Power to Proclaim | Holy Spirit Series

Grab your Bibles, if you would, and let's go to Acts chapter one. And as you're turning now, just make a confession. Last week, I told you we were gonna be wrapping up our series by preaching week three of spiritual gifts. And I didn't intend to not tell you the truth, but to be honest with you, I wrote last week's message, about 98% of it was completed, and I just have felt a restlessness in my heart all week long, and specifically yesterday, as I tried to finalize that, and then this morning, about two or three o'clock in the morning, woke up, praying, asking the Lord what He was doing, and this morning, I just felt like the Lord said, go a different direction. We're still gonna be talking about the Holy Spirit, but one of the things that I've really tried in the last couple of years to do, is to say, Lord, I don't wanna preach sermons, I wanna preach a word from you. And so, to the best of my ability today, I'm gonna try to follow what He's doing in my heart, and if you'll allow me to do that. Those of you who are like, we're gonna get week three of spiritual gifts, I'm gonna take the sermon that I wrote, and this week, get with our media team, and film about a 10 or 12 minute block, where I can then send that to you, but I want us to go to Acts chapter one this morning,

and here's the burden that I have. The filling of the Holy Spirit is essential to the life of a believer, and one of the reasons it's essential is because of the role that the Holy Spirit plays in evangelism. As we think about the Holy Spirit as a person who regenerates us, makes us alive in Christ, and then He's a friend that goes with us as we live this life, and He's bringing out the character and the nature of Jesus in us. He's gifted us to build up one another. One of the things, though, that the Holy Spirit does that's often overlooked and not quite understood in the heart of most Christians is the supernatural work that the Holy Spirit does in everyday believers, using them to take the gospel message to other people. And I just wanna remind you today that God's plan for taking the gospel to the world is you and it's me. Like, we are God's plan A to take the gospel to unbelieving hearts, and there is no plan B. We are plan A. There is no plan B, and God has called you, called me, to take the message of the gospel, but He's not called us to do that in our own strength, in our own power. He's called us to do this

through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. So what I wanna do this morning is press into the role of the Holy Spirit, specifically being filled with the Holy Spirit and why that's essential for us to take the gospel to people around us. So I wanna jump in, Acts chapter one, start reading in verse eight. If you're there, say the Bible is true. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. So Jesus is speaking to the disciples, and He's showing us the essential calling that we have to take the gospel and the need that we have for the Holy Spirit to be the power that enables us to do so. And I'm gonna give you two truths this morning, very simple message, two truths, and we're gonna jump around and show you this in other parts of the Bible, these two truths, how they apply to our life. Here's truth number one. Write this down if you're taking notes. I want us to see that the filling of the Holy Spirit compels us to proclaim the gospel. The filling of the Holy Spirit compels us to proclaim the gospel. Look again what He says in verse eight.

He says this, He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Now notice the outcome or the byproduct of the filling of the Holy Spirit that we're gonna receive, and you will be my witnesses. Now notice what Paul says. He doesn't say you could be my witnesses or you should be my witnesses, or it's encouraged that you become witnesses. No, what does he say? He says when you receive power, when the Spirit fills you, you will be, this will be the byproduct, the outcome. In other words, the Holy Spirit, when He fills you, He will compel you to proclaim the gospel. Now as we think about this, I wanna unpack it by walking through several verses of Scripture. I've fallen in love the last couple of years, and I've said this to you before, the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, and here's why. The gospel of Luke, written by Luke, he is a doctor, historian, a very brilliant man, and he's writing the gospel of Luke to a disciple named Theophilus, and so what he does is he writes a very detailed description of the life and ministry of Jesus, and then he writes the sequel to the gospel of Luke, which is the book of Acts, which is focusing on a detailed account of the life

and ministry of the early church, and what he does is he emphasizes in the gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus in the gospel of Luke, and then in the life of the church in the book of Acts, and here's what he shows us. showing us that Jesus's life, his ministry, his proclamation of the kingdom was fueled by the filling of the Holy Spirit. And then he's gonna show us in the account of the book of Acts, the early ministry of the church, is that the work of the early church was fueled by the filling of the Holy Spirit. So he's showing us that in the life of Jesus and the life of the church, this is to be normative for every believer, that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit and that we would, as a byproduct of that, live on mission for him. So what I wanna do is I wanna show you something. Luke uses a very specific word in both Luke and in Acts describing the filling of the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna walk you through a number of passages. So if you're taking notes, you're gonna wanna write a lot of these references down. And here's what I wanna show you. I wanna show you that every time Luke uses this particular Greek word describing the filling of the Holy Spirit,

