The Holy Spirit - Activator of Grace

Good morning church, welcome, welcome. We're gonna worship Jesus this morning. You can stand if you're not standing. Before we sing a song this morning, I just wanna take a minute to center our hearts on Jesus. I love Psalm 100, it talks about entering his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. And it's, I love this picture because it's just a physical image in our heads of how we can come into worship, leaving behind or setting our attention away from what we came in with and setting it on Jesus. That's what thanksgiving does. So I just wanna take a minute and just let's take a breath together, just breathe in. And just let the Lord bring something you're thankful to, to mind. It can be really simple, just, and thank him for it. In your heart, or you can say it out loud, just thank the Lord. Thank you Jesus. And we're gonna read Psalm 100 together. It's gonna be on the screens. Let's read this all out loud together. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name for the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Amen. Lord, we thank you. We are grateful people. Lord, you are faithful through all generations and worthy of our praise. We love you, Lord. Oh, how we love you. ♪ Through the night, then through the darkness ♪ ♪ Your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul ♪ ♪ The work is finished, the end is written ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ Hallelujah. ♪ The cross has spoken, I am forgiven ♪ ♪ The King of kings calls me his own ♪ ♪ Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ Come on, let's sing. ♪ Oh hallelujah, praise the Lord who set me free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ You have broken every chain ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, praise the Lord who set me free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ You have broken every chain ♪

♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ ♪ Then came the morning that sealed the promise ♪ ♪ Your buried body was laid to rest ♪ ♪ Began to weep and out of the silence the roaring lion ♪ ♪ Declared the grave has no claim on me ♪ ♪ Then came the morning, the sting of the forest ♪ ♪ Your buried body begins to bleed ♪ ♪ Then out of the silence the roaring lion ♪ ♪ Declared the grave has no claim on me ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus yours is the victory, yeah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ You have broken every chain, there's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ my living hope ♪ ♪ And hallelujah, praise the one who set me free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ You have broken every chain, there's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ my living hope ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ my living hope ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus Christ my living hope ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, he's our living hope ♪ ♪ Oh, he's our living hope ♪ ♪ Oh we thank you Jesus for the cause of our living hope ♪ ♪ Oh is anyone worthy, is anyone whole? ♪ ♪ Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? ♪ ♪ The lion of Judah who conquered the grave ♪ ♪ He is David's Root and the Lamb who died to ransom his slave ♪ ♪ Is anyone worthy, is anyone whole? ♪ ♪ Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? ♪

♪ The lion of Judah who conquered the grave ♪ ♪ He is David's Root and the Lamb who died to ransom his slave ♪ ♪ Oh is anyone worthy, is anyone whole? ♪ ♪ Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? ♪ ♪ He is the lion of Judah who conquered the grave ♪ ♪ He is David's Root and the Lamb who died to ransom his slave ♪ ♪ From every people and tribe, every nation and tribe ♪ ♪ He has made us the kingdom and priests of God to reign with the Son ♪ ♪ Is he worthy, is he worthy of our blessing and honor and glory? ♪ ♪ Is he worthy of this? ♪ ♪ He is, he is, he is worthy, he is worthy ♪ ♪ He is, he is, he is worthy, he is worthy ♪ ♪ He is, he is, he is worthy, he is worthy ♪ ♪ He is, He is, He is worthy, He is worthy, oh He is ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah worthy, sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Death has lost its grip on me, you have broken every chain ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ my living hope ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah worthy, sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Thank you Jesus, hallelujah, one, two, three. ♪ ♪ You hear the melody of all creation, but there's a song of praise that only I can bring. ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪ ♪ You are the healing, God of the ages, but yet you chose to make my heart a new dwelling place. ♪ ♪ You hear my brokenness, show me your glory, so I'll have songs of thanks and I'll even angels sing. ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪

♪ There is only one worthy, there is only one worthy, oh Jesus, you're worthy, worthy. ♪ ♪ Oh, we praise the Lamb of God. Oh, the Lamb of God, unborn to mother, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above. ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, righteous Lord, who shed His blood, who proved to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ, lifted up. Holy, holy, Lamb of God, unborn to mother, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above. ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, righteous Lord, who shed His blood, who proved to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ, lifted up. Who else is worthy, who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ There is no one holy in Jesus ♪ ♪ Can my sin sing now, can my sin sing now ♪ ♪ Holy in Jesus, can my sin sing now, can my sin sing now ♪ ♪ Can my sin sing now, can my sin sing now ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ Can my sin sing now, can my sin sing now ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ Correder un Jido reinará, quién fue, quién es y quién vendrá ♪ ♪ Sentado en el trono está, Santo, Santo ♪ ♪ Cierta luz nos entregó, lo grande amor nos demostró ♪ ♪ Exaltado en majestad, Santo, Santo ♪ ♪ Correder un Jido reinará, quién fue, quién es y quién vendrá ♪ ♪ Sentado en el trono está, Santo, Santo ♪ ♪ Cierta luz nos entregó, lo grande amor nos demostró ♪ ♪ Exaltado en majestad, Santo, Santo ♪ ♪ ¿Y quién más es digno? ¿Quién más es digno? ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ ¿Quién más es digno? ¿Quién más es digno? ♪ ♪ No, no hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ ¿Quién más es digno? ¿Quién más es digno? ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ ¿Quién más es digno? ¿Quién más es digno? ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪ ♪ No hay nadie solo en Cristo ♪

