Gateway Church Live | June 20–21 | Power Connection

[Music] [Music] [Music] hey everyone welcome to Gateway Church and to all our dads out there we'd like to wish you a very happy Father's Day pastor Jimmy has an amazing message planned for us but before we turn our attention to that we're gonna go into a time of worship and we encourage you to engage this time if you can stand because we're gonna worship the Lord together come on let's worship ucky our Lord and Savior today he's worthy now raise a Holland [Music] my [Music] ha [Applause] now hi [Music] my way ability [Music] oh yeah comes to fight for me Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] sing a little louder I'm gonna sing a little louder sing a little you could see little louder pushing a little loud you could see I'm gonna sing a little louder [Music] [Music] [Applause] in the middle [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] today to me [Music] the press me [Music] me [Music] [Music] you sit down [Applause] [Music] it's your MA [Music] [Music] this is how our fine this is our fine this is how [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] surrounded by you he may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by you like [Music] yes sums 32 says where you are my hiding place you protect me from trouble you surround me with songs of victory many of us are facing big challenges you know times he feels like everything that surrounds us is bad it's discouraging but I want to tell you today that as we worship and as we declare the name and the power of Jesus we can stand we can dance we can shout we can sing from a place of victory amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there is no one like our God I was reminded this Father's Day weekend when the disciples asked Jesus teach us how to pray how do we pray and in Matthew 6 Jesus responds with our father in heaven hallowed be your name it's so interesting that Jesus doesn't say pray like this our God he doesn't say our King our Savior our Lord he says our Father I believe that's because father is the most favorite name that God has for himself he loves being a father so much so that he actually wired the world a certain way where parents are supposed to be a mirror image of God to their children earthly fathers and mothers but because sin entered the world that mirrored image became a distorted image and so now many of us we we attribute these characteristics to God that were actually just projecting the flaws of our earthly father or our earthly parents onto him and this father's day I felt like the Lord wanted us to take a moment and ask the Lord to speak in to the beliefs that we have about God that maybe we didn't get from his word we didn't get from his character we actually just projected what our earthly father did and we put it on to him maybe some of you had really overbearing fathers and so you think God is overbearing maybe you had a earthly father who is a workaholic and so you think that God is not interested in the details of your life maybe you had an angry father and so you think God is angry whatever it is we all have earthly parents who are flawed I'm a parent and I'm flawed and we're all gonna very easily take those flaws and project them on to God but I believe on this Father's Day weekend he wants to speak into those deep-seated beliefs and say that's not me so I just want you wherever you are just to close your eyes for a moment and ask the Lord is there anything that I believe about you because of my earthly father my earthly parents that I've projected onto you that's not actually your character do I believe that you're a helicopter God who's always just hovering over me waiting to call out my mistakes that I'm an angry god let's trade those lies that we may projected onto him and receive the truth god I thank you so much that you are a loving father that you love being a father you are a perfect father and even though some of us have had really great earthly fathers that it pales in comparison to our earth refer to our Heavenly Father our perfect father and so we thank you for your love for your compassion that you always care about the details of our life and you want to be the perfect father to us and so we receive you today as the perfect father and we ask you to speak into those lies that we believe that we projected on you and replace it with the truth of who you are in your character in Jesus name Amen amen he's a good good father and I want to take this time to say happy Father's Day to all of our fathers out there pastor Jimmy has another amazing message so before we turn our attention to that I wanted to welcome you to Gateway Church we have a few announcements welcome to Gateway [Music] family happy Father's Day we pray that today is a great day for you let's rejoice in every day the Lord has given us here's some information about what's happening at Gateway Church there are still so many ways that you can connect with your gateway community you can follow us on social media join your campus Facebook group visit Gateway people.com / connect or text connect to 1710 we're always posting encouraging content and we have online classes ways you can help others worship videos and other information available we're so excited to share that we have special online service experiences created just for our kids and students there's cool videos social media Hague's games powerful worship and encouraging words to check out all the options visit gateway people.com / connect we also want you to know that if you need prayer for any reason right now any reason and tech's connect to 1710 we have prayer teams at every campus ready and waiting to pray with you and if you'd like to give today you can do it online at Gateway people.com / giving or on our mobile app we hope that you stay connected with us and let us know if there's anything that you need right now thanks again for joining us you want to be a comic be a comic that video is hilarious it is a piece of junk no video it's got some time with your kids all of us do this kind of like mean that hangout thing if your parents don't have to know I don't even know where I got off track what if you don't deport of I will use this gospel and