without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit I am a coward I will not speak what God wants me to I will begin to fear the face of man and I'll cave in to certain pressures I need the power of the Holy Spirit and because of the lack of the Holy Spirit that's one that's the Genesis one of the genesis of this entire user-friendly seeker sense of foolishness it's because instead of declaring the truth under the anointing of the Holy Spirit you trying to find out what do you want to hear I'll tell you what what do you want to hear you want to hear mention of sin okay I will mention sin it's like this radial evangelist who promised his his audience merchants promised as long as we're in this building and I'm preaching to just remember you'll never hear a message on hell as long as I'm alive that was his promise and if you don't believe in the power of the Holy Spirit you will not have the boldness to proclaim the truth but notice not just power with love when Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost it wasn't just a bull in a china shop it wasn't harsh it was powerful authoritative but tender they were pricked in their hearts but if you don't believe in that power you would never say it Peter did in this first sermon I believe in acts to you through the hands of evil men have crucified the King of glory I mean talk about not user-friendly not seeker-sensitive how would you tell an audience by the way you kill the Messiah just want to inform you of that that makes no psychological sense but it makes godly sense if you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit if you don't you then get logical and you get clever and the church is dying for cleverness it's dying from cleverness you know dr. Roberts I read in a book that I bought from you oh I don't know 20-some years ago on one of those yells leal lectures on preaching I can't think of the person it was but I wrote it in the Flyleaf of my Bible because it had such an impression on me I think it was AJ gossip who said you can't be clever and have Jesus wonderful at the same time you can be clever but Jesus won't be wonderful if you want Jesus wonderful you better not be clever there's no superstars in Christianity except for Jesus as James says we all stumble in many ways now let's just look in acts 8 and learn one or two more things about the holy spirit we're saying that although they were baptized in chapter 2 the same group of people need to be have a fresh filling now Acts 8 verse 14 when the abyss is the this is the samaritan revival under a former deacon or one of the original seven philip and when the Apostles in Jerusalem verse 14 heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God they sent Peter and John to them and when they arrived they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them they had simply been baptized into or in the name of the Lord Jesus then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit when Simon formerly Simon the sorcerer saw that the spirit that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the Apostles hands he offered them money and said give me also disability notice not to have the Holy Spirit so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit Peter answered as you know may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money what gift was that wasn't the gift of the Holy Spirit it was the gift of being able to lay hands on people and they received the Holy Spirit now not to get into controversy again but we can summarize it we all agree on this Philip went and preached in Samaria there was a great revival he did signs and wonders through the power of the Holy Spirit multitudes repented including Simon the sorcerer I don't think Philip was so obtuse that he would baptize non-believers they were believers which means the Spirit of Christ dwelt in them If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his but having the Spirit of Christ in us and being filled with the Holy Spirit as we've already established here must be two different things the church at Laodicea was a Christian Church that means they had the Spirit of Christ within them the Holy Spirit where they spirit fill they could not be and be lukewarm could not be well now these people believed became Christians were baptized it seems but something wasn't happening the way they thought Christianity worked the early church because they said no it's not just believe and be a new creation and believe and be cleansed it's be baptized and be filled with the Holy Spirit and Philip for whatever reason could not take them there so Peter and John were sent for and they came down really not down but up north into Samaria and through them now we see through the laying on of hands they had some ability doesn't say that they gave him 30 days of teaching 17 steps to receive the Holy Spirit 14 things you have to let go of because before God will fill you I do not see that in the text I see they laid hands on them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit they must have had some physical manifestation I only say that because when Simon the sorcerer saw that through the laying on of hands they were all filled with the Holy Spirit he said hey I'll give you some money let me give you some money I want to buy that a gift I want to be able to lay hands on people so they would receive the Holy Spirit be filled with the Holy Spirit and then Peter rebuked him for his heart wasn't right didn't say he wasn't a Christian although probably opinions differ on that whether he had slipped by even though he had been baptized but certainly his heart was wrong but now we learn that through the laying on of hands and praying for people the Holy Spirit baptism fullness came upon people in the Bible in the Bible that's what happened and there's no verse anywhere that I know of in the New Testament if there's one you can tell me about it later that we cannot expect to lay hands on people today and see them fill with the Holy Spirit and live on a new dimension of living live in a new overcoming way with a new anointing of power to do God's assignment in offer their life that's what happened at Samaria that's put in the Bible for our learning and our encouragement and our endurance that we get from the Scriptures note these were brand new converts they had just gotten saved and they got the same exact gift that Peter and James and John who had walked for three years with Jesus but now let me close by asking