♪ No ma. ♪ Oh baby ♪ Oh Jesus ♪ Oh Jesus ♪ Oh Jesus ♪ Thank you for the cross Lord ♪ Thank you for the price you paid ♪ Bearing all my sin and shame ♪ In love you came ♪ And gave amazing grace ♪ Thank you for this love Lord ♪ And thank you for the nail pierced hands ♪ You washed me in your cleansing flow ♪ Now all I know is your forgiveness and embrace ♪ And worthy is the lamb ♪ Seated on the throne ♪ We crown you now with many crowns ♪ You reign victorious ♪ High and lifted up Oh Jesus, Son of God, The darling of heaven crucified, Worthy is the Lamb, Worthy is the Lamb. Thank You for the cross, Lord, And thank You for the price You pay. Bearing all my sin and shame, In love You came, And gave amazing grace. Thank You for this love, Lord, Thank You, Lord, And thank You for the narrow piercings. You washed me in Your cleansing flow,

And now all I know Is Your forgiveness and embrace. Let's sing, for worthy is the Lamb. And worthy is the Lamb. You're seated on the throne. We crown You now, we crown You now With many crowns. You reign victorious. You're high and lifted up, You're high and lifted up. Oh Jesus, Son of God, The darling of heaven crucified, Worthy is the Lamb, Sing, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. We sing, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. We sing, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. You're seated on the throne. We crown You now with many crowns. You reign victorious. You're high and lifted up. Oh Jesus, Son of God, The darling of heaven crucified. Worthy is the Lamb. Oh, and worthy is the Lamb. So worthy is the Lamb.

Oh, and worthy is the Lamb. Oh. We thank You. Oh. Worthy, worthy, worthy. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. And we cry holy, holy. ♪ Holy, we cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy is the Lord ♪ ♪ And we cry holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord ♪ In Revelation 5, there's this scene, thousands and thousands of angels staring at Jesus. And they don't ask questions, they simply say one thing, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Their response, their guttural response at looking at Jesus is just to say, worthy is the lamb that was slain. He deserves the honor, he deserves the glory and the power. And so I'm gonna pray, and I want you to just take a minute and just you personally tell Jesus how worthy he is of your life. Surrender your life this morning. So Lord, we join in with the angels and we say, worthy is the lamb, worthy is the lamb who receives honor, glory, and power. We say that you're worthy of our lives. You're worthy of everything, of our time, of our effort, of our relationships, of our finances, you are worthy. And we enthrone you this morning, right here in this room

and right here in our hearts. You're worthy, Jesus, amen, amen. You guys can have a seat. And we're gonna take a step deeper into worship by taking up tithes and offerings. We're gonna invite our ushers forward. There'll be a few ways to give on the screen here. And just wanna say welcome again to all of our college students. Anybody in the house? Let's go. My name's Austin Murray. I get the privilege of being the college pastor here. As our guys come forward, I'm gonna pray for our offering this morning. So Jesus, Lord, I pray this morning that you get ahold of our hearts. Lord, thank you that you don't need our money, but God, you use it when our hearts give cheerfully to build the kingdom, God, to see this church reach more people in this city, in the nation, in the nations of the earth. So bless this offering this morning. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. I get the privilege of inviting one of our students up. He's gonna come up and share his testimony. It's a big room, so y'all give it up for Abe Saucedo. My guy. Good morning. Come on, tell us the truth, baby.

I was asked to share about how God has changed my life throughout my college years. And I felt the Lord specifically just highlight his nearness and how his nearness has truly and radically changed my life throughout the years. As a college student, I've experienced a lot of highs. I've gone to the mission trips. I've experienced healing. I've experienced the Lord move in powerful ways. I've gone to the worship nights. I've been filled with zeal and just fire for the Lord, where I've just experienced a lot of highs, but I've also realized that I've experienced a lot of lows. I've gone through loss, gone through grief, through sorrow, through trials and what people would call the fire and whatnot, where, for example, like praying for friends who are still living for the world and not seeing my prayers being answered and just wrestling with a lot of disappointment. But I specifically remember there being a moment with the Lord. I was sitting with the Lord and I was like, God, you're everything. I want you to be my everything. And the Lord was like, Abe, if you want me to be your everything, I can't just be a part of your life. Because if I'm everything, I am in everything. I'm not just a God of your highs,

but I'm a God of your lows. And I promise to be with you to the ends of the earth. And that verse that when God says, I'm sending my son, Emmanuel, who it's God with us, it's like that verse came to reality that whatever circumstance, whatever trial, whatever you're facing, whether you're at your highest or whether you're at your lowest, you can be assured and confident that the Lord is near to you. And I've just experienced tangibly the nearness of God throughout my college life. So I just wanna give an encouragement. There's many people in this room, many stories. Some of them are just like me. more feeling high as ever shout out college ministry I'm joking but yeah Some of them are just like me. And I just wanna give an encouragement to the people in this room. highs lows you're experiencing life but but you can really hold on to that reality that that the Lord is so near and whatever you're going through but love you guys love you fam have a blessed morning you stay up here with me hey here's what we're gonna do we have a little bit of space here we're gonna actually pray for our college students my life was radically transformed in college ministry I don't know where I would be I definitely wouldn't be here if God wouldn't have met me when I was 18 years old and so we're gonna pray that same thing for the churches all across our city in particular this church that college students and and don't just pray for the ones that already love Jesus to love him more that's a good prayer but pray for the ones that aren't in church this morning pray for the ones that did