you ever had before - ever you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was a world moving legacy changing life transforming moment after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing African Americans from slavery in the United States Union soldiers traveled city by city to deliver the news of freedom it took two and a half years before those soldiers reached Galveston Texas the last community of African Americans still enslaved On June 19 1865 slavery was finally abolished and hope for a new nation was set in motion that day the institution of slavery was legally broken and it stands as a day to celebrate but unfortunately many still experienced the iniquity of injustice in the climate of our nation today June 19th our Juneteenth is a day we stop we reflect and we remember the consequences of the sin of slavery still remain in our country we stand with our black brothers and sisters in unity for freedom equality and justice for all we can't end together as one for what God says is good we want justice we love mercy and we walk humbly before God gateway church is committed to breaking down the walls of division and uprooting the stronghold of racial discrimination in our nation we turn our hearts to God in resilient faith for freedom justice and healing to prevail in our nation [Music] [Music] today I'm gonna teach y'all a tire time [Music] right we want to make sure you get the internal temperature into 160 degrees [Music] guess what your turn keep the arrows [Music] today I'm going to teach how to fight where we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world get some mighty powers in this dark world discipleship is the gold standard in the church I don't want to be a Christian I don't want to be a passive noun I want to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and when you're baptized in water you are coming into covenant with Jesus Jesus circumcised 'as your heart and takes away the extra flesh that keeps you from being pure and from hearing his voice and he cleanses your conscience God doesn't want us out by ourselves doing our own thing the wolf loves the lone sheep there they're easy prey God wants us together is a flock ministering to each other and blessing each other everything that God is going to do in your life he's going to do through a relationship connection committed connection nothing else is going to suffice I want to welcome everyone on this special Father's Day weekend happy Father's Day to all the fathers and grandfathers and Karen I have two children our son Brent and Julie our daughter and they're both married and we have five grandchildren our daughter Julie in San Antonio has twin girls that just turned 18 they're staying with us right now and our son Brent they have a daughter 12 a son 8 and a son 6 those are our grandkids right here in South Lake and we have three of the granddaughters staying with us right now it is wonderful being a father it's even better being a grandfather and I'm saying that to encourage all the dads out there to just you know tough it out because it just gets better and better but happy Father's Day such an important important day to remember the special dads and granddad's in our lives I want to say Michael jr. our dear friend here at Gateway hilarious comedian world known for his comedy he has a new movie out called selfie dad and this is available wherever movies are sold iTunes wherever you go to get your movies selfie dad hilarious wonderful a great opportunity to bless that and also to bless the family so we encourage you to get that and before I get into my message today I want to pray one more time we need a healing in our nation both physically and also racially we need a healing and this is Juneteenth weekend the 19th Friday was Juneteenth a very very important day in black history and also in American history and never has it been more important for us to remember that we are all children of God we're all descendants of Adam and Eve and we are all absolutely equal and skin color means nothing as it relates to the intrinsic value of a human life we are different but we are equal and we need to value and cherish our differences and also our equality it is what America should be about and so I want to pray and I want you to join me in this prayer for breaking koga at 19 this horrible disease that is coming against us physically but also racism this horrible disease is infected the human race for thousands and thousands of years and still is doing it today we need to trust in the power and the love and I want to use that word love because only the love of Jesus Christ will ever truly be able to eradicate racism and injustice wherever it exists so I want you to join me in prayer father we come to you and we're trusting you to break the power of covet 19 over the world and over America and over our communities I pray for anyone right now sick and they're struggling physically that you would supernaturally heal them we come together as a body of Christ and we pray that prayer right now specifically against covet 19 protect the elderly the vulnerable the young people the people out on the front lines serving our communities God we pray for them the business people the first responders the people in the medical communities Lord we pray for them supernaturally protect them God and protect us and we pray for healing of our nation physically we pray for healing of the racial divisions in our nation Lord we pray the love of Jesus Christ would sweep across America and sweep across the world Jesus you're the only answer there is not a human solution for this problem and the definition of a miracle is God doing what man cannot and Lord we're praying for a miracle in our nation on this Juneteenth weekend Lord we just pray that you will cause there to be a revival of the love of God that we would see every person the way that you see them that we would see every person regardless of what they look like or of the difference in their ethnicity or the difference in their social economic position or anything else that we would see them is a fellow human being of intrinsic value and of equal value as us Lord we pray in the name of Jesus Christ for racial healing and reconciliation