Filled with the Spirit

So last week, we heard Jesus say on the Mount of Olives, go, be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Well, as best I can tell, it happened. Because we are the ends of the earth, the way they would consider it, right? So how did that happen? How did a group of people who didn't have any connections, any money, any influence, how did they change the world? Will it happen exactly the way Jesus said it would? You see, it's going to take us back to another mountain today, a glorious, beautiful, mysterious, kind of freaky, but absolutely relevant story for today. So let me pray for us, and we're going to go into that story. Father, we ask for you to now show us your power, pour out your spirit. There are many of us here today who long to see revival. God, do it again. We're asking that. I know there are people in our midst at each of our sites who have questions. Lord, find them. Help them. God, I pray that an awe, a humility, a curiosity would now just weave around our thoughts as we open your word. Lord, please help us. Show us. Show us your power. We ask this now in the name of our triune God, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. You want to know how this happened?

You want to know how this message got to you all the way through all these generations? Well sit down, and I'll tell you. Thank you, everybody. I know you guys wanted to clap for all these folks, and thank them, and thank God for this beautiful moment. So it's about 10 days after the events of last week. So Jesus has returned in spectacular fashion to his Father in heaven, and these early followers did exactly what he said. They're just hanging out. They're waiting. They're in Jerusalem. They're gathering together. It says that they're in an upper room. This upper room keeps coming up. It's probably like the top floor of a larger home, but they're gathering together. It's men. It's women. It's the disciples. It's probably the women who were at the empty tomb. Mary was there, like the Mary. Can you imagine going to church with Mary, mother of Jesus? Like can you imagine sitting down next to her at church, and Peter is preaching a message and says, now turn to your neighbor and tell him the thing you're most proud of with your kids. What do you say to Mary? Speaking of kids, it says that the brothers of Jesus, so these would be the children of Joseph and Mary. Now imagine that. They're here, and they have come to believe because of the evidence of the resurrection that Jesus is God.

This was some crowd. The ancient historian Luke tells us there are 120 of them that are in this room. That's chapter one of the book of Acts. Chapter two, verse one. When the day of Pentecost 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 saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Hello. Now, they were staying in Jerusalem, these God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't all of these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this mean? Yeah, what does this mean? Well, first of all, let's just, let's just, a little bit of backstory here. It says on the day of Pentecost. Now just to clear things up, this is not the denomination that you hear with, okay? Some people are like, well, I thought this was when the Pentecostals were invented. No, that's not what this is. That's not it.

It's, Pentecost is a Greek word for a Jewish festival. Now in Hebrew, it's the festival of Shavuot. Okay? went to deep, deep stuff on this, but I'll just say there were seven festivals that are commanded in Torah, and think of them as the Sabbath is behind them all. It's a rest, it's a moment of worship, and oftentimes there's an offering, but three of those big festivals, you are to come back to Jerusalem. No matter where you live, you try to come back to Jerusalem to celebrate. This is one of those. Now, Pentecost, first of all, it means that they're gonna be hanging out around this massive temple complex. Now, we've shown you this sort of fly-through before. This is the upper city, by the way. This is probably where the upper room was, but let's just go on ahead and stop here on the Temple Mount. This is Mount Moriah, if you were with us in the fall. This is the hill at the top, really, of Jerusalem. Lots of things happened there, but in 2 Chronicles 3, verse one, Solomon, King Solomon, builds the Jewish temple on Mount Moriah. That is not the temple that Solomon built. That was destroyed in 586 BC.