every single time it leads the person who has been filled to proclaim the gospel. I want you to make the connection here. Look what he says if you go to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one, he starts with telling us about Zechariah who is the father of John the Baptist. Later on in years, he's married to Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. And he gets this message from an angel that there is gonna be a pregnancy of Elizabeth. And even though she's old, she's gonna have a child. And this child was gonna be a prophet who was gonna prepare the path for the coming Messiah. And so listen to what is said about John the Baptist to Zechariah. Luke chapter one, verse 15. And he, talking about John the Baptist, he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink. And he will be, look at this, filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. So supernaturally, the Holy Spirit is gonna fill the life of John the Baptist even when he is in his mother's womb. Now notice his ministry, verse 16. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him, the Messiah, in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children

and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. So notice what's happening here. The angel says he is gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit while he's in the womb. And his ministry is going to be a ministry of proclamation. He is gonna turn the hearts of Israel back to the Lord, preparing them to hear the message of the gospel. In other words, the filling of the spirit in the life of John is gonna lead John to proclaim the kingdom of God. You with me? Say amen. All right, fast forward. Now his wife Elizabeth, Elizabeth later on in her pregnancy is going to meet up with Mary who is pregnant with Jesus for the very first time. Remember, John the Baptist is still with the Holy Spirit. So when Jesus comes on the scene, even though he is still in Mary's womb and John is still in Elizabeth's womb, there's gonna be this connection by the spirit where John is gonna recognize that Jesus has entered the room because he's full of the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? Now listen what happens in the life of Elizabeth. Verse 41. And when Elizabeth heard the greetings of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb

and Elizabeth, watch this, is filled with the Holy Spirit. And what does she do immediately? Verse 42. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, blest are you among women, blessed is the fruit of your womb. So here's what happens. Elizabeth, when she feels the stirring of John who is filled with the spirit, she is then filled with the spirit. And what does she immediately do? She begins to proclaim the good news about Jesus who is in the womb of Mary. Let's fast forward now to John the Baptist is born. Zechariah, by the way, when the angel told him, you would think if an angel showed up and tells you something, you're gonna be like, well, it's hard to believe, but since an angel is here, I'll buy it, right? So an angel tells Zechariah his wife is gonna be pregnant and all the story about who John was gonna be. Zechariah starts arguing with the angel and because of that, he was made mute and was not able to speak the entire pregnancy. And finally, the Lord opened his mouth and listen to what the Bible says. Luke chapter one, verse 67 now. And his father, John's father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.

What does that mean to prophesy? It means to proclaim something. Immediately, what does he proclaim? Saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people in reference to the coming of Jesus. So notice, this is the third time we see someone filled with the Holy Spirit and for the third time, immediately, what do they do? They begin to proclaim the gospel. Now let's jump over into Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two, Luke is continuing to describe. what it means to be filled with the Spirit and what the filling of the Spirit leads to. Look what happens in Luke chapter two. Start reading in verse one. And when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven the sound of a mighty rushing wind and filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Verse four, listen to this. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And what did they begin to do? They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterances. Now, this speaking in tongues is different than what we see in 1 Corinthians

when we talk about the gift of tongues. This is not speaking in an unintelligible language. This is actually speaking a known dialect. In other words, something happened miraculous. When they were filled with the Holy Spirit, God supernaturally gave the people in that room the ability to speak in other known languages that they had never studied. So it'd be like all of a sudden, because someone comes in maybe from Germany who only speaks German, they don't speak English, and I'm preaching, all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit gives me the ability to preach in German even though I haven't studied German. That's what's happening here. So watch what happens here. When they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in these other languages. Well, what did they speak? Well, later on, it tells us that they were proclaiming the mighty works of God. Now, what were the mighty works of God in those days? Jesus died for their sins, was put in a tomb, and three days later, he was raised to life. So notice what happens. They are filled with the Holy Spirit, and just like Elizabeth, John, and Zechariah, they immediately began to proclaim the gospel out of an overflow of being filled with the Holy Spirit. You see this a little later.