in America in Jesus name Amen we're gonna keep praying for both of those things and praying for God to do a miracle you know I honestly believe this we're at a very difficult place in our nation's history related right now to our economy and coronavirus the racial tensions but you know something it's not such a bad thing when your only answer is Jesus sometimes the greatest things that happen in world history happened when our backs up or against the wall and we have to have Jesus and we cry out to him and the Bible says that he is a very present help in trouble and right now he's our only hope and that's not that's a good thing we need to hope in Jesus and put our faith in Him I want to continue on this series the essential foundations I hope this has been a blessing to you and we're reading from Hebrews 6 this very important text where the writer of Hebrews says therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God of the doctrine of baptisms of laying on of hands the resurrection of the Dead and of eternal judgment in this we will do if God permits so these are the foundations that I've said there are six they're actually seven and I'll explain that here in just a minute but there are foundations of our faith and the writer of Hebrews is saying now when when you become a Christian and you're laying the basic foundations of your faith this is where you begin and you can go on to maturity once these foundations are laid if these foundations aren't laid God will not permit you to go on to maturity because you don't have the basic foundations foundations create safety they protect us against stress they allow God to build the superstructure of our lives upon a solid substructure and I've talked about those things the last couple of weeks so these are essential foundations and I want to talk about another one today and going back there when it talks about the doctrine of baptisms okay so when I talk about there are six foundations of the faith actually the doctrine of baptisms is plural and I talked last message about baptism in water the importance the covenant seal of the New Covenant being baptism in water but there's another baptism it's called baptism in the Holy Spirit it is an absolutely essential foundation of our faith in God and we cannot move forward in spiritual maturity without the baptism of the holy spirit now some of you as I talk about this you're not baptized in the Holy Spirit maybe you've never never even heard about it before some of you are but I want you to listen this message because you may hear some things that you haven't thought about before and just talking about the importance of our dependence on the Holy Spirit so where does baptism in the Holy Spirit come from well as many places in the New Testament let's begin with acts 1 in verse 4 being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait from the for the promise of the father which he said you have heard from me for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now therefore when they had come together they asked him saying Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel and he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has put in his own authority but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth now we're not prepared to be witnesses for Jesus until we've received the baptism in the Holy Spirit these were saved disciples that Jesus was talking to and he told these saved disciples don't go out and begin to try to be witnesses to me until you have first received power when you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and I received the baptism of Holy Spirit about 45 years ago and I'll tell you my story here and just a little bit when Jesus said you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you let me be more specific in John 16 jesus said the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and he will lead you into all truth and he will tell you things to come he will prophetically show you certain things about the future mental power when you don't operate in the power of the Holy Spirit and you haven't been baptized in Holy Spirit you only have human power you don't have supernatural power with your mind but when you've been baptized the Holy Spirit you have supernatural power physical power Romans chapter 8 says if the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he will give life to your mortal body he will give you so a life to your mortal body physical power he induce us with physical power emotional power Galatians chapter 5 the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control he gives us the supernatural emotional power of God to live our lives above the the natural state that we would live in without him and by the way joy think about the discouragement the depression much of what's happening in the world today joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit peace peace look look the world needs peace today that's what proved the Holy Spirit and so as human beings we do not have those things unless they are imparted to us from God spiritual power Jesus said you'll receive power that's Dunamis it means spiritual power in demon from God to know God and to do the works of God and so we cannot serve God without the power of the Holy Spirit and that power begins with the baptism of Holy Spirit so let me talk about four important truths about the Holy Spirit in our lives basic foundations number one the Holy Spirit is God over half of Christians believe that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force but he's not God and that's just as wrong as they can be this is Genesis 1:2 the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters the Holy Spirit shows up in Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God remember this is in Matthew chapter 3 Jesus is being baptized by John in the Jordan River okay he's being baptized by John the Holy Spirit descends on him as a dove and God the Father says this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased okay so there you have the Father Son and Holy Spirit three-in-one Trinity God all they're together in one scene and then in Matthew 28:19 Jesus said going to all the world making disciples the nation's