things they regret last night pray that the prodigals would come home and that people would be saved healed and delivered here's some prayer points if you're new with us we pray can I get an amen so turn to your neighbor or turn to somebody next to you and begin to just pray for a few minutes these prayer points you y'all keep praying just agree with me Lord we're so grateful that these moments here in our city where you meet with college students change the trajectory of their lives and generations to come and so we ask God from the north south east and west of our city you would bring those that are far from you to you those who've known you to fall in a way would come back or praying for those that know you to be empowered by your Holy Spirit we pray for those that are part of Antioch Community Church and those who will be may they find you in such power and revelation that it literally changes the world pray for other churches in our city we thank you Lord that there's a beautiful unity going on we pray for the union spirit and the bond of peace among all students we ask that every place that a student is gathered today they would be visited by you we thank you Lord that that's an inheritance that we have in this city and we thank you for it and we treasure it so come Holy Spirit come on these precious students we pray and everybody said a man a man wow I love hearing everybody pray just the buzz in the house but I think how much more does God love hearing his people pray there's no prayer too small too weak the Father loves to hear your voice my name is Jimmy Seibert for those that are new I know it's still the beginning of the year my wife Laura and I have almost 40 years of marriage I started Antioch 27 years ago with a group of friends with this banner phrase and you'll see it everywhere where we want to be a people who have a passion for Jesus and his purposes in the earth and our prayer and my prayer today I'm gonna get a little emotional is that you would meet Jesus you'd fall more in love with Jesus that every time we gather somehow you encounter Jesus in that unique way that you need and that

he would be glorified and you would be helped and then out of that you would have this sense of purpose for your life that you're not just drifting out here hoping for something good to happen but God not only comes to love you and save you but he empowers you with a purpose and a plan that matters to the world that matters to people around you and that is our deep deep prayer well without that those prayers no matter how great they are are really ineffective if they're not partnered with and so many times we often talk about devotional life meeting with God that is the centrality of who we are and I just wonder we got this book called alone with God this is probably 50 different to seek God. Is anybody saying, man, I need some fresh stuff in my devotional life? All right, yes, ma'am, here you go, you got it. Front row, get the double blessing. All right, so we got another book out called 40 Days of Devotion. All these are out front, and this is literally a starter kit. It literally will take you through word, worship, prayer, and listening every day. So is anybody saying, I don't need a new tool, I just need to get after it? Anybody need a 40-day primer? There we go, Jay. You can see the hands, he's got it. All right, anybody got a big decision coming up? Raise your hand. Anybody got a big decision you're trying to make and you're asking God's will? Yeah, you got it, all right, done, done.

Mick, can you get it to her? That's the 30-day journal. It's a way for you to kind of sort through, God, what are you saying? Taking a 30-day period of time. The number one question I've been asked through the years is what is God's will for my life? All these tools are just for you. Well, hey, about 11, well, really, the middle of last night as I was kind of sorting through the message, I was just realized, okay, God, you wanna change directions. And we are talking about overwhelming grace and we're gonna continue in that. But I want to unpack this morning the power of the Holy Spirit as the activator to the grace of God. And we're gonna share a lot of scriptures. We can get those to you. Some of them will come on the screen. A lot of them I will just quote. But my prayer is that you would encounter God today in a very meaningful and unique way because he's here. God's here. About a year ago, I was in the Dominican Republic with my son-in-law, two grandsons. We were with our friends from Compassion International. So there was a handful of Americans, a handful of Dominicans.

And I was just caught up in this reality that so many times we talk about God or pray to God, but we don't pause long enough to recognize that he's here. He's not just somebody we're grasping for, but he's somebody who's present. And so I asked the guys as we sat down at a meal at a local restaurant, could I just pray for us? And they said, sure. And I said, and you can just go on it too with me. I said, hey, everybody, God's here. He really is. He's here. And I begin to pray, Lord Jesus, thank you that you're here, that you're at the right hand of the Father praying for us right now. Thank you that your grace is extended towards us, that because of your death, burial, and resurrection, forgiveness of sins is present now. And we prayed and we waited for a minute and thanked Jesus for washing us. You might just do that right now, Jesus. I confess this anger, this fear, this anxiety, this gross thing, I put it on you right now. The grace of Jesus is present. Lord, we thank you for the love of God the Father that literally you wove us together in our mother's womb. You put us together. We didn't create ourselves, but you wanted us. And you want us again today to know your caring hand,

to know your counsel, to know that you carry us. Father, we recognize that you are not only sovereign and powerful, but you're intimate and caring. And oh, precious Holy Spirit, thank you that you're in this room right now. Thank you that you're online speaking to hearts and minds. Thank you, Holy Spirit. You're trying to get our attention this morning in this moment. Thank you, God, that you're here. And that you love us. Amen. Amen. And as we prayed that simple prayer, you could see the waitress tearing up, starting to cry, just watching us pray. Everybody was moved at the table. Afterwards, she would pull me aside and she said, I don't know what it is, but when you prayed, I realized I'm far from God. I don't know what to do. I grew up in church, but I'm far from God and my sins are so bad, I don't think God will take me back. And I said, oh sweetie, that's what he came for sin, not to walk away from you, but to come towards you in your sin. He wants to take it away. We prayed together and she said, could you come talk to my friends? And there were three other waiters,