you to turn to acts 9 let's just stop in to other places acts 9 the conversion of Saul of Tarsus verse 17 you all know how he got saved on the road to Damascus you know he's blind he can't now contact anybody see anybody I should say he's three days like that then the Lord goes to Ananias a disciple and tells him to go to Saul of Tarsus and lay his hands on him verse 17 then Ananias went to the house and entered it placing his hands on Saul he said brother Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit in other words let's begin at the beginning Saul he's got his hand on your life you got to do a lot of work for him and by the way I found out you're gonna have to suffer a lot too and to do all of that let's start at the beginning you believe now obviously you've seen him you've been three days by yourself blinded now he has sent me here to do two things that you might see so you can go on with your life and number two it doesn't mention how it happened but we assume it's inferred it happened because he was sent there by the Lord to do it now be filled with the Holy Spirit and now the Apostles are not laying hands on people now a humble disciples laying hands on the greatest of all the future apostles and he's filled with the Holy Spirit no manifestations mentioned nothing is mentioned about it but we know that Paul was full of the Holy Spirit of anyone in the Bible was so now we learn that God uses strange people in strange ways Peter and John I could understand what ananias doing going over there laying hands on a famous soon-to-be famous Christian because the wind blows wherever it wants and you can't put God in a box lastly X 9 X 10 you know how the gospel came to the Gentiles through Peter that's so odd because Peter was the apostle to the Jews Paul was to the Gentiles but when God is always up to things isn't he's always switching things around when he wants we like to be neat and in order and he's saying yeah you're the apostle to the Jews but you bring the gospel first to the Gentiles and in chapter 10 verse 44 Peter is now preaching we know the beginning of the message while Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message by the way look up here for a second who was the all uh I want to look up here for a second everyone please they all happens to be Cornelius his relatives and his close friends if you look at the beginning of chapter 10 he was the one who had given arms and prayed he was the one whom the angel was sent to he is the one that Peter was sent to bring the message of salvation when Peter walked in the house Cornelius was not a Christian we know that by the way that is a very good message I found to bring or a good point to bring before a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon especially a Joel the witness when Cornelius his house was entered by Peter he was not a believer because he said the angel told me send this man is going to come to show you the way of salvation so whatever the true gospel is it must be in Peters sermon because while he yet spake they were all filled with the Holy Spirit so whatever you need to know about Jesus has to be in Peters sermon to convert you was in a seven-month process was in 34 points while he yet spake these words look at verse 44 while Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message the circumcised believers the Jewish people with Peter who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God then Peter said can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water they have to receive the Holy Spirit just as we have is that amazing why are you all so quiet so different than our formulas soldier friends and family members who didn't have a clue were herded in to Cornelius's house he his heart was searching after God Peter's preaching the gospel and while he was still speaking they received everyone received the same gift that the Apostles got in acts 2 so how how how awesomely anxious is God to fill people with his Holy Spirit that's my point all of them were filled Peter said when they questioned them in the next chapter what are you baptizing Gentiles for he says wouldn't you baptize Gentiles Gentiles if they received the same gift that we had in acts 2 God gave the proof that they were in the body of Christ we saw them we we saw it wasn't bitten nobody didn't say I think I received something by faith we saw it we experienced it is there that kind of expectancy hardly anywhere in the body of Christ today heavenly buffaloed God into a corner don't we have our preconceived ideas how quote revival ie the Holy Spirit comes when we beseech this too suspicious I know some people who say what you just walked in his building you weren't even a believer and while he's not half way through his sermon you're speaking in tongues and now he's going to does you has God done said necessary heart work have you wereyou properly prepared how long did you mourn over your sins no that's what we've learned that's not what's in the Bible is there mourning for sin look the last thing I want to talk to you but tonight is to be shallow about how people live the last thing I want to convey to you tonight here as I close is it doesn't matter how you live you don't have to confess your sins yes you have to confess your sin but I know people who have been confessing and digging for 20 years instead of looking away to Jesus they're always looking in and you're not going to see anything in there I mean look in for a while and get the work done but please let's get on with it looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith how am I going to look at Jesus if I'm always searching my heart that's very depressing and one time read a book on the deeper life I wanted to take my life by the tenth chapter I mean what are you going to look in and see your flesh I know what gym symbol it is he's a scoundrel once a scoundrel is a scoundrel I've never changed apart from God I will always be a good-for-nothing but through Christ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me come on can I put her can we put our hands together so what are you looking in there for are you ever going to look to a point brother if you'd come to the piano are you going to look for a point where you won't see your flesh in there where you won't be tempted I mean what are you looking for I was just so disappointed by a book that I got from I don't know where I got it but it wasn't it was from you know where I got it they had a big bargain