then in verse 19 he says baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is equal and Co eternal with God the Father and God the Son we have to remember when we're praying for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives this is the Spirit of God and He is God number two we are born of the Spirit at the moment of salvation some people say well Jimmy I've done doesn't everyone who save have the Holy Spirit yeah but they're not baptized in the Holy Spirit necessarily let me show you the scripture this is John 3 this is Jesus jesus answered most assuredly I say to you unless one is born of the water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born the Spirit is spirit do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes so is everyone who is born of the Spirit I remember the day that I received Christ as Lord of my life when I was 19 years old and I said Jesus come into my life I'll serve you for the rest of my life and I'll never turn back and when that happened my spirit was regenerated we're all born dead in our spirits because the sin of Adam and Eve we all have spiritual death that we are inherited from Adam and Eve okay so when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts we're born again our spirit is revived okay that is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is salvation this is number three truth being baptized in the Holy Spirit is a separate and subsequent experience to salvation these are two separate events salvation and baptism the Holy Spirit now sometimes like on the day of Pentecost I'll read you another example there are cases where people are born again baptized in the spirit and then water baptized but typically you're born again water baptized and baptized in the spirit okay salvation is about Jesus and eternity baptism the Holy Spirit is about living our lives in this world for Jesus you can be saved and on your way to heaven and powerless to live for Jesus if you have not received the baptism Holy Spirit let me give you Scripture examples of this in the beginning it begins on the day of Pentecost save disciples were commanded by Jesus to stay in Jerusalem until they were in dude with power from on high then they could be his witnesses another example in the New Testament here these are the Sumerians this is Acts chapter 8 listen listen to this text now about these saved people who have not heard about the Holy Spirit acts hey but when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ momentum both men and women were baptized then Simon himself also believed and when he was baptized he continued with Philip they were water baptized and was amazed seeing miracles and signs which were done now when the Apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent Peter and John to them who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for he had yet fallen upon none of them they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit now there are people in the scriptures who received the Holy Spirit without hands being laid on them but in many cases hands were laid on them it goes back to the scripture that I talked about last week but these were saved disciples who were water baptized and not baptized in the spirit this is Acts chapter 19 and it happened while Apollo's was at Corinth that Paul having passed through the upper regions came to Ephesus and finding some disciples he said to them did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed so they said to him we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit and he said to them into what then were you were baptized and they said into John's baptism then Paul said John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him that is on christ jesus when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus water baptism and when paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied and so here you have a group that people say I receive Jesus at 19 I had never heard the words Holy Spirit in my entire life and when I got saved it started going to church I never heard the words Holy Spirit I never heard there was a Holy Spirit or not and then I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit God doesn't want us to have to wait years or even months until we receive the baptism Holy Spirit it should be an experience that happens right around the time that we're saved and are baptized but this gives you an example here the Apostle Paul evidently has seen a lot of people who had received Christ but were not baptized in the Holy Spirit and it's one of the first questions he asked if you guys received the Holy Spirit they said who's that we have an earth Holy Spirit many people are like that the pattern of the Peace of Israel the Peace of Israel God gave Israel seven feast to celebrate three times of the year one set was in the spring early in the spring and then the feast of Pentecost was later in the spring and then another was in the fall listen so the first three feasts of Israel were Passover unleavened bread and first fruits Jesus died on Passover he was buried on unleavened bread and he was resurrected on firstfruits those are called the salvation feast 50 days after the feast of firstfruits was Pentecost a completely separate feast 52 the Jews means Jubilee it means fullness you get all your inheritance back all your debt is remitted in the fiftieth year the year of Jubilee 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus the Holy Spirit fell in a subsequent experience fell upon the disciples and the church was born on the day of Pentecost in the next trick that's called the impartation feast the next three feasts that happened in the fall trumpets atonement and Tabernacles those are the glorification feasts okay so they're different sets of feasts but those feasts show us a prophetic grid of God and how God operates and so I'm saying and all of that simply to say that when you are bat when you're saved yes your spirit is regenerated and you're born of the Spirit no you have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit necessarily okay so here's my fourth statement about the Holy Spirit is it is impossible to fulfill God's will for our lives without the fullness of the Holy Spirit within us