a guy and two other girls. And she shared what we had just prayed about. And another young lady said, I need to come back to God too, please help me. And we prayed for her to come back to Jesus. The other two said, we're not sure we even know God. And we were able to lead two people to the Lord. It was a beautiful moment, but it would activate something that week that though we were there to care for the kiddos and do the compassion project, which was beautiful in and of itself, amazing work of God, but everywhere we went, something shifted. We weren't just going to learn about God. We weren't just going to find out what God was doing, but we were living with God in his presence. Not only is fullness of joy, but there is access to the grace of God in every situation. I love what Abe said. God asked him for everything. That meant every area of his life, which means that God wants to show up in every area of your life if he has everything of you. And that is by the Holy Spirit. So let's go back to our definition of grace. And then I want to take us on a walk through the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation on the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. Grace is the overwhelming love, pleasure,

and favor of God towards undeserving people. That's a key, right? Overwhelming love, pleasure, and favor of God, God himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit towards undeserving people. None of us deserve God's grace, but he gives it because he loves us, because he is lavish, because he can't be anything but himself. He is the Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. But it is also the power of God to do the will of God. It is not just license when we sin or just covering for when we sin. It is also power not to sin. The grace of God is not just a flippant thing that we do to cover us when we are not right with God, but it is the power to be right with God and to enjoy his commands, to delight in the fear of the Lord. The grace of God is extended by his Holy Spirit that we can have power to do the will of God. So grace, when fully understood, is not just love, pleasure, and favor towards undeserving people, but it is power to do the will of God. As we talked about last week, it is activated by the compassion of God. It's activated by compassion. Jesus looked on the multitudes.

He looks in this room. He looks into your hearts, those watching online, and it says he sees us as distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. And he prayed for laborers, for different people to wake up and to help and partner with him to alleviate this pain of living in this life. If you are struggling with anxiety, depression, fear, a besetting sin, a broken relationship, he's looking on you with compassion. And yes, you may be in full rebellion, but he's still looking on with compassion. Won't you trust me? Let it go. Let me. Let me come because that is my delight. So if grace is the love, pleasure, and favor of God towards undeserving people, if it's the power of God to do the will of God, if it's activated by compassion, it is not just an it or a force. It is housed in a person, the person of God. Familiar passage, hopefully, to this community is 2 Corinthians 13, 14, and it says this. Now may the love, excuse me, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So without that cross, there is no doorway to grace. That cross bore your sin and my sin, and so the veil would be rent so that we can enter

into a relationship with the Father and receive the Holy Spirit. Without that cross, there's no way in. So the grace of God, while we were still sinning, Christ died for us. Not just that one time for salvation, but once and for all, for all sins, for all time. Amazing. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God our Father. Again, the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious. A loving father corrects his sons and daughters. Just because you feel the correction of God does not mean you aren't loved by God. The psalmist says this, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. For a sheep to remain safe, there is the rod that has to correct the sheep and keep them in the right way. And there is the staff that pulls them close in intimacy. Both are in play all the time. Jesus, full of grace and truth. The love of God our Father. And then the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says when we are born again, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. The Spirit of God comes to live inside of you, take up residence in you because we are not able to walk with God

in the way that he delights in, has created us and designed us for except by the power of God. God knew you were so weak that he had to put himself inside of you for you to be able to do his will. Right, some of y'all are trying really hard and I just want you to know it's not gonna work. All right? God knew you and I were so weak that he put himself inside of us so that we would be able to live out the design we were created for and we'd be able to do it out of union and communion with him. All right, so what I wanna do now is just walk you through quoting several scriptures from kind of Genesis on about the Holy Spirit. It says in Genesis one, God created the heavens and the earth, right? And the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters of the earth. So the Holy Spirit, we see him immediately. Verse two, he's hovering over the waters of the earth. Isn't that good? Listen, he's hovering over the waters of your life. I feel like there's a storm going on in my life all the time. I feel like there's absolute chaos. In the chaos, the Holy Spirit is hovering

over your apartment, over your house, and over your heart, wanting to, the next verse was, let there be light. He's wanting to speak a good word to bring order out of the chaos of your life if you will recognize that he's hovering. It's kind of like, you know, if somebody is, if I've got a water leak in my house and the thing's flooding and there is a plumber who is able to take care of it sitting outside and he said, he texted me, he said, all you have to do is ask and open the door and I will come and help you. But I'm sitting in there splashed, I can't believe this. What am I gonna do? We're gonna lose money and my house is gonna fall apart. It's gonna be months and I don't even know what I'm gonna do and where's God? He doesn't care. And the plumber's sitting outside. He said, hey, hey, hey, just tell, I said, open the door, man. If you don't open the door, I can't come in and turn off the valve and work the stuff and get this mess cleaned up. If we let the Holy Spirit, not only just seal our hearts through salvation, but come into our chaos, we'll remain in chaos until we do. Fast forward throughout the Old Testament, we see God showing up, like manifesting on Moses

and Moses would seek God's face. The glory would fall on his face. I think that's what those folks experienced when we were in the Dominican Republic. They saw the glory of God as we were exalting Jesus, as we were just acknowledging God's presence at the table. Something was drawing them. So Moses would speak to God face to face as a man speaks to his friend and the manifest presence of God by the Holy Spirit was on him. They had a place where they would meet with God and it's called the Holy of Holies and there was a cloud by day and a fire by night. Speaking of the Holy Spirit leading, guiding, and directing this broken people called the Israelites as they were wandering through the wilderness, this tabernacle was set up so that they could be assured that God was with them. And if they were fearful living in their tents at night, they could look out the window and they would see the fire by night. Okay, I think it's gonna be okay. God's with us or during the day, the cloud by day. God would anoint prophets, priests, and kings by his Holy Spirit. And then he would, then Isaiah the prophet would pick it up this way. He said, the Spirit of the Lord will come. come upon, he was speaking of Jesus and the people of God,