sale before they closed up over in Grand Rapids at cradles and it was a book it the introduction was written dr. Roberts by our Andrew Murray and it was on the Holy Spirit and it was so many good thoughts in it but then after chapter 4 I just wanted to pull my hair out again the same old stuff and now 11 things you got to do to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit and all in the Bible but out of context with the verses I just read because I read to you just now the way it really happened how many would agree we just read through a lot of the New Testament book of Acts how many say amen to that didn't we and we read an account here of how the Holy Spirit was poured out maybe we're not ready for it maybe our traditions are overpowering what the Word of God says that could very well be true maybe some of us want to be more Baptist or Evan Jellicle or whatever then we do want to be New Testament Christians we God has dealt with me about that why read the book if you're not going to be open I got to pray every time I open it God please help me because I'm prejudiced I got leanings and me and many of them are wrong so God take the gauze off my eyes so I can see so there comes the chapter and all these things you have to do and my question again is to people is this that that just this is why there's such death around that kind of teaching it sounds pseudo spiritual it sounds probing and searching and righteous but it's death I'll tell you why how can you have sanctification without the Holy Spirit in other words it's get holy without the Holy Spirit so that you can get the Holy Spirit oh wait a minute yeah you got to stop that do that don't do that let go of that do that well how am I gonna do that without the Holy Spirit no you have to do that before because you qualify where would that be I thought it was a gift how deep probing the Cornelius's soldier friends while Peter spoke and they just came in the house they never knew anything about anything and they were filled with the Holy Spirit think of the power of faith Danny Velasco didn't even know what he was saying when he said oh Jesus help me did you know you should have him one day he can he's a great speaker you can tell can't you that he's eloquent he can give us testimony in 20 minutes or 1/2 hour 40 minutes because he was years out in the street after being the youngest hairdresser a makeup artist at Bergdorf Goodman's on 57th Street near Fifth Avenue big-time he was the youngest in their history went to France got a got real famous and France that's what earn him the $3,000 a day rate but in France he also picked up a heroin addiction in France he had to deliver it to the the shooting set or or his hotel but in New York when he came back into Soho 5000 square foot loft in Soho you don't get drugs delivered in New York you don't get heroin delivered anywhere you got to go hustle you got to go down Lower East Side Alphabet City East 2nd between B and C we have a church there that we helped start that I oversee more drugs passes hands there per square foot than anyplace else in the world until recently now is getting yuppified and and condos are going up but it was back in that day that was the place you went did you know he knew so little and he was laying in his vomit in that hospital room he knew so little about God and praying that he used Wanda as his reference to Jesus he said Jesus Wanda told me if I called on you you would help me and guess what and guess what God heard him because God wants to save people more than you and I could ever dream and God wants to fill us more with the Holy Spirit so instead of all this thing which I went through four years pickings at scabs and going through and looking in and always looking in and there's a time to look in I'm not talking about being shallow please because that is a dilemma that we have but after you do the best you can by God's grace to repent and say God I don't want to live in any sin convict me of any known sin and things I don't see show it to me open my heart and all that but I mean after that the change doesn't come by searching the change comes by a good rainstorm coming inside you ever see how the streets get clean after there's a huge burst of rain I was once in Manila years ago and it was poor poor the streets were filthy was in the some hot filthy streets where I was living I was in a bad neighborhood and just filthy streets and as a rainstorm came like I had never seen rain like that it was it was it amazed me I stood back I had never seen rain come down torrential II like that when it was over those streets look like spotless almost because the water came and just got all the garbage out we're trying to get the garbage out for the Holy Spirit but there's a lot of stuff only the Holy Spirit's going to get rid of if you look in about what where you're not what Jesus wants you to be you'll be looking forever and James who was no slouch in the spiritual walk said when he wrote the book of James we all stumble we teachers in many ways we all stumble how many are not a finished product God still working on your life all right so we're not going to be light about it and and be cavalier about our sins I'm not talking about that do you understand me do you hear me say Amen if you hear me but what I'm talking about is are we going to believe the promise of the holy spirit or we're going to just operate with self effort and sincerity I told you that I told you that the church is dying for cleverness by cleverness but I'll say something else what else will kill you issues you think sincerity is the answer oh do you have to be sincere oh yeah sincere when you're preaching if you're sincere in my judgment and eighty percent of the battles won if you're sincere because God can never use an actor if you affect any voice anything if you affect trying to be spiritual quiet or boisterous loud praise God I'm I throw this microphone at somebody praise God and anything that you affect out of your personality trying to be spiritual in any way the Holy Spirit is just drew withdraws because he never blesses an actor even if you spiritually acted but sincerity alone will won't cut it I know all kinds of people in New York City who are sincere they haven't baptized ten people in three years with all those sinners all over there and with the precious gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of God into salvation come on brothers and sisters doesn't something tell you inside God