This was rebuilt bigger, bigger, by King Herod the Great, okay? But what you need to know is you would hang out, and this is where you would celebrate Pentecost. Now, Pentecost, in Greek, just means 50th. That's what it means. So Pentecost happens after. Again, we won't go into big stuff here, but there were these festivals around Passover. One of them was the Feast of First Fruits. 50 days after that is Pentecost. So that's what it means. It was a harvest festival. You were to thank God for the harvest that had just come in. There was a kind of a first fruit thing there where you would give him, hey, this is the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and there would be bread, and it's like, God, thank you. You're the one who makes this possible. So everybody is there. By the way, when I say everybody, the census, the population of Jerusalem would swell by maybe up to a couple hundred thousand people because everybody's coming in from around the empire. But this little group is together in one place, we read. Are they still in the upper room? Maybe, probably, but it looks like, and I'll show you where the scene changes eventually. It's just common sense, and you'll see where it is. But it says, suddenly, suddenly,

there is a sound like wind. It's not wind, but trying to describe it, a sound like wind comes from heaven. Remember that detail, comes from heaven. It must have been so loud that it had attracted the neighbors in the surrounding area, like, what is going on? Now, I want you to understand something. God is not showing off here. God is talking to these first believers, these Christ followers, who are coming from a Jewish background. They are thoroughly Hebrew in the way they think. But if you want to understand Pentecost, remember, in the Hebrew scriptures, wind and fire are symbols of God's glorious presence. The spirit of God, in Hebrew, the spirit of God, the word there is ruach. Let me hear you say ruach. That means the spirit, but it can also mean wind. Now, by the time you start to read the Hebrew scriptures, all the way back in Genesis 1, ruach Elohim, the spirit of God hovered over the waters. You get to Job, the ruach of God is in my nostrils. He gives me life. You get to a really interesting vision given to the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 37, where the wind blows through this valley and brings to life these dry bones, this symbol of God is not finished

and he's gonna raise up Israel again. All of this is wind, it's wind, it's the ruach. Even if you get to the Greek, the word is pneuma, and it means the same thing. At its root, it means wind. Spirit means wind. So that's wind. Fire, fire. Now let's go to Mount Sinai. Here we are again with these mountains. I want you to understand something if you haven't been with us. When we say mountain experiences, peak experiences, we're not saying mountaintop experiences, okay? These aren't all happy, clappy moments. When we talk about peak experiences, it doesn't mean the hills are alive. It's not that. It's not that. These are jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, life-changing moments when people encounter the God of the universe. And they gotta make decisions. Am I gonna trust, am I gonna surrender? It changes everything. So Moses is on the top of Mount Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments, among other instructions. And what we read in the book of Exodus is that the Israelites, to the Israelites, the glory of God.

The Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain, and by the way, they were terrified. If you read the story, they say to Moses, we're not going up there. You go up there. But if you keep reading the story, the blazing presence of God now descends and abides in this tabernacle, in this one section. We call it the holy of holies, or the most holy place. Later, the same thing would happen in the temple. It's a symbol of God's presence with his people. But if you'll remember, they couldn't go into the holy of holies, only the high priest, only once a year. But after Jesus, after the sacrifice, after the veil is torn, there is no separation now. It's different. Here's what you need to notice. When the blazing, glorious presence of God descends, he descends now on everyone. God doesn't change the course of history now by picking people out and saying, you're going to get all of me. It isn't just the hall of famers. It isn't just those people in that 120 that are going to have churches and schools named after them. Everyone, the unnamed people, we don't even know on this side of eternity, they all get the power, the presence of God in them. It says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, Holy Spirit. Last week, Pastor Nathan taught us. And man, what a cool job he did, right? Just what a great job he did. And Nathan, thank you so much for that. We are so blessed with the teachers who teach us here. Man, these guys and gals, they help me. They fill my soul. I'm just so grateful for them. But he began a conversation about the Holy Spirit. And we're going to keep talking about the Holy Spirit. In fact, in the fall, we're going to look at some of the most beautiful, powerful, I just think they're some of the best. Just, oh, you just, it's the heart of Jesus. These are the last words of Jesus that he gives his disciples. These chapters in the Gospel of John, we're going to look at this over time. But in a couple of those chapters, Jesus explains who the Holy Spirit is. So we'll come back to this, but let me just say this much. This gets us to the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, I can't explain the Trinity to you. I'm just telling you flat out, but I'll tell you a couple of things that we have to hang on to. There is one God. There's one God, one in essence, one in nature. Now, this is the stuff of deity, so I'm already like in the deep end, right? I'm over my skis. I'm beyond what I can explain. But there is one God, and still, simultaneously, there are three magnificent, glorious, all-powerful, all-knowing persons in the one. There is one God, not three gods. There is one God, not one God chopped into thirds, one God, and still somehow there is more to the one in the one.