the Spirit of God will come, the Spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, might, knowledge in the fear of the Lord. They will delight in the fear of the Lord. They won't judge by what their eyes see or their ears hear, but with righteous judgment, they will care for the poor of the earth. And these are scriptures that I pray often over myself, okay? The Spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, might, knowledge in the fear of the Lord. They'll delight in the fear of the Lord and they won't judge by what their eyes see. So does anybody need wisdom today? Right? Okay, there it is, free Bible verse, Isaiah 11. Every day, Spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, might, knowledge in the fear of the Lord and Lord make me delight in the fear of the Lord. Spirit of the living God, fall on me. Spirit of God, inside of me be activated to delight in the fear of the Lord so that I won't listen to the voices of the world, the flesh and the devil, but I will hear your voice saying, this is the way, walk in it and I will rightly discern how to love and care for the people around me and in my life. We continue through the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bind up the brokenhearted. He's anointed me to set the captives free,

to give freedom to prisoners and to bring beauty from ashes and joy instead of mourning. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you and me. If you are a born again person, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you to bind up your broken heart and the people around you, to set captives free, to give freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, to bring beauty in the midst of ashes and to bring joy instead of mourning. When you pray that, when I pray that every day, I find that God creates divine appointments that I wasn't expecting along the way. We've had what I call the terrible, beautiful week with the Martin family and the loss of their 22-year-old son. It's been terrible because of the pain and the questions and the agony and man, all that goes with that. It's been beautiful because of the people of God loving them and then the worship that spontaneously has emerged pretty much day and night and just experiencing the grace of God in the midst of the pain of man. And yesterday, we had just a unique time where it seemed that the Spirit of God was showing up and as we pray, we just saw like Isaiah 61 breaking chains off of generations, not only for their own family,

but of families who have been touched by this incredible loss, but also incredible response to the grace of God. It seemed that there was just a beauty from ashes or beauty in ashes, not from ashes. You don't go on from the ashes, but you find the grace of God in the ashes. And I'm doing a poor job trying to communicate, but what I'm trying to get you to understand is the Spirit of God is here to bind up your broken heart, to rewrite the script. No matter how devastating it was, no matter what was done to you, no matter what thing happened around you, God is greater than that. So I think maybe a conclusion I would say, if grace is not greater than it, then grace is not all that the Scripture says it is. If grace is not greater than your greatest challenge, then grace is, then we're all done. But grace is greater, but it's activated by the Spirit of God. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty even in the midst of brokenness. So we keep going through the Scriptures, the Spirit of God showing up through prophets and priests and kings. And in Zechariah 4.6, he says this. It says, not by might nor by power,

but by my Spirit says the Lord. This is in the context of rebuilding the temple, rebuilding the people of God. The New Testament says that we are the temple of God. Your household's a temple of God. Wherever you work can be a temple of God. God is saying, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit. I'm coming in to rule and reign if you will let me. And then it goes on to say, if you will shout grace, grace to the mountains in your life. Talking to a friend this week who was going into a very tense meeting. He was asking for prayer along the way and somebody gave him that scripture. Not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord. Speak grace, grace to the mountain. And his testimony was, I spoke grace, grace to the mountain. I believed that God would get involved in the situation and it went well and I came out the other side. And as he's telling this story, I'm thinking, why don't we do that all the time? He felt the pain so he called on the Lord. But I can tell you can call on the Lord before the pain. So we see, we roll over into the New Testament. The spirit of God showing up on Jesus like a dove. Declaring that this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

And we see through the life of Jesus, it says the spirit of God was on Jesus without measure. And these are all prayers I pray. I say, God, fill me with wisdom, counsel, understanding, might and the fear of the Lord. God, come on me to bind the broken heart and set the captives free. Jesus, would you come by the Holy Spirit? Follow me with the spirit without measure. These things that were on Jesus, we can ask for ourselves because we are his sons and daughters and we are one with him by the Holy Spirit. The spirit of the Lord was on Jesus without measure. And then we're gonna come back to Jesus's discourse about the Holy Spirit coming in John 13 through 17. But one of the key pieces that he said, the Holy Spirit will come to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment. So even as we're talking about the tenderness and the preciousness of the Holy Spirit, there should be a conviction also coming because he is the Holy Spirit. He's not just an it or a power, he is holy. He is holy and we can grieve him and we can distance, push him away. He won't leave, he stays, he's hovering. But you can block him by willful sin, by turning to your own way. That's why so many times the spirit of God shows up

when you get honest with God and pour your sin out at his feet. It's not because you are then becoming perfect, but it's because God moves where there's humility. So again, we see Jesus talking about the spirit of God coming and I'm gonna land back here in just a moment. And then after his resurrection and speaking of the kingdom of 40 days, he said, not many days from now, you're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And then it says, right before he ascended, he said, the spirit of God's gonna come on you to be a witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. So the spirit that gives us wisdom, the spirit that gives us counsel, the spirit that convicts us, the spirit that comforts us and cares for us is also the spirit that gives us power to be a witness for Jesus wherever we go. We often say, I just don't know how to witness. I don't know what to do or I feel powerless. I would just say that God has given you all the power you need. You just need to let the Holy Spirit, let the Holy Spirit come on you. Let the Holy Spirit move in your life. We did a funeral this week for Bill Adams, dear friend. And we all said, Bill, everywhere he went, he shared Jesus. And even when he couldn't talk, he had little tracks