wants us to to move us to a whole different plane come on for how many one how many want to see more fruit in your church so that you get tired your back gets tired baptizing people come on come on come on how many want to see prayer meetings where there's you know what an encouragement that is to me I left a per meeting last night I was telling them what a permanent 2,000 people in an auditorium listen wait listen calling on God and I stopped praying myself for one moment and I heard that sound and I told I've told God many times God I'd rather be here than anyplace in the world I don't want to meet President Bush I don't want to see the Queen of England I don't want to go anywhere it that there's a sound when people are praying and you sense God's presence why can't that happen in your church in my church in a greater way do you think God doesn't want it well am i sincere listen if you're here you're sincere you paid all this money to come to this conference to what live in sin are you out of your minds come on come on do I get a witness I mean there might be some hypocrites here but I don't I I feel such a good spirit among you we want the Lord but are we gonna believe not only in the holy spirit are we gonna believe him for the Holy Spirit for without faith it's impossible to please God this is where sincerity breaks down without faith it's impossible to believe God the first rule of spiritual life Jesus said is according to your faith so be it unto you little faith little God but I'm sincere fine you're sincere but you have little faith great faith great manifestation of God this rule this law is so strong that Jesus himself couldn't do many miracles in his own hometown of Nazareth because of their unbelief the demons weren't too difficult the sicknesses weren't too complex but because there was unbelief and no expectancy his hands were tied and he was the son of God and that's why if you're always God's going to do it someday someday hey listen thirty years can go by and that someday hasn't come yet we got to start believing do I believe that we need to see an outpouring for the opening of the heavens that God will come down yes but too many people are dying for me to wait for that I gotta have revival right now in Brooklyn Tabernacle you gotta have revival right now in your church if not whose fault is it whose sure whose fault is it it's not God's fault don't tell me God doesn't want to help Carol and I do not tell me that yeah but pastor Jim you're not what you should be I know I'm not but I'm all God has there I'm not trying to be funny I'm being serious I see so many sincere people going nowhere because they're always waiting to be ready but tell me brothers and sisters please tell me when will you be ready when will you earn the Holy Spirit just tell me what you have to do to earn the Holy Spirit if Cornelius's whole house got fill halfway through a sermon what will you have to wear at what level and don't you know the devil will use that many people who think they're being convicted by the Holy Spirit I met one today they're not being convicted by the Holy Spirit the devil is accusing them as long as he can keep me looking in you're not ready your dinner of course he'll say that to me doesn't he come as an angel of light some of you are not believing what I'm saying but I'm preaching the truth that God is my witness he wants to change us and he wants to change us tonight because I'm a Christian the blood has never lost this power how many do not want to live in sin you want to be like Jesus come on wait well good does God see that or not close your eyes with me every pastor that's here get up out of your seat and come up here in the front let's pray together pastors don't kneel stand come up here in the front I need the oh I need a brother play come on every pastor come up here as close as you can to the front so we can get close to each other no go down one step here so we'll go down one more step here so I can lean over you that way but but come behind them here come on oh it's good for men to pray together let's pray just for a moment God if I have said any sentence that would twist the truth about you forgive me Lord but God we are hungry we are thirsty Lord not for little drips and drops and little quiet moments with you we want rivers we want all those good things we want to do upon the grass we want all those moments but God I need rivers of living water in downtown Brooklyn lord I need rivers I need rivers flowing out of me when I preach I need Authority and power and yet I need tenderness God so that I can weep over people and see them the way you see them I cannot do that God only you can do that for me Lord I need wisdom we all need all of us pastors Lord we need wisdom teach us how to preach teach us how to pray we don't even know how to pray the Holy Spirit has to help us with groans too deep to be uttered save us from saying prayers in church and not praying God many times I have said prayers I haven't prayed because I was self-conscious I ask you to forgive me of that I want to pray like I would in my room alone with you even though people are listening save us from preaching sermons while we pray clauses to just call upon you and get desperate but God one thing I know if you feel filled Cornelius's house with the same Holy Spirit that Peter received then I know I am a candidate Lord for something more from you and we know we're not what we should be but God we do lay our lives down before you work in us floor to willing to do according to your good pleasure I need the old I [Music] I owe my sake I come to lift your hands with me best [Music] Hey [Music] I mean [Music] me now just a moment we're going to turn this into a prayer room I want everyone to stand other people that haven't come forward wives sing with me everyone they condemn these lights just dim the lights a little bit Hey every I Oh me now he touched me Oh we touch [Music] booyah and [Music] that floods my soul something [Music] he touches me [Music] let's just praise it together before we ask him for anything let's just open our mouths and do what the Bible says old and new testaments let's give them the fruit of our lips out loud let's praise them together we praise you Lord we magnify you we're not embarrassed or self-conscious to praise you Lord for you you

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Id: TjKW59Tu4vw

Length: 74min 35sec (4475 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 28 2009