Does that make your head hurt? Yeah. Should that surprise us? No. I can't explain the eternal God who created all of this. I don't expect him to fit into human categories. I don't expect him to fit into the three dimensions plus time that he created that we know about. Anybody see the headline this week of maybe there are now seven dimensions, and it's starting to explain the radiation out of decaying black holes? Anyone? Okay. All right. So anyway, I don't expect to explain God, but I can trust him. And the takeaway for you right now is this. The Holy Spirit, Nathan said this, not an it, a person. The Holy Spirit is the glorious third person of the Trinity. And it says here that he came from heaven. And where did he land? In the followers of Jesus. So outside, in. Outside, in. You with me? That is a completely different way than the world thinks right now. Because what the world thinks is, you can be whatever you want to be. You can do whatever you want to do, little buddy. You've got all the answers. You've got all the goodness. You've got God. You've got truth. It's you, buddy. It's you. It's all in you. No, it's not. No, it's not. That's not the truth about life. No, it's not. That's not the truth about life. We have problems in us that we can't fix. I love hanging out with three-year-olds. Because I'm telling you what, you know where you stand with a three-year-old. I love three-year-olds that come up to me here at church. I love it when they show me what they're learning back and kids crossing I love hanging out with your kids Yours isn't three yet, but I loved I loved fist bumping him this morning But man three-year-old you make you you know where you stand, right? It's why we use them to explain our sinful nature because they can't hide it Mine is their favorite word. No is their least favorite word They're this close to a tantrum when they get tired or hungry And I'm telling you when it's on like Donkey Kong and they are throwing the fit. You can't reason with them It's a good thing. They're so cute. Amen You ever been around a 53 year old Or 73 or 23 40 13 year old We learned to hide it better, but Mine is my favorite word No is my least favorite word

And it's just not so cute when we're throwing our tantrums Rolling around on the floor when we've made a mess of things because of our stubborn will listen to me one more time We need help See there's an ache here because of the separation with God Of this separation with God There's a longing here because we were created for a friendship with God, but that's where God comes in That's where God makes a way That's the glory the mystery the power the beauty of the cross Romans 5 says that while we were still sinners Christ died for us This is what we celebrate but we can't do this on our own. It's because of him now I want you to know in just a minute I'm gonna give you some of the benefits of the Holy Spirit setting up shop in your life But I want to say this as directly as I can Until you turn to Jesus what I'm about to now say it doesn't apply to your life yet I need you to know God will not come into a life unless he is welcomed and invited but once you turn to him once you Admit this desperate need for forgiveness once you take in the mercy and the love of the cross Something begins to happen in your life. You're not just forgiven. You're restored. You have this. It's a different life It's a new life. There's a theological term if you want that a Regenerated life if you want an old-time preacher term you are born again That's a thoroughly biblical concept you are born again And the mystery is the Holy Spirit of God moves in closer than close now God is the best way we can say it is in you to be filled with the Spirit of God is to enjoy the glorious divine presence of God in you Now it's gonna take on different forms throughout your life and expressions this this life with with the Spirit He's gonna keep moving and showing up in different ways But let's go back to the story because there's something there that we need to to to notice it says They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them Let's go there you want to Yeah, we've talked about this, but if you look at the text carefully, they're speaking in foreign languages that other people know