and he would hand them out. And Todd Harbor, former Baylor coach, said when Bill couldn't talk the last few years, Todd would pick him up, they would go to lunch, and Bill would tug on Todd to go over to the Christian bookstore. He said he'd run to the back of the Christian bookstore and he'd get 50 tracks. And then somehow, Todd said by the end of the week, he would send him a little stick figure picture of how many people he had given tracks to. And I thought, wow, now that is a man filled with the Holy Spirit and the power to witness. Not a perfect man, not even knowing what to do, but just committed because the Spirit of God was on him. All right, we keep going. Acts 2, the Spirit of God then falls on them. The wind blows into the room. The power of God comes on them. And it says in Acts 2, 17 through 18, it says, and it shall be in those days, says the Lord, I will pour forth of my Spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters will prophesy. And your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my Spirit and they shall prophesy. So here we go. The spirit that hovers and the spirit that visits

in the Old Testament is the spirit that then comes to live within us and come upon us. And it says it's coming upon all of you. Everybody say all. All of you, all of you. You say, well, I don't even know there is a Holy Spirit and I'm not sure what I believe about it. The scripture says that the Holy Spirit will come on all of you if you let him come. Come Holy Spirit. I cannot do this on my own. Spirit of the living God, I need you. And we see him come in power. There's a bold proclamation of Jesus. We see the church gathered and it said, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe because they were in and among the work of God. They were looking to Jesus. They were trusting the Holy Spirit to lead them and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. Many of you have walked into this room at times and say, I don't know what it is about, Andy, but when I walk in there, there's something, there's a presence there. There is a presence and it's the Spirit of the living God. That's what I want you to know. What is that little, it's a belief and a trust and a reliance upon the Holy Spirit above all else. Paul will go on to say that we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit.

In the book of Revelation, it said they were taken up in the Spirit by, in the Spirit and the Lord, the bride say come. There is just this saturated Genesis to Revelation invitation to encounter, to live in and to be ruled by the Holy Spirit. We walk in the gifts of the Spirit. We have the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It's unending. My question for you today is, do you know the Holy Spirit? I wanna take the remainder of our time out of John chapter 14 in hopes to connect you to the grace of God through the Holy Spirit. John 14, I believe we start in verse 16, says this. And I'll ask the Father, this is Jesus talking, and he will give you another helper, a comforter, an advocate, an intercessor, a counselor, a strengthener, standby, to be with you forever, a spirit of truth whom the Lord cannot receive and take to his heart, because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he, the Holy Spirit, remains with you continually. Everybody say continually. Come on. And he will be in you. Wow. I will not leave you as orphans, comfortless, bereaved, and helpless. I will come back to you.

All right, let's unpack that a minute. I wanna take this slowly. I will ask the Father, this is Jesus, and he's gonna give you a helper. I know we have talked about this a lot, but it needs to land, you guys. If we're gonna understand grace, we have to understand it's housed in a person that activates power and all that we need from himself. I will give you another helper. And then it goes on to define what is that helper all about? He is the comforter. First and foremost, God leads with compassion. I'm so sorry, sweetie. So sorry. So sorry for the pain. I understand. Even your rebellion, I understand your rebellion, but we don't need to live here. The compassion is the lead piece of God in all of our lives. Many of you guys are living at a distance because you don't see God is the God of the present. You keep thinking, I'm gonna get it together, and then God will come. You need God to come so you have a chance to get it together. Let him, let him love you. He is a comforter.

I've been doing a few little prayer times with people, and we just ask God, Holy Spirit, would you show us where a pain point is that we need to find you? I was with a friend the other day, and something came up around first grade, and a person's name came to their mind that they had not thought about in 40 years, and that that person had maligned them, hurt them, rejected them, or whatever. And we were able to, again, put them in the hands of God, and ask the Holy Spirit to heal that place some 40 years later. And there was a breakthrough. There was peace. There was grace. The comforter came in a very personal way. And I know I'm talking about very intricate things here, but what I want you to know. is you have a comforter. You are not comfortless. We have an advocate. Jesus calls himself an advocate, but the way that we experience that is the Holy Spirit. God put himself inside of you so you would have an advocate with the Father and with Jesus, and you would be able to access the grace that you need for whatever it is comes your way. We have an intercessor. He is the one who prays.

You know, I've been in so many situations. We don't know how to pray as we ought. Romans 8, 26 and 27, and sometimes that's a prayer language and sometimes that is a, ah, and sometimes that is a scripture. God, we declare that you are worthy, you are able. The groaning's too deep for words. Come from the Holy Spirit. Man, if you've never been in one of those prayer times, if you've never allowed the Holy Spirit to come on you to intercede, you're missing the heart of God. There is so much more for you. I wanna reawaken you if you have had those times. It's time to wake up, my friends. It's time to wake yourself up, stir yourself up in the Holy Spirit. Oh, come on, God, we need you. We need you. It's not okay to have anxiety, depression, and fear ruling our lives. It's not okay to have continual chaos and brokenness in our family. Ah! There's just something holy about the groan of God's people when they're longing for help, and the Holy Spirit gives that to us. He is our counselor. I need counsel. And you say, I don't think I hear God that well. Then find some people that do and sit and wait on God

till you are assured of the counsel of God. Because it says in John 16, Jesus says, I have many more things to say to you, but you can't bear them now. But when he, the Holy Spirit, comes, he will tell you everything you need to know. Everybody say everything. Everything. Listen, I don't know about you, but I am not living on a drifting raft just hoping to get back in the current of God. I am connected to the living God, God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is a reality. That is not a hope. That is a grounded faith through God's word and through the experience of a lifetime of trusting him instead of myself. You too can know the counsel of God if you want the counsel of God. He is a counselor. He is a strengthener. Anybody need strength? I needed strength. Last night I was saying, oh no, I gotta switch the message. But God, you will strengthen me. He is our strengthener when we are weak. He is our standby. Woo!