Later in chapter two, Peter then stands up in front of the crowd, filled with the Holy Spirit. What does he do? He preaches the gospel. In the very streets, watch this, 50 days earlier, Jesus was dragged through, carrying a Roman cross on his back. Now Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit in the very streets, where in the very crowds that chanted, crucify him, crucify him, Peter says, you put him on the cross and in a tomb, but Jesus raised him up. He proclaims the gospel. Now, fast forward to chapter four. Getting to chapter four, Peter and John are heading to the temple for evangelism, I think, and prayer. As they're going there, there's a man who's a beggar. He's a lame beggar on the side of the road, and he's asking them for money. Peter and John are just two broke fishermen who are no longer fishing anymore, and they look at the guy and say, hey, silver and gold, we have not any of, but what I give you, I give you freely in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Get up and walk, and all of a sudden, this miracle happens. This man is healed. The crowd goes crazy.

Peter then begins to preach the gospel to the crowds. It causes such an uproar that the religious leaders, the ones that had Jesus crucified, arrest Peter and John. They bring them into the council in front of the Sanhedrin. You say, who is the Sanhedrin? It is the political and religious leaders of the Jewish community, and they were the ones that recommended to the Roman government that Jesus should be crucified. They hated Jesus, and they thought they put an end to Jesus until all of a sudden, stories of resurrection happened. So here they are, Peter and John, being questioned and interrogated about this miracle and about their message, and then listen to what happens in Peter's life. Acts chapter four, start reading in verse eight. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, says to them, rulers and the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means? This man has been healed. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. You see the power in Peter's life here?

I mean, these are the guys that have the right to condemn Peter and John to death, and he says, okay, you wanna know the answer? Let me tell you what happened. You killed him, God raised him, and in his power, this man has been healed. This proclamation was on the heels of what? And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, we see it again, right? Now fast forward, later on in chapter four, Peter and John are threatened, persecution. This is the first time the church is suffering persecution. Peter and John go back to the church. The church gathers now because of the persecution. So what does the persecuted church do the moment they understand that there's gonna be resistance to the gospel by the government and authorities? They rally together and they begin to talk about how we can elect the right person to put them in office so that we might have our religious freedoms. Is that what they did? No, that's not what they did. What did they do? In the face of resistance, in the face of persecution, they got on their face before the King of kings and Lord of lords and began to pray. The question is, what did they pray for? Did they pray that the suffering would be alleviated,

that the persecution would go away? No, no, they said, in the face of opposition, here is what we're asking you to do. God, would you give us supernatural power to proclaim the gospel boldly in the face of opposition? That was their prayer. What happened, what was the outcome of this? Look at verse 31, and when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and what did they do? They continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Do you see the consistency here? Now notice this, in this moment, they did not pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Did you notice that? They prayed for boldness and courage to continue to speak the gospel in the face of opposition and how does the Lord answer this request for boldness? He fills them with the Holy Spirit because he knows if they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they'll have courage and they'll have boldness and they'll continue to preach, why? Because the filling of the spirit compels us to proclaim the gospel and that's exactly what we see. You're not convinced yet, so let me give you a couple of more, all right? Acts chapter nine, Jesus radically saves a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus who becomes Paul the apostle who writes half the New Testament.

He is a murderer and a killer of the church. He hates Jesus and he hates every Christian and he wants to put them to death. On the road to Damascus, the resurrected Jesus appears to Paul, radically saves him and now the message from the Lord goes to a man by the name of Ananias. Ananias is told, hey, I've redeemed Saul of Tarsus and you're gonna welcome him. Ananias has this little dialogue going, are you sure about this? And finally gives in, listen to the dialogue between Ananias and the apostle Paul. Verse 17, so Ananias departed and entered the home and laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul or Paul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and, listen to the next phrase, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now what's the next thing that happens in the life of Paul? Look at verse 20, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying he is the son of God. In other words, the outcome or the byproduct of Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit is that he begins to preach and proclaim. Now let me give you one more. Few chapters later, chapter 13, Paul is preaching and there's a man that begins to make a disruption and interrupt Paul's ministry.