They're speaking in contemporary languages. They're not speaking in ecstatic utterances They're not speaking in unknown angelic tongues here. Why because these people are going hey, how can you do? I'm here like I'm from a halfway around the world and You're speaking my language Which means that I agree with the scholars who say that this is a little bit different Than what you see in places just a few other places, but in places like first Corinthians 14 where Paul is describing a deep mysterious It's it's it's kind of a form of prayer it's very personal Paul says it's mostly for private use if it's ever used in public Somebody has to interpret for everyone else Otherwise nobody gets it and he puts restrictions around it because he wants to be really careful for those in our midst who? Who don't know Jesus yet? So all of that is there if you want to read first Corinthians 14 start there We'll come back to some of this in the fall But the question some of you are asking is do do do I believe or do we believe that those gifts exist? I believe they do Does that mean that everybody gets those gifts? No, it wasn't even that way in the first century Does it mean that this gift is kind of the super duper? Litmus test to show that you've really got the Spirit of God and you know Not at all Paul says this Paul says the minute you turn to Jesus you have this beautiful powerful Presence of God Almighty in you closer than your next breath and for each of us This is something that we get to have hang on to. But this is where I think we can't ignore the miracle now. I want us to go back to the story, and this is where I think things spill out of that house, just because of common sense, the numbers involved. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington says, it's like right here that you begin to see something is happening. What was going on in the house now probably spilling out into the streets. They're probably going up into the temple. We know that they gathered in the temple after this, the early church did. That temple has this massive courtyard around it. This is Solomon's Porch, a place where many people would

gather. So maybe that's where all of this is happening. Now, before I show you one more thing, what I want you to do now is you're going to talk to some of the folks around you. We're going to re-engage with the story now. So okay, everybody with me? Here it is, here it is. What was the original language of Christianity? I know, it's a weird question, right? Go ahead, talk to each other. What do you think the original language of Christianity was? Go ahead, talk to each other. We'll get back together in a second. Okay, I'm so curious what your answers would be, those of you here online at Midrivers, Grant's Trail, Fenton, each of us, like we're all having this conversation and it's a weird question, right? So Hebrew maybe, right? Because that's the language of the early scriptures, maybe that would be it. Aramaic, that's the everyday language of Jesus, that would work, right? Greek, because the New Testament is written in Greek. All of those are great answers. So what...let me ask it to you this way. On this day that we're in, like that we're studying, when the church achieved liftoff, what was the language that was used to proclaim the gospel? Think about it. It was all of those languages that I just read from those people groups. They all heard the good news at the same time. Now, there's a scholar from Gambia in West Africa, his name is Laman Sanneh, and he says that God deliberately makes a point here showing that there is no language or culture that is more important than another because they all got the good news at the same time. You see, the good news came to me in English because that's what I needed. That's how God continues to spread the gospel through the world. It means that ultimately it's not our languages, it's not our cultures, it's not our countries, it's not our music preferences or our food preferences that unite us. That's not what unites we who follow Jesus. Where do we stand anyway? At the foot of the cross. It's Jesus. And who unites us? The Holy Spirit coursing through our lives. Listen, in a couple of weeks, we're going to wrap this whole series up in the book of Revelation, and we are going to see people from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshiping Jesus. Oh, doctor, you better come back for that.

But they are now, in all of these languages, proclaiming the wonders of God. That means the miraculous acts of God. Well, what would have been like news to these people? Of course, they're praising God for all sorts of things, but I can almost guarantee you what these people are saying to all of these visitors from around the empire. They're telling them about the life, death, and the miraculous resurrection of Jesus, because that's what changes everything. The Holy Spirit will always point back to Jesus. He is always saying, hey, way do you get a load of Him? So all of this is happening now, and there are some people who are very intrigued, very curious about it, interested in it. There are other people, not so much. Some people are mocking it, making fun of it. They're saying these folks are... Obviously drunk listen to me. I Got y'all When you share the gospel There will always be people that roll their eyes There will always be someone Who makes fun of you there will always be someone? Who just I wish this wasn't true But there will always be someone who rejects the gospel It happens here Peter sees the whole situation and says let me tell you what's going on. These people aren't drunk It's 9 o'clock in the morning kind of a weird detail, right? Guess when people came to the temple for their prayers at 9 o'clock in the morning So they're probably in the temple complex now and Peter begins to explain where the relief and the joy and the power is coming from But he goes through their history of the Hebrew people and connects it all to Jesus and says he is Messiah He is the king He is sitting at the right hand of the father and he's the one who gets the last word and people are like What do we do and his answer is this repent and be baptized just two things repent and be baptized Repent turn to Jesus Accept him accept his forgiveness