Standby. You ever walked into something and you, what in the world just happened? What do I do? Not ready for the tragedy or the need or whatever it might be. And I love it. Okay, Holy Spirit, you're standing by. Just got a lifeline right here. Okay, so why don't I pause, gear down. What do I do, Jesus? What do I do, Jesus? Come, you're my standby. You're not distant. You put yourself inside of me. To be with you forever. Everybody say forever. This is a covenant-keeping God. He's a covenant keeper. He's never gonna leave you or forsake you. Laura and I, we call ourselves, our heart is to be covenant keepers. So of course, Abby, that's a given, my flesh and blood. Miss Devin, you and Katie, we are committed to you till we see Jesus face-to-face. We are, we're committed to you. Oh my goodness, look at these guys right here, man, the Cerrados. Till we see Jesus face-to-face.

And you say, well golly, I'm not that close to the Cyberts or whatever. But let me tell you something, you can be a covenant keeper to somebody else. But here's the good news. Whether you're struggling with who to trust or not, you can trust God. Because he is a covenant keeper and he will never leave you or forsake you. And to prove it, he put himself inside of you. Come on, everybody. You're still not believing me because if you believed that God lived inside of you, you wouldn't be flailing as much as you are. You wouldn't be grasping, just hoping for something good to happen. Life is tough. We suffer in this life. There are challenges, but we do not suffer alone. He'll be with you forever. The spirit of truth, whoo! I don't wanna get into the Holy Spirit stuff, I'm into the Bible. Well, that's ridiculous. This is written by the Holy Spirit, by the way. Writer of the Bibles, the Holy Spirit, by the way. The spirit of truth, he testifies of God's truth by his grace. If you got something out of the Bible it's because the Holy Spirit illuminated it to you.

Don't separate out the work of God. Oh, okay, okay, here we go. Whom the world cannot take to heart because it does not see me or know him, but you know him because he, the Holy Spirit, remains with you continually. Now, if we got forever, then everybody say continually. Continually and will be in you. And here it is. I will not leave you as orphans. I will not leave you as orphans. The reason we are born again is so that we can be born into a family that has no flaws. That we can be secure for a lifetime. My mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take me up. And no matter how much I say to Abby, Laura, I'm covenant to you, I am in heart, but I make mistakes, I am imperfect. But God himself brings you into a family that you can trust, that is secure because it's based on his goodness and his loving kindness. And you've been taken in by the father of all fathers. Woo, sometimes you hear other people talk about how great their dad was, and you're like, wah, wah. I mean, I'm done, there's no hope for me because I didn't have that great of a father or mother or whatever. But good news, woo, fellow orphans. We've been adopted, woo. We are in the house of God.

We've been adopted by the best father that ever has been or will be. We have the greatest elder brother who's the hero of all heroes, Jesus. And we have a comforter, the Holy Spirit, the nurturer of the house, God himself. I am living in a Trinitarian joy and glory. Therefore, I'm not grasping around to wonder if someone's with me because God is with us. Isn't that great? I think we would be better parents if we actually were parented better by God. If we actually believed that we were secure, then we could give security away. If we believed we were loved, we could give love away. If we believed that God was with us, then we could create strength and hope in other people, be trustworthy because he's trustworthy to us. Trust him, full of grace. I won't leave you as an orphan, comfortless, bereaved, and helpless. I will come back to you, John 14, Mal 25. I've told you these things. This is Jesus Christ speaking. I don't know what else, guys. I feel like some of y'all are just staring at me, yawning or whatever. No, the living God that created you, the one who saved you by his blood, the one who made you born again

and put himself inside of you, who you will see face-to-face on that last day, says this, I have told you these things. Not Jimmy, not some friend, not some great preacher. Jesus, while I'm still with you, not the helper, the comforter, the advocate, the intercessor, counselor, trainer. Stand by the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, in my place to represent me and act on my behalf. Whoa, God has come and sent the Holy Spirit so that Jesus can be everywhere all the time, in power, in glory, in help. We believe unapologetically in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That word charisma, which talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that means literally the grace of the Holy Spirit. The grace is distributed when words of knowledge and words of wisdom and healing and prophecy and tongues and miracles and all that, that's the gift of God being distributed. Who doesn't want the gift of God? Ah, well, somebody did something weird and somebody was crazy. Well, I stay away from that Holy Spirit stuff. You're staying away from God. That is just like, wow, people mess up everything, but God has only good things for those who seek his face and trust him in his fullness.

He's gonna represent me, Jesus said. He's gonna act on my behalf all the time. He'll teach you all things. Man, I'm just really stumped about X, Y, and Z. Listen, lean into the Holy Spirit. Let the grace of God start unlocking truth for you. Maybe you're not seeing it straight because you need to surrender something. You need to let go. Even a mystery at times. There are mysteries that we do not understand, but there's enough that we do understand. that we can find grace to even either put to rest something or to find the truth about something. And he will help you remember everything I told you. Peace I leave with you. My perfect peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give. Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. Lord, I finished a six-month sabbatical about a month ago and I would have these two and three hour walks, the band can come on out, everybody can come on out. And I was so experiencing God. I mean, I don't know how to say it. When I talk about the Trinity, when I talk about the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, I'm there, it's so real. It's not a faith statement. It's not a theological mind game.