Notice how Paul deals with this enemy of the gospel. But Paul, or Saul rather, verse nine, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, there it is again, looked intently at him and said, you son of the devil. That's pretty strong words, right? Like tell us what you really think, Paul, right? You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? So now all of a sudden, with the confidence of the Lord, Paul looks square in the face of a guy who is opposing the gospel and he calls him out and ultimately points everyone to Jesus. Now what power does Paul do this in and filled with the Holy Spirit, he said. Do you see the consistency here? The filling of the Holy Spirit compels us to proclaim the gospel. Now this is important, why? Is because the greatest evidence that you have been filled with the Holy Spirit is not how emotional you get in worship. The greatest evidence that you have been filled with the Holy Spirit is not in your spiritual gifting and how spiritual you are and exercising your spiritual gifts. Although I am a firm believer that listen, we need the Holy Spirit,

he is the one empowers our gifting. The greatest evidence that we have been filled with the Holy Spirit is that we will talk about Jesus a lot. What you are full of will come out of you. If you are full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will spill out of you, why? Because there's nothing the Holy Spirit loves more than to shine the spotlight on Jesus. He's crazy about this, like he doesn't want you or me or anyone else to get glory, he wants Jesus to be the center of everything. And whenever we're filled with the Holy Spirit, he is going to fill us. to speak through us about Jesus all of the time. It's interesting to me that in the last, we've been in this series now for almost nine, well, right at nine weeks today. Can I tell you something crazy? We have seen in the last, just preaching about the Holy Spirit, we have seen in the last nine weeks about 150 people come to faith and be baptized in the name of Jesus. Isn't that crazy? I said, why, what's the connection there? Why is that so significant? It's because whenever we put emphasis and we give space for the Holy Spirit, guess what the Holy Spirit does when he's given freedom to operate?

He makes much of Jesus. He loves to take the spotlight and he points it at Jesus so that everyone can see him. Here's what I believe has happened over the last several weeks. The miracle of salvation has occurred is because when you give the Holy Spirit space, he does what he does best, he puts the attention on Jesus. This is what Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would do. John chapter 15, verse 26, listen to what Jesus says. He says, but when the helper comes, the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, what is he gonna do? He will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. He says, look, when the Holy Spirit comes, he is gonna tell everybody about me, is what Jesus says. And so are you, why? Because you're gonna be filled with him. And because of that, the Holy Spirit is gonna put the spotlight on Jesus. See, we must never, listen to this, we must never let sensationalism when it comes to the Holy Spirit be what we're pursuing, what we're pursuing is knowing a person, the person of the Holy Spirit so that as he has space in our life to operate,

his power then works through us and points people to Jesus. And that's the second truth that I want us to see is not only does the Holy Spirit filling us compels us to proclaim the gospel, listen to this, the filling of the Holy Spirit empowers us as we proclaim the gospel. It doesn't just compel us to, it empowers us as we do it. You say, what do you mean? Acts chapter one, verse eight. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Now again, notice the language here. Let me use it back, say it backwards. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, this is describing the filling of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power. Notice you might receive power, you could receive power, you might not receive power, you, what's the word? Will receive power. And the power that he's talking, it's the Greek word dunamis. It means that power that has the ability to evoke change. It's supernatural power. It's power beyond the natural ability. And what Jesus is showing us here is that to advance the gospel, what we need is a power beyond our ability. What we need is the power that can evoke eternal change in the hearts and lives of other people. And he says, and when you receive the Holy Spirit

and you're filled with him, you're gonna have the kind of power that is needed for lives to change around you. It's the Holy Spirit's power. And why is that so important? Eyes right here just for a second. How many of you, just a show of hands, ever feel when you go to share your faith that you're inadequate? Like you just don't either know enough or you just feel like I don't even know what to say. I just feel so inadequate when I share the gospel with people. Raise your hand because I want us to see we're all in good company here, right? Can I make just a public confession to you? I am much more confident and comfortable preaching the gospel on the stage than I am sharing the gospel over a cup of coffee. Like I get nervous. I started looking for on-ramps. I mean, I get my, you know, my palms get sweaty and I'm like, I don't know if I can do this. And here's why I believe that to be. Somewhere along the way, we have been confused to think that it requires us to have an eloquent presentation of the gospel for people to respond. Then I gotta know all these verses and I gotta have all of this stuff memorized and I don't even know the three circles.