Into your life and then tell the world that you belong to him now We're gonna come back to this in a few weeks this glorious powerful act of baptism We're gonna talk about this but right here you want to harvest about 3,000 people jump into the Jesus movement and Now it's begun. It's begun because all of these people are gonna go back to their homes They're all gonna go back to all other places around the Empire This is what catapults the Jesus movement into the Roman Empire in just a couple of centuries All of this is gonna turn upside down. It's only a matter of time That's how the good news got to us pretty cool But now I want you to remember something else Those people when they went back with the good news, they also went back to the real world They went back to struggles They went back to taking care of little ones. They went back to aging parents living with them They went back to health problems and money problems and neighbor problems. They went back to hopes and dreams and fears and worries You see not every day is Pentecost So now let's talk about us Anyone here weary from work or from home Or from the expectations that your your family or your friends or somebody else just keep piling on top of you Anyone here going through a season where you're you're going I don't know how I'm gonna make out and make it out of this financially Anybody Recovering from a surgery. You're trying to rehab this thing and man. It's just not happening as fast as you want it Anybody you're struggling with your kids or your parents or the person you're dating Is there anyone here who's wondering is this thing ever going to is is there anyone here who Has a grief It's just like this unwelcomed companion that is always sitting next to you You see we don't live in the Roman Empire But we do live in a world that's broken it's not all giggles and gumdrops is it I'm gonna keep telling us this so that we can keep remembering this but We live in a 24-hour news cycle that makes its money by stirring up our fear and our outrage It's what it does and so we live in this

This kind of this this moment where we feel overwhelmed and we feel anxious we feel lonely Maybe we even get a little shame tossed in there Sometimes a little a little maybe just a little bit of crankiness. We stir that in it's quite a stew. We've got brewing Many of us I think are living with a kind of FOMO now you all know what FOMO means It's a fear of missing out, but it's not missing out on a party or a grand adventure I think many of us live with this fear of missing out on on This life that everybody else keeps sharing with us You know online It's that life and it's like oh man I just don't think see I don't know that it's FOMO for many of us as much as it is Fone now, let me tell you what that means. Okay, so it's it's fear of not Doing Enough See we just live with with We're blessed today to have so many resources. Oh so many things at our fingertips that we didn't have before. I mean resources about fitness and about finance and about relationships, about marriages, about our spiritual walk, I mean parenting. We've got all of these resources and they are so helpful until they're not. Have you ever noticed? I mean there are all of these keys and steps and strategies from all of these experts and approaches on how to be the best husband, how to be the best mom, how to be the best friend, how to look younger, live longer, raise an all-American third grader who's also a concert pianist, how to be a profound sense at work and make sure that your side hustle earned you your first billion, how to have an Instagramable home, an organic garden, and a spiritual life that would put Mother Teresa to shame. I need to tell you one more time, I think these resources can be really helpful. I mean when I look at the way some of y'all have navigated some things, man it's just different. It's just so good. I'm so impressed with you. Like when I was growing up, we played with chainsaws and wild raccoons. That's what we did. And if you got hurt, you went to the doctor and I'm telling you, in those days doctors smoked.