it's impossible you simply can't do it okay so in Matthew chapter 3 Jesus was filled with Holy Spirit the son of God was in the Jordan River and the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove and everything he did he did through the the Holy Spirit now Jesus could only do what he did through the power of Holy Spirit how much more do we need the Holy Spirit the saved disciples once again we're commanded don't leave until you've received the promise of the Father you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit well let me tell you my story well first of all I grew up in a church from the time I was young till I was 13 I never heard the name of Jesus for the entire I had to go to church every Sunday now my parents sent me to church every Sunday so I'd go to church every Sunday and the church was called st. Paul I never heard the name of Jesus until I went at 13 to another friend's church of mine and I heard the name of Jesus for the first time and I was absolutely fascinated it's just the concept of this man who gave His life for me and all of these things it really baffled me but it fascinated me at the same time but I had never heard the name of Jesus then I got saved at 19 and I felt trapped you know that may surprise you now I was not gonna go back into the world sin was not attractive to me at all at that point in my life I had sinned a lot and the world had no lure I had experienced all that nonsense all the broken promises and heartbreak of that but I felt trapped in Christianity because here's the way I felt I'm not gonna go back but I feel powerless to live for Jesus everyday I woke up hoping to do these things and hoping not to do these things every day I didn't do this and I did this every single day I went to bed feeling defeated and one day I was reading my Bible and I read about the power of the Holy Spirit the Jesus promise about the Holy Spirit I had never heard the words Holy Spirit before but I mean I didn't know what he was and then I watched a preacher on TV preaching one day about the Holy Spirit and he did a wonderful job of just explaining what I'm explaining to you right now you can't live without the power of the Holy Spirit and so I made the mistake of going to church and asking one of the teachers Karen and I had a couple Sunday School class and I went to class our church was very denominational very anti Holy Spirit I made the mistake in class of asking to if they would explain to me the baptism holy spirit and speaking in tongues well I didn't do it again I can tell right now it was it was an awkward moment and I mean the teacher turned purple never answered my question I didn't know what I had done I thought I don't know what I said wrong but I said something really wrong well in that class there was a couple who were baptized in the Holy Spirit and after the class they came up to us and said we're spirit filled and let us help you to understand this so they took us to some places where they were talking about the Holy Spirit and I had a product couldn't understand the Bible the Bible was a completely closed book to me had a hard time praying hard time saying no to sin just everything of the Christian life to me was like dragging a rock uphill it was the hardest thing in the world to do and I just thought I've got to do this for the rest of my life I'm saved I want to live for God I don't want to go back and do all that stuff but I don't know how in the world I'm gonna live this life this way so I went to a meeting of Full Gospel business men's fellowship meeting Dimas chick Aryan was the head of that ministry at that time this was probably around 1973 or four we went to this Full Gospel business minister meeting and there was a pastor there that night who had received the baptism of Holy Spirit he was telling about his experience and he prayed for me he prayed he prayed for Karen and me and many others that were there and then I went home he laid his hands on me and pray for me and then I went home that night and I was desperate I mean I really felt the desperation in my life because I just felt so powerless and so I went home and Karen and I Karen went to bed and I stayed in the living room and I got down on my knees and I said to the Lord and I remember these words very very clearly I said lord I don't just want what you have I want you but I want the Holy Spirit to give me the power to live for you because I didn't want the Lord to think I just want what's in your pocket I wondered what was in his heart I wanted to know him and I wanted to serve him at that moment it was like someone took a big barrel of hot oil and ported over the top of my head I mean I felt heat from the top of my head down to my toes and I saw Jesus this was the first time I've ever seen Lord and I saw Jesus hanging on the cross in my spirit and I mean very clearly at the moment I felt this heat I could see Jesus on the cross and he looked at me and as his eyes pierced me he didn't saying he said he told me he loved me but here's what I knew I put him there I knew that my sins had put Jesus there and I knew that he loved me beyond any love I've ever experienced before in my life and I mean it was just this transforming experience I was having and then I started speaking in tongues now it today I've been speaking in tongues for 45 years of spoke in tongues in the car on the way over here and so but it was caveman-talk I mean by the way I had such a perverse mouth up until the time I got saved I'm telling you I had the worst mouth of anyone you could imagine but it was like caveman talk it was ugh and argh and just these but I felt something down here trying to come out here okay and so I went to bed that night and I just laid in bed and it was just this incredible power and love and peace I'd never ever ever experienced anything like it well then the next morning I got up and I woke up and I told Karen what had happened to me and obviously so excited about it and she received the baptism right after that listen I never understood a word of this book I mean I I could not understand the Bible but I was trying to read it because someone told me I should and I woke up every morning and I read it boring slept my mind wandered and I was just