It is just truth. And it's so true that I said, Oh God, would you come on me in such a way that I could just stand up and say, God's here. And you would manifest to help people, just to help people, whatever their needs are. And in my feeble attempt, that's what I wanna do. We're gonna sing and pray and all that good stuff. But I want you to stand. And man, just wherever you are, if you're watching online, again, nobody has to, but I wanna bring you into the reality of what we just talked about, the tangible presence of God through the Holy Spirit to activate help for you, wherever you need it. You might just open your hands to God right now. Come on, just position your heart by faith. Lord, come. Come and manifest your glory. Jesus, let forgiveness run up and down. Harassed minds and hearts, God. So if we confess our sins, you faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You just bring your sin. You can see in your mind's eye, bringing it to the cross, bring it to Jesus. Just let the washing of God come right now. The love of God, the Father. I know that there's, you need to let your earthly Father go.

You need to forgive. Just, Lord, I put them in your hands, no matter how evil, difficult, small or large. I put my Father into your hands. I forgive him so that I can experience your Father's care for me. Just forgive, just let them go again. Put them in the hands of God and let the Father come. And here we go. Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, we acknowledge that you're here with empowering grace to let us know the love of the Father, the forgiveness of Jesus and to give us power to live a different life. Come, Holy Spirit. Speak in ways that every person in this room and everybody who lives online need right now. If it's conviction of sin, let him convict you and let it go. Lord, I pray, Holy Spirit, you would come and drive out all fear. Let the perfect love of God drive out all fear. Lord, we pray that those anxieties would be driven out in the name of Jesus and that supernatural peace would come by your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, envelop us, surround us, woo us, draw us, activate us. If our prayer teams would make their way to the front. As we're in this moment, if you need Jesus, you don't need me.

know Him, if you need to return to Him, today's your day. If you need a touch of healing, physical healing, if you have a broken heart and you don't know what to do with it, we wanna pray for you. If you need to just come get on your knees and surrender to the Spirit of God, if you have known of God's moving, but have remained distracted or let distraction get you, whatever it is as we sing, you can just come. Come get on your knees, worship, pray, but don't miss God right now. He's here, let Him capture your heart again. And I see in my mind's eye, even spouses turning to one another, grabbing hands and saying, come on, God, invade our home again, invade our heart again, come into our chaos, come into our chaos and bring order. Whatever it is that you need, you can either turn to somebody or you can come, but don't do nothing, somehow respond to God right now. Let's sing this all together, Holy Spirit. ♪ And Holy Spirit, you are welcome here ♪ ♪ Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere ♪ ♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪ ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ Let's sing that again, Holy Spirit. ♪ And Holy Spirit, you are welcome here ♪ ♪ Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere ♪

♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪ ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ And Holy Spirit, you are welcome here ♪ ♪ Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere ♪ ♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪ ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ Your presence, Lord ♪ Let's sing this all together, there's nothing worth more. ♪ There's nothing worth more, you'll never come close to me ♪ ♪ Nothing can come there, you're all living on, Lord ♪ ♪ Your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ I've tasted and I've seen ♪ ♪ I've tasted and seen the sweetest of loves ♪ ♪ Let my heart become free and my shame is undone ♪ ♪ Your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, you are welcome here ♪ ♪ You are welcome here ♪ ♪ Come flood this place until the endless day ♪ ♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪ ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ Your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ And Holy Spirit, you are welcome here ♪ ♪ Come flood this place until the endless day ♪ ♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪ ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪ Fortunate llevaray Fortunate by ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ ♪ Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for ♪

Let us become more aware of Your presence ♪ To be overcome by your presence, Lord ♪ Let us experience the glory of Your goodness Let us become more aware of Your presence Let us experience the glory of Your goodness Let us become more aware of Your presence Let us experience the glory of Your goodness Let us become more aware of Your presence Let us experience the glory of Your goodness Let us become more aware of Your presence Let us experience the glory of Your goodness Let us become more aware of Your presence Let us experience the glory of Your goodness Holy Spirit, You are welcome here Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere Your glory dies when our faith is over We'll be overcome by Your presence, Lord In Your presence, Lord How we love Your presence Let's sing that one more time Holy Spirit, You are welcome here Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for To be overcome by Your presence, Lord Antioch, our family, the invitation is here The invitation is here today for us to walk with the Holy Spirit To be filled with the Holy Spirit He's our counselor, He's our advocate, He's our strengthener He's the lover of our soul And so today marks a new day and a fresh day for many of us

Say, will I keep leaning on my own understanding, my own strength, my own might, my own abilities? Or today say, Holy Spirit, come fill me. So today, I want to encourage you, close your eyes And if that's what you want, just lift up your hands right now And say, Holy Spirit, come fill me I receive You, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, come fill my life up today I need Your counsel, I desire Your counsel, Your wisdom, Your understanding, Your friendship Come and fill me today Lord, we ask it collectively and individually in this house, Lord This is our family, it's our Antioch family, those watching online And in this room today, Lord, we say, Lord, would You fill us with Your Spirit Fill us with Your Spirit, Lord, and may today we we go from here, may we seek You out for every decision for every challenge, every circumstance, every disappointment, every conflict every opportunity, Lord, every place of space, we give it to You, Lord Say, have Your way in us We bless You, thank You In the name of Jesus, we pray, Amen Hey, I want to encourage you, hey, again If you want to get connected to a life group, you want to become a member of this church, you want to be dive deeper with us, text CONNECT to 829-353 or go to our CONNECT center out here in the lobby We'll see you next week, we love y'all