Doctors smoked. Like they did even commercials for, it's like, so let me get this straight, the raccoon bit you? All right, I'll tell you what, let's rub some dirt on it and just make sure that he gets a healthy, well-balanced breakfast each morning. You know, eggs, white bread, toast, Cap'n Crunch with whole milk, he'll be all right. No, no. I love some of the resources and the help and the insights and the wisdom. But listen to me now, sometimes those become burdens, because in the back of our mind it's like, uh-oh, I'm not doing enough. The wisest man who ever lived said, anybody who's tired, anybody who's weary, anybody who's weighed down by unrealistic expectations, come to me and I will give you rest. Now, he talks about crosses, he talks about sacrifices, he talks about hard decisions that we all have to make. Yes, discipline in our lives. Yes, structure in our lives. But Jesus says, when you come to me and you fall into the rhythm of my way, it's lighter, it's freer. So some of you are like, so wait a minute, wait a minute, are you just telling me to let go of all of this wisdom and insight about how to live this better life? No, not at all. I am just asking you to be aware that sometimes the strategies and the steps and the approaches, just be careful. Because if we think that it's just, it can't be the ultimate goal, is really what I'm trying to tell you. Because we get all twisted up when we think it's about that, because then we start to think it's about us. And the change that you long for in your life will not happen that way. You want a life that is full and free, where your love and your joy keeps leaking into your words, with your friendships, with your marriage. You want to see a great passion for whatever it is that you're doing these days. And like you're getting work done in this world. Oh, and you enjoy rest that replenishes you. You laugh deeply, you openly grieve, but you do it with friends and loved ones. And along the way, you're teaching your kids that it really is okay to trust God. You can be open about your struggles and leave room for joy. You want that? Now, some of you, even me describing that, you're like, great, that feels like more expectations. Listen to me. We live at the intersection of crushing expectations and realistic longings. I want us to pay attention to the longings. Let's help each other with this. But please don't think that I have it all figured out. You keep pushing in all the areas of your life, every one of them. May God lead you to a fuller life. But I'm telling you along the way, let's be realistic with each other as God leads

us. You see, I'm going to stand with John Newton, my friend, John Newton. Y'all know John Newton, songwriter. He wrote a little thing called Amazing Grace. I think it's got legs. I think it's going to work. In the 1700s, he wrote a letter to a friend of his. I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what I hope to be. But I am not what I used to be. Y'all, that's the spiritual journey. Let's keep helping each other. Let's keep doing this, but let's keep our I'm standing before you only because God's amazing grace has redeemed me. But the only chance I have of seeing the progress I want in my life is by the ongoing, indwelling, heart-healing, identity-establishing, sin-convicting, pride-melting, life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of God in me, and I need you to know the Holy Spirit is your advocate. He's so tender with you and so fiercely protective of you. In Romans 8, Paul says, when you received the Spirit, those of you who trust Jesus, you didn't get the Spirit so He could chain you to more fear. He wants to release you from that. It's an adoption. You get to live. You get to call God Abba Father. In fact, what he says is the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. The Holy Spirit is your champion. He will defend you against those accusations that are flying around in your head, those insecurities that sometimes pull us apart. He will tell you when you're out of bounds. He will nudge you when it's time to repent. He will call you back, but He will also lovingly defend you from those destructive thoughts. He keeps whispering to you how close God is and how much you matter to Him. It says that He testifies. That's a technical term. He is the witness.

Some people will say it's even more than that. He is the star witness. I need you to know the Holy Spirit is the star witness and He takes the stand and says you belong to Him. You are forgiven. You are beloved. You are in the family. And I'll tell you what, you and I need the Spirit and we need what He does in our lives, but He helps us with our weaknesses. So I'm just going to give you one more quick thing and it will only take a couple of minutes and I know how these things work. It'll only take a couple of minutes, but we're going to catch our breath for just a second. And I know how it works. I know some of you are like, okay, so this is a good chance for us to sneak out. And if you need to, I get it. But I just want you to know that some of you, you came for these next two minutes. So the first thing I want you to do, not a big conversation, you know, don't break out the china. You're not serving tea and cookies on this one. Just lean over. When was the last time you used this to express something from this and it didn't involve words? You said something with your mouth that expressed something going on in your heart, but you didn't use words. It could have been an expression of fear or joy or anger or frustration or grief or whatever. When was the last time you used your mouth to say something, but you weren't using words? Go ahead. This is a real quick one. Go ahead.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Okay. All right. So first of all, I just want to help you. We're just a few weeks from June. June is Goat Trauma Awareness Month, so not making that up. Any of those? Did you relate to any of those? Yeah. Or, I love the, oh man, I get that. I get that. You see, sometimes we're angry and it's, sometimes we're filled with wonder and it's, oh. And sometimes, sometimes it's, oh. Later in that chapter in Romans, Paul says the world is broken and all creation itself groans, but then he says, so do we. We who have been given the firstfruits of the spirit. There we are with that firstfruits thing again. We groan as we wait for the adoption. Now, we've already been adopted into the family. He made that point. What does he say?