thinking who the world wrote this thing you know they need writing lessons or something because this stuff's hard to understand oh no the morning after I received a baptism the Holy Spirit I opened the Bible and I started reading the New Testament and I thought how do I know all them I know Peter I know John I know all these people and understand everything for the first time when the author is inside of you giving you the ability to understand what he wrote it changes everything and now I had the Holy Spirit inside of me and what was a closed book to me was now an open book that I began to understand and I got so excited about reading it and here's the other thing so remember I said I had a list of things every day I don't want to do these things but I want to do these things and every day I did the things I didn't want to do and I couldn't do the things I wanted to do oh no they don't change I wasn't perfect by any means I had supernatural power to begin to live my life for God and I no longer felt trapped I felt so incredibly excited about living the rest of my life for Jesus listen to me that was in May of let me say 1974 around then now I'm standing here in the summer of the year 2020 and it's as real to me today as it was 45 years ago every day of my life has been transformed by the Holy Spirit's power everything has been transformed that's when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit that is and that's the testimony of millions of people that's just not my testimony that's the testimony of millions of people so let me tell you how to receive the Holy Spirit let's go through here and I want to answer some questions about the Holy Spirit the first is purity if you don't have to be perfect to receive the Holy Spirit by any means but you know if you have unforgiveness to somebody if you you know you're you're into some kind of a lifestyle of sin sin or something we're pinna but just turn turn away from that number two is humility and I need you the the words the Holy Spirit loves our I need you Holy Spirit and then you're never gonna receive the Holy Spirit and you're never gonna walk in the Holy Spirit if you think you can do life on your own that kind of pride blocks the Spirit of God from operating in our lives Holy Spirit I need you in my mind I need you in my body I need you in my emotions I need you in my relationships I need you in my spirit I need you he loves that prayer and he answers it every time number three faith in God's grace this is Galatians three listen to the words of Paul here in the book of Galatians specifically written now about the law versus faith concerning the Holy Spirit therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you does he do it by the works the law or by hearing a faith just as abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham in the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying in you all the nations shall be blessed so then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham for as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse but it is written cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them but that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident for the just shall live by faith yet the law is not of faith but the man who does them shall live by them Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles in Christ Jesus listen that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith what Paul is saying here is people at the law can't receive the Holy Spirit Abraham was not of the law he was before the law and it was by faith that he became righteous and it says the blessings of Abraham the blessed the the bloodline blessing of Abraham that Jesus came to graft us back into that comes through the Holy Spirit is only available through faith see the devil's favorite trick is to convince you that you're not good enough for the holy spirit can I just give you a little little secret here you're not good enough for the Holy Spirit I'm not good enough for the Holy Spirit all of our righteousness is like filthy rags and the only way that we can receive the Holy Spirit is by faith just the way you receive Jesus we don't deserve Jesus we don't deserve salvation but Jesus died for us that we don't have to deserve it but now through his blood all of our sins have been paid for and God does not write to us based on our merit or based on the law God relates to us through grace and somebody needs to say Amen that's really really good news so right now don't let don't let the devil condemn you and put you down and say well you better get better until before you ask the Holy Spirit to come into your life listen we can only get better if he comes into our lives and so yeah we need to be repentant deal with sin issues in our lives and all of that and be humble but by faith say Holy Spirit I believe in you number four ask Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit this is John chapter one and John bore witness saying I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and he remained upon him I did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God listen there's no one who loves you more than Jesus he's your absolute best friend and he wants you to have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life so Jesus would you baptize me in your Holy Spirit we're gonna pray here in just a little bit but let me say one other thing and that is be sensitive to the presence of the Holy Spirit and his promptings to speak in tongues and so the initial evidence of the baptism of Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues I'm going to talk about this for quite a bit this is Acts chapter 10 okay these are the first Gentile converts while Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God then Peter answered how can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized to have received the Holy Spirit just as we have and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord then they asked him to stay a few days and so this is kind of an opposite order here and that is these are the first Gentiles to get saved Peter comes in the Holy Spirit falls they all begin to speak in tongues which is the evidence to the baptism Holy Spirit and