I don't even know the Roman road and I know people who can spout this stuff. I just don't know enough to do this. And here's what's happened. The enemy has confused us into thinking that sharing the gospel requires eloquence or perfection of speech in order for us to communicate the gospel for it to be understood. So let me just help you here. Listen, no one has ever responded to the gospel because of the eloquence of the presentation. No one ever has ever responded to the gospel because of the person was so clever and so gifted when they shared the gospel. You know why? Salvation is a miracle of God. And there is not enough eloquence and there's not enough human words that we could say to convince a spiritually dead heart to become alive. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. I have seen the most beautiful gospel presentations you could ever imagine fall on deaf ears and never evoke change. And then I've seen some of the most wheels off moments blubbering through the gospel and all of a sudden 17 people come to faith. You know why? It is not in the eloquence of our delivery but in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul says.

I mean, the Apostle Paul, you think he was pretty good at sharing the faith? I mean, this is the guy that wrote Romans, like the greatest gospel explanation of all of history. Listen to what Paul says about his preaching. First Corinthians chapter two, verse four. He says, in my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom. They weren't an eloquent, beautiful language. I wasn't trying to win you over with my intellect or my ability to talk smoothly in front of you. He says, it was not with plausible words of wisdom but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power. Why? So that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. You know what Paul is saying. I didn't come to you so that you can go, my goodness, what a bright individual. I've never heard the gospel explained like that. Paul, could you share that again? Paul says, I didn't come to you and preach to you so you can be impressed with my vernacular. I came to you and I came to you in simplicity but in the power of the Holy Spirit, the demonstration of the spirit himself so that when you come to faith in Christ, your relationship with Jesus would not be dependent upon the eloquence of my language but by the power of God that has radically transformed your life.

Every person that's ever given their life to Christ has given their life to Christ because there's been a demonstration of power. Through the Holy Spirit, that gave spiritually blinded eyes sight, that made spiritually dead hearts beat and that supernaturally made people into new creations. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can do that. And I'm telling you, I've seen this. I read a story the other day. It was a man who has been trained in apologetics. He's a pastor, been pastoring for years and he told a story. He says, I was on a flight home from a mission trip. I had a bunch of college and high school students and we had just had an unbelievable week and on the flight back, he said, the students were so giddy about what Jesus had done, they were literally making a ruckus on the plane by singing worship songs and sharing their faith and he says, I was sitting beside an unbelieving young college age student and so she said, man, what is the deal? And he just said, I mean, these kids have been set on fire by Jesus and so they got in this dialogue. Well, she was a devout atheist and was very trained in a secular mindset and so he's like, I know what I can do here. I'm a trained apologist.

I can explain and defend the faith with the best of them. So he begins to just use all of the techniques that he had learned in seminary and trying to explain the gospel and every time he gave an argument, she gave an argument, he gave an argument, and he's like, I felt like such a failure and about that time, we were over the airport that we were gonna land in. I thought he thought, well, I just went on a week trip with a bunch of high school kids and college students to share our faith and I'm like failing on the way home and all of a sudden, the pilot said, hey, I got bad news. There's a snowstorm below. We're gonna hover over the airport until we have signal. We'll be up here for about 45 minutes. So he's like, all right, round two, let's go. He said, this time, we decided to do something. I decided to do something different. He said, I just quietly closed my eyes for a moment and I just said, Holy Spirit, I don't know that I have the words to convince her who you are. I need your supernatural power. Would you fill me with your spirit? He said, as soon as I said that prayer, a phrase came to my mind and before I knew it, I looked at her and here's what I said. You know what your problem is? The Bible says you are dead in your sins

and you are in need of a savior and the reason you can't see what I'm telling you is because your eyes have been blinded. He said, as soon as I said that, she burst into tears and says, I know you are right. Tell me what I'm supposed to do. She gives her life to Christ. That's a demonstration of power from the Holy Spirit. This is what is needed. It is not our ability, it is His presence. What we need, listen to this, is not rehearsed words, we need revealed words. See, so many of us, we practice, like before we go share our faith, we'll go like, I'm gonna say this, and then they're gonna say this, and I'm gonna say this, and then they say this, and I'm gonna say this, and we're hyping ourself up, and we have that gospel conversation, and so many of us, or we don't know enough, so we don't go, but when we do, we try to rehearse what we're gonna say. Now listen, and what we need to understand is, is that rehearsed words will never be enough. What we need is revealed words, why? Because the Holy Spirit knows exactly what the other person needs to hear. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, Jesus tells the disciples, hey, there's a day coming when you're gonna be arrested,