So the firstfruit of the spirit. Spirit is, you're getting the first taste of eternity, the first taste of glory, the first taste of how things are supposed to be. But man, we live in a broken world, and it's not just creation. We grow. So one more list of questions. Anybody here ever had your heart broken? Anybody here ever been sinned against? Anybody here ever sinned against someone? Anybody here ever watched someone you love dearly, and they're going down a road towards something, and you're like, ah! Anybody here ever sworn, I'm just not gonna get that angry again, I'm never gonna do that again, I'm not gonna say things that way again, and you did it? You swore to yourself, I am not, I am not going, I'm not going those places online. I'm not, and you did it. Anybody here ever told yourself, I'm gonna trust God, I am gonna lean in, I'm gonna live with peace, and then you spent the whole day consumed with worry? I could keep going for so many different ways that we, not you, we groan, we groan, but then there comes a moment when it's like, ah, it's happening, and you're like,

I know I'm supposed to pray, but you got nothing. Anybody ever been there? The Apostle Paul says, pray anyway. What do you mean, pray anyway? You ever prayed, God, I got nothing. There is something that happens in that, ah. In fact, what he says at that point is that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. That means when you're out of words, and you're out of options, and you're almost out of hope, somehow something happens in prayer that is deeper than words. I've told you this mysterious, powerful presence of God, the Holy Spirit in you, now begins to seek the Father. He is so close to you, He is so close to your hurt, or your regret, or your worry, that even in the moments where you're like, ah, the Spirit of God begins to groan with you and for you. That's who He is. The Holy Spirit, the hint is in the word Spirit. Ruach doesn't just mean wind, it means breath. He breathes life into us. He helps me with my cynical and cranky attitude if I let Him. He helps me to focus in on what matters if I pay attention. He invites me into worship, and if I lean in and take the risk, it happens.

He keeps me from stepping into the ditch if I listen to Him. He gives me courage where there is fear. He gives me the ability to do what God has called us to do, and God has called us to do things. You see, if you belong to Jesus, let this one settle in. You, according to the New Testament, are the temple of the Holy Spirit now. Do you know what that means? You see, in the old days, we've talked about how the ancients would sometimes talk about how the mountain was kind of the place where heaven and earth sort of overlapped, and nothing was even close to what happened at the temple because this is where God was. But because of what Jesus has now done, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are the way that the people of this world are going to have an encounter with God. It'll be your words, your hope, it'll be your attitudes, it'll be your outrageous generosity, your patience, your good humor, you're gonna be the ones, you who belong to Jesus, you're gonna be the way that some people go, oh, so that's who God is. You see, I believe God is still up to something. Now, I'm gonna ask the teams to come back up now because we're just gonna take one more, like a half pass at something, and we'll talk about that in just a second.

But here's the thing. I know I said earlier that not every day is Pentecost. I might've been wrong. I mean, we're not gonna have miracles that way unless God so desires and deems. But I don't think God's done with miracles. I don't think the power of the Holy Spirit is finished moving through his people. You see, I, for one, think that God is still up to something and we're gonna take one more pass at this song now that you've heard it, we've taught on the Holy Spirit, now that you kind of get a sense of what God is up to. I want you to now pay attention to some of these words because I think there are miracles still left to happen. I think some of the miracles, or some of you will say. to Jesus. I think for others of us it will be healing, it will be hope, but I believe that God is up to something. I don't just want that story to be a story in the past. I want it to be our story today. So you got to stand up and just like we did at Easter, you're gonna clap. So you ready? Here we go. This is an easier clap. Can y'all just help them now? Here we go.