then they're baptized with water okay so these are essential foundations you see them all through the New Testament okay water baptism Holy Spirit baptism so here's a question and that is do I have to speak in tongues to be Holy Spirit baptized well let me say no but let me say it in in this context I know people who speak in tongues that are not good people I mean they're weird some of them are they just act crazy they do all kinds of crazy stuff and blame it on the Holy Spirit and they do not have the proof of the Spirit in their life love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control let me say this some of the meanest people I've ever met in my life who did me a lot of damage call themself spirit-filled and spoke in tongues so you cannot say that just because a person speaks with tongues they're necessarily you know a godly person let me say this I know people who don't speak in tongues who attribute all of the or exude all of the fruits of the spirit they don't go around bragging about speaking in tongues they don't go around bragging about how spiritual they are loving joyful peaceful patient good wonderful people who actually exude the fruits of the spirit and don't go around bragging about the gifts of the Spirit now having said that I want to say by the way there are three kinds of speaking in tongues that you need to understand because if you don't understand this you might get confused when the issue of tongues comes up the first kind of speaking in tongues is called the miracle of languages that happened on the day of Pentecost all the disciples were speaking in tongues but everyone around them heard them in their own language all people from all the nations of the world were there on the day of Pentecost surrounding them and they all heard them in their own language I've heard of that happening on the mission field I've never seen it I've never experienced it but I've heard of people in the mission field speaking in tongues and people here in in their other native language okay there's also tongues and interpretations of tongues 1st Corinthians chapter 12 1st Corinthians chapter 14 that equals a prophecy it's like a prophetic word but it begins with a tongue and then there is an interpretation ok I have experienced that I've had both tongues and interpretations throughout my Christian life that that were miraculous that God was speaking and what was spoken was fulfilled the major area of speaking in tongues is a private prayer language this is the third type of speaking in tongues I want to read you some scriptures about that this is 1st Corinthians 14 18 Paul says I thank my god I speak in tongues more than you all ok so it's such a huge blessing if you fear speaking in tongues you don't understand it and I hope I can explain it to you right now so some people fear losing control some people because of nutty people that they've seen they think well if the Holy Spirit comes to my life you know I'm going to start doing all kinds of crazy stuff that I can't help self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit you are more in control when you're under the power of the Holy Spirit than you ever have been in your entire life listen to scripture this is 1st Corinthians 14 the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets for God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the saints then Paul goes on to say let everything be decently in order see there are people and I you know came up in the church during the charismatic movement I don't want to you know tell you all the stories that I could tell you I could tell you stories for hours upon hours of the crazy stuff unbiblical stuff that I have seen Christians do in the name of God and in the name of the Holy Spirit that were just a total embarrassment that all they brought was hurting confusion the Spirit of the Prophet is subject their prophet what does that mean that means I can't do crazy stuff and blame it on the Holy Spirit because self-control is the fruit of the Holy Spirit being out of control is happens when I'm not under the power of the Holy Spirit so never fear when you're filled with the power of the Holy Spirit he's going to cause you to do something that you don't want to do you're totally it's your will but he operates through and he's not going to force you to do something that you don't want to do I'm gonna make this statement now because the last message I made this statement I want to make another statement in my last message talked about the baptism in water I said I've never seen a person live a great Christian life it wasn't baptized in water because if you won't do the first thing that God tells you to do is very doubtful you're gonna do much else okay I want to make another statement I've never seen a person operate powerfully in the spirit who wasn't baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues it's the threshold gift water baptism is threshold this is the threshold of obedience you're stepping into your new life in God and there's a threshold that you're stepping over is called water baptism your first act of obedience in the Holy Spirit when I was baptized Holy Spirit I felt something coming up at my point here is when you're being baptized the Holy Spirit be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is wanting to speak through you now listen to what I'm about to say if God doesn't have your mouth it doesn't matter what else he has this is the most powerful part of your body proverbs 18 says the power of life and death is in the tongue and he who loves that will eat its fruit see will you surrender your tongue to Jesus into the Holy Spirit and if God gets your tongue when I like I said I was very vulgar before I got saved and when I got saved the first thing that God went after was my tongue when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and when I surrendered my tongue for him I could never be doing what I do right now if I would not have surrendered my tongue to the Holy Spirit and so he wants your tongue okay and tongues is how that begins it's a threshold gift do you want to operate powerful in the Holy Spirit well you can't understand everything you can't intellectualize everything there are