you're gonna be put on trial, you're gonna be held, placed in front of the leaders, and called out for your faith, and he tells them what they are to do. Notice what he says in Mark chapter 13, verse 11. He says, when they bring you to trial, and deliver you over, listen, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. You hear what he's saying? Jesus is saying, you don't need rehearsed words. You need revealed words. He's saying this, he's not saying don't study, he's not saying don't read your Bible, he's not saying, you know, don't have training, or of any kind, I think all of that is good. He's just saying, don't be dependent upon your mind, and your information, and all of the things that you've studied, was what needs to happen in that moment, is that because you've read, and because you've prayed, when you have that moment, you're gonna walk in the filling of the Holy Spirit, and whenever you have those conversations, the Holy Spirit is gonna bring to mind scripture verses that you thought you had forgotten. He's gonna bring questions that you didn't think to ask, he's gonna bring statements afterwards, you're gonna be like, where did that come from, and here's what's happening in that moment,

the Holy Spirit is gonna give you the words to say in that moment. Think about Peter for a moment. The Apostle Peter, for crying out loud. This is the guy that the night Jesus was arrested, he denied even knowing Christ. When they said, aren't you one of his disciples? I have no idea who you're talking, I don't even know who that man is, I have no clue who he is, and what happens, Peter runs away, and he hides in fear, and just a few days later, Peter is standing in the very streets that Jesus was crucified, or drug through to be crucified. He is standing in front of the very people that condemned Jesus to death, and what does Peter do? Filled with the Holy Spirit, he begins to preach and proclaim the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What could take this man from being a coward to being courageous? The supernatural power and presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. I'm telling you right now, listen, God wants to use you, but you have to come to the realization that it is not about your eloquence and your ability, it is in the power of the Holy Spirit that you possess if you're a believer, and when you are filled with him, it means that you are under his control,

and now his power at work in your life enables you to do something you could never do on your own, and that is proclaim the gospel and the power of the resurrection, and it have the ability to evoke change. See, why am I so passionate about this? I believe that God is doing something right now across our nation. I believe there's a work that God is doing, and I'm hearing story after story after story. There are churches that are coming to the end of all of their ministry attempts, they're coming to the end of all of their strategies, and you know what they're doing? They're coming back to becoming dependent upon the Holy Spirit, and as they're doing that, we're hearing story after story after story after story of churches where God all of a sudden, where they have been stagnant and dead and no salvations and no baptisms are now setting record numbers, and it's happening all over our state and all over our country. It is unbelievable to see what God is doing, and I believe that we are living in a unique moment in history where if we will submit to the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we will see God do things through us,

and I say us, I mean as the people collectively and as you and me individually that we never dreamed or imagined. We're seeing it. Unexplained movements of God. that look like things that we read about in the Bible. Yesterday, I was in a group thread with a couple of friends of mine. Some of y'all know Shane Pruitt, who's come to our church a number of times. He sent us a video this week of an event he preached at this last weekend, or this like Thursday and Friday. And it was a gathering of high school and college age students, about 10,000 people gathered to hear the gospel. In this video, he sent us, showed us the response that happened when he gave an invitation to respond to the gospel. I want you to watch this video. It's in fast forward time, and I want you to see it. Every one of those people coming back are responding to place their faith and trust in Jesus for the very first time. Incredible response. We asked Shane, Hey, Shane, how many people gave their life to Jesus? Here's what he said. They're still processing,

but right now the count is up to 2,200. That's like Pentecost response. And I can just tell you this, if you know Shane Pruitt, here's what you're gonna recognize. He is the most simple, authentic, and honest person that I've ever met. That's what you're gonna recognize. He is the most simple, authentic, real communicator. No fluff, no eloquence. He just says, here's who Jesus is. Do you wanna follow him? You say, well, then why such great response? Here's something I know about Shane Pruitt. He lives on his knees. He lives in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. And I show you this to say, look, because I know this man, that is an example of what God can do through an individual who will walk in the filling of the Holy Spirit. Out of an overflow of that, there is gonna be a proclamation of the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit to cause life to be given to it. You know what I love about that? It's not limited to Shane. You can walk in that same power. I can walk in the same power. And God is doing something.

I don't want us to miss it. I don't want you to miss it. Do you realize that there are ways that God wants to use you? You could never imagine. You couldn't dream of. But it requires us being filled with the Holy Spirit. So let me just help you with this. Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? I'm walking in the filling of the Holy Spirit. Here's a great question to ask yourself. Rather than asking yourself the question, am I filled with the Holy Spirit? Ask yourself the question, is there something in me that's compelling me on a regular basis to share Jesus with people around me? If the answer is no, there's nothing in me compelling me and where I'm actively sharing the gospel with people around me, then there's a good chance you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. There is this invitation we have. You know, here's the thing, we get to watch when we walk in this, we get a front row seat to miracles. I'll just tell you one quick story. Several years ago, there was a man by the name of Bob who attended our church. Bob was an older man. We were in the other worship center.

His daughter was in one of the life groups and he had moved in with her because of health reasons. He was not a believer, grew up Catholic, never gave his life to Jesus for whatever reason, loved coming to New Beginnings because of relationships. And he and I got to know each other and he would sit right in the front of services. But one particular service, I gave an invitation and response and I knew his daughter had a burden for his salvation. He had not received Christ yet and he was getting on up there. And as I ended the service, we were about to be dismissed. All of a sudden, the paramedics came in and I noticed that Bob was kind of out of it. And toward the end of the message, he had had a heart attack. She called 911 from the seat. They came and got him, took him to the hospital and I got word from her saying, it's not good. Could you come up here and pray with him? And I really want you to share the gospel. We don't know how much longer he has. And this is, again, this is just real story, all right? So man, I was busy that day. I had so many meetings, pulled 100 different directions. So I got that message. I said, yes, I was gonna try to make time. And I got into some meetings. And to be honest with you, I completely forgot. Completely forgot.

The next morning, I come to the office and I'm getting my day ready. And someone came in and said, Pastor's family called again. You were supposed to come by there yesterday and you didn't come. I was like, oh my gosh. And they said, it's not good. They need you now. Two staff members there. I said, meeting's off. Y'all wanna go with me? We jumped in my truck. I rushed to the hospital. I walk in to the ICU unit. And there she's there, holding what I believe is lifeless body. She's just holding his hand and she's weeping. And I thought, oh my gosh, I came here too late. So I walked over and I just put my hand on hers where she was holding his and began to pray. And in the middle of my prayer, I felt his hand move. And I had thought he had passed away, but he wasn't dead. And so immediately, there was just this moment where you just sense God entered the room and like this moment of clarity, like the filling of the Spirit happened in that moment. And I just pushed her aside and I grabbed his hand and I said, Bob, I know you can't talk, but I wanna know if you hear and understand me,

I'm asking you to squeeze my hand. And he squeezed my hand. I said, Bob, this is Pastor Todd. Do you recognize my voice? He squeezed my hand again. And I got down on one knee and I leaned over to him and I said, Bob, you're about to die. And Bob, you're not ready to die. Bob, I know that you've trusted your religion your entire life and whatever the Holy Spirit was telling me in that moment, I just said bluntly, I didn't worry about eloquence. I just said, you're gonna die and what you've trusted in is not enough. But Jesus sent me by to give you one last invitation. Bob, you're a sinner and Jesus died for your sins and he was raised to life and he's the only hope you have. You need to be forgiven of your sin. I said, Bob, do you understand what I'm saying? And he squeezed my hand tight this time. And then he let go and I said, Bob, right now in your heart, you can just in your mind, you can tell Jesus, I want that. He sat there for a moment. I said, Bob, did you just trust Jesus? And he squeezed my hand this time, he didn't let go. So immediately, as soon as I felt that, I went by the other side of the bed to give his daughter opportunity and I got down to the other side of the bed

and I took his hand and I said, Bob, in just a few moments, you're gonna hear Jesus call your name. We are right here with you and you don't have to be afraid because he has forgiven you. And you are now ready to meet him. And I then just started quoting the 23rd Psalm and when I got to the end, all of a sudden, he flatlined and went home to be with Jesus. I got a front row seat to the power of God that brings salvation and the grace that God gives that a man in his final seconds would work the power, the miracle of salvation in that room. And I'm telling you, I know that in that moment when the sky parted for him, that Christ welcomed him in and I'm telling you that changed me in ways I could never describe. This is the way that God wants to use all of us. His grace, his power is real and listen, it can be real in your life. So what I wanna do this morning is I'm gonna ask you, we're gonna respond in two ways. I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and I just wanna say this and I believe this is what God told me to do today. There are some of you in this room, I'm gonna ask if we could just limit the movement in the room for a moment. If we could just limit the movement in the room for the next few moments.