certain things that we can understand the rest we followed by faith and let the Holy Spirit operate through us let me ask this question why do I have to pray in tongues well the first is you don't know how to pray in either do I listen listen scripture Romans 8 likewise the spirit also helps us in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought for the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which we can't be uttered well I woke up this morning prayed I'm sure you did too and when I was praying I could only pray what I knew to pray and I did I know I knew some things that were going to happen today and so I pray for what I knew but what if my brother is having a heart attack and I don't know it what if one of my grandchildren is in trouble and I don't know it what if something is happening in my family we're in someone that I care about and I don't know what the Holy Spirit knows everything see if you only pray with your understanding you were extremely limited in your ability to pray because you can only pray for what you know and you don't know much and I don't know much praying with your understanding is important but the Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses so when I'm praying in tongues when you're praying in tongues this is first corinthians 14:2 he who this is Paul he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God for no one understands him however in the spirit he speaks mysteries you're praying directly to God someone one time praying in tongues this is the language the devil can understand it's directly between you and God 1st Corinthians 14 if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful what is the conclusion then I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with understanding so the first reason that we pray in tongues is because we're very limited without the Holy Spirit the second is intimacy with God 1st Corinthians 14 says that he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself and I tell you this because I've spoken in tongues for all these years it just blesses you you can't understand it it just blow every time I speak in tongues in fact sometimes when I feel stress or sometimes when I just feel like I'm just confounded about something I just speak in tongues I pray in tongues I sing in tongues and what happens is I sense the presence of God I sense the peace of God and what I know is I because I'm praying in tongues I'm surrendering my tongue to the Holy Spirit and I'm allowing him to pray for something beyond my ability to pray for sometimes it's me that's being prayed for sometimes it's Karen sometimes it's my kids and grandkids sometimes if somebody else but I'm not going to limit my prayer life but only praying for that with which I understand the bet the papped is the Holy Spirit is a one-time event but Ephesians 5 tells us to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit it's like drinking water we need to stay hydrated especially in hard times we need the Holy Spirit in our lives not as a one-time battery installed within us that's just this impersonal power source but daily we drink of the Spirit and keep being filled that he hydrates us especially during difficult times that we stay spiritually hydrated and he's not just this impersonal force his our dear friend that we're constantly dependent upon and so the Baptism Holy Spirit is a one-time experience but being filled with the Holy Spirit is a daily experience that we constantly depend upon him I'm saying to you you cannot fulfill God's will for your life without the Holy Spirit your life you you need the baptism of Holy Spirit you need him I need him if you're ready to receive him by the way you can ask a leader to pray with you sometimes that you know if you're having a hard time receiving as somebody who's already spirit-filled ask them to lay their hands on you and pray for you let me pray for you right now father we come to you and we say we want your Holy Spirit Jesus baptized us in your spirit we open our hearts to you Holy Spirit and we say we need you we need you our minds our hearts our bodies our emotions we desperately need you and we pray that you would fill us with power from on high that you would give us the power to live for Jesus victoriously to overcome our sins and to live for God and to do the works of God and we pray right now fill us from the top our head to the tip of our toes we give you permission over our tongues we submit our tongues to you and we pray that you'll give us a prayer language that we can pray beyond our understanding and pray directly to God but lord I pray for everyone watching listening right now fill them fill all of us and even those who have already been filled before maybe they're feeling dry fill us again with the power of your Holy Spirit in Jesus name Amen god bless you what an amazing message from pastor Jimmy about the baptism in the Holy Spirit an essential foundation for living the Christian life but the first foundation is giving your life to the Lord and so if you're Hugh and you've never made that decision to give your life to the Lord we would love to pray with you right now so wherever you are if you need to make that decision will you close your eyes and say this prayer with me say Jesus wherever you are say Jesus I submit my life to you I ask that you forgive me of my sins and I receive you as my personal Lord and Savior in jesus name amen amen if you made that decision today we want to celebrate with you and welcome you to the family of God we'd also love to connect you with resources so you can text the word decision to seven 10 10 as well but if you're here and you've listened to that message the Baptist in the Holy Spirit and maybe you have questions and you want to connect with somebody we would love to connect with you we'd love to pray with you so you can text the word connect 2 7 10 10 as well thank you so much for joining us this weekend we can't wait to see you back here again next week and to all the dads that joined us today online we'd like to wish you a very happy Father's Day god bless you

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Length: 68min 9sec (4089 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020