There are some of you in the room this morning and you don't have a relationship with Jesus. You have trusted in religion, you have trusted in your good works, you've trusted in your mom and dad's faith. Some of you were like, well, I grew up, I've always been a Christian. No one has always been a Christian. It demands that there has a point in time where we are born again of the spirit and there are some of you, you've trusted in religion, you've trusted in your good works, you've trusted in your mom and dad's faith, you've trusted in your church attendance and I'm here to tell you in love, if you die with that as your hope, you will die in your sin and you will spend eternity away from God. But he has invited you into a relationship where you can know him and you can trust him and you can know him, be forgiven by him and walk in intimacy and be transformed by him. And if that has not happened in your life, I believe that you are here today because the Holy Spirit, just like Bob, has brought you to this moment. And if you are in this place and you're saying, I don't know that I'm a Christian, I don't know that I've ever trusted Christ, or I know that I've not,

I've trusted in something other than Jesus, and you're sensing in your heart that God is calling you in a relationship right now where you are, you can simply say something like this, God, I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. Come and live inside of me. I trust in your death and your resurrection, and I put all of my hope in you. I repent of my sin, I repent of my religion. I trust you with my life. That is the prayer you prayed in a moment. I'm gonna give you an opportunity to stand as a declaration that you have turned to Jesus today. Others of you, you've trusted Jesus, but you've never been baptized, and you know that that's an act of obedience. You can't be a witness for Jesus like you're called to be until you take that first step of witness, which is baptism. And so for those of you in the room who know, I just trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior, or I want to, and I wanna talk to somebody about it, or I know I need to be baptized, I'm gonna give you an opportunity right now. If you just prayed to receive Christ, or you want to, or you need to be baptized, to stand where you are, no one looking around, just stand to your feet, praise God.

Anyone else, just stand to your feet. I just prayed with you to receive Christ, or I know I need to be baptized. Anyone else, just stand to your feet. I know it takes courage. Praise God back here. Anyone else? It takes courage. Praise God. You're not alone. There are already people standing, if you're saying, I need to stand, I just haven't, and I'm gonna encourage you. If you're standing, if you'll look to your right or left, praise God back here, there's gonna be some encouragers, decision encouragers are gonna come alongside of you, and they wanna help pray with you, and talk with you, and encourage you. Anyone else, you're not alone. Just slip out of your seat, praise God. Anyone else? Believers, I want you to look at me for a moment. We're gonna go into a time of worship, which I'm praying again in this service, just like last service, it would just become a prayer time. There's some of you in this room, you know Christ, and you know people who don't know Him. You're burdened for people. There are people in your school, in your classroom,

in your neighborhood, in your family, you're gonna see some this week at Thanksgiving, and at Christmas, and you know, they don't know Christ, but here's what I want you to know. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, there's gonna be something in you that compels you to wanna share. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, He's gonna give you power to do so. What would it look like this morning if we know we have brothers, and sisters, and moms, and dads, and cousins, and nephews, and nieces, and neighbors, and students who don't know Christ, then what would it look like this morning for us to turn this stage into an altar, where we get on our face and begin to cry out to God, begging Him to move in their life, begging Him to save them, to bring them to salvation? I wanna urge you and compel you. Listen, if you're not burdened, then you need to be on your knees asking God, God, why am I so apathetic over the souls of people that I claim that I love? How can we say we love the people in our life, but not feel a sense of burden for their eternity? Some of you have children and grandchildren that don't know Christ, and you give more attention to their schedule and their practices than you do their eternity.

What would it look like for you to ask God to break you and to fill you with the Holy Spirit, so that the witness of Christ might be in you? So I'm gonna ask you to stand. As you stand, I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna say amen. This altar's gonna be open. Let's come and get before the Lord and ask Him to do what only He can do. God, we surrender now to you. Use us, fill us, break us, burden us, and God, I pray that we will not leave this place without pleading on behalf of those that we love for their soul and for their eternity. And God, I pray for anyone in this room who's sensing pride in their heart. even though they know they need you, Amen. As we worship this all-important