Who is the Holy Spirit? | Holy Spirit Series

Amen, well this morning we are starting a brand new series, a eight week series called Holy Spirit. We're gonna be looking at the person and work of the Holy Spirit over the next several weeks together and to be quite honest, I am very intimidated by the subject, all right? I'm intimidated because even though I have preached this subject for a number of years, almost two decades now off and on, I feel like over the past three years I'm just now starting to understand the Holy Spirit because of how my relationship with Him has changed in the past couple of years and so I feel a little overwhelmed. I've read more books the last three years on the Holy Spirit than I've read in the previous, you know, 20 something years and I'll be honest with you, I feel like I'm just now scratching the surface. So as I'm teaching this, I want you to know I'm learning alongside of you. I had a professor in college years ago, he would say this to us about different subjects but specifically about God's Word and knowing God and I didn't understand it then, I'm starting to understand it now. He would say this regular to us with tears in his eyes, talking about knowing God and here's what he would say, he would say this, he would say, the more I know, the more I know I don't know.

Man, that is so true. I feel like the more I get to know the Holy Spirit, the more I know there is more about Him that I don't know yet and so as we journey through this, I think this is significant and here's why this subject matters is because there has been a neglect of the Holy Spirit by most churches in America. There's been a neglect, there's been a neglect in the preaching and teaching of the Holy Spirit by many pastors. I know that I was one of those for a number of years. Because of that, there is a powerlessness that we have in the church and there are Christians who are not living in the supernatural power that God has available to you because of the neglect of the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is both the power of the church and He is what empowers the individual believer in the life that God's called us to live. So without an understanding of the Holy Spirit, of knowing Him and growing in our relationship with Him, there's going to be a part of our Christian life that we don't experience and I'm hoping and here's my prayer. My prayer is at the end of this journey together is that we would not walk away from this series having a better knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

That's not my prayer. My prayer is that we would walk away and we would know Him better. That we would have a fellowship with Him, that there would be a communing that we have as a byproduct of this series that we're in, that we would walk away from this not with greater knowledge but with deeper intimacy with the Holy Spirit. That's the heart and the desire and so what I want to do is I want to stop now and just pray. I know I've already prayed. I want to pray specifically for that. I want us to see and know the Spirit as we journey through this. Let's pray. Father, we just pause and we humble ourself for a moment just to acknowledge the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Spirit, I'm asking that you would move in this place. I pray that you would introduce yourself and that we could get to know you as we journey through this time together. Spirit of the living God, we need you. And Father, our hearts can't comprehend. Our minds can't obtain all that there is to know but Lord, we can know the Spirit better and so we're asking you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, Lord. Show us the life that you have for us.

Spirit, move in this place so that every blessing that is found in Christ can be ours and we can know and commune and cherish you with our life. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. This morning, I want to give an introduction to the Holy Spirit. So today is going to be a little bit more of what's called systematic theology which simply means I'm not going to be in one verse of scripture. I'm going to just give you several scriptures where the Holy Spirit is talked about so that we can understand him better. So this is going to be kind of an introduction to the Holy Spirit. I'm going to give you two truths and there's going to be a lot of sub points from these two truths that we're going to, so if you're a note taker, this is a great day for you. You're going to want to take notes. If you're not a note taker, you need to get your heart right with Jesus and become a note taker today, all right? And so we want to, because we want to learn who he is. So two foundational truths that will build a foundation for us as we take this journey over the next several weeks. Here's truth number one I want us to see is that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is a person

and this is crucial that we understand this. As the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit, the Bible reveals the Holy Spirit with the characteristics of personhood like we have as people. And so let me give you a couple of these ways the Bible shows us the personhood of Jesus. Just write this down if you're taking notes. First of all, the Bible shows us that he has an intellect, that he has an intellect. Listen to what 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10 says. He says, these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows the person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Here's what Paul is showing us. He's showing us that the Spirit thinks, that the Spirit searches, that the Spirit comprehends. All of this is showing us the idea that the Spirit has an intellect. He has a mind that has the ability to reason and to think and to have the ability to search and to comprehend. He is a person who has an intellect. Here's number two. He is also, he has emotions. He has emotions. Listen to what Ephesians chapter four, verse 30 says.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now think about this word grieve. Did you know, if you're a believer, that when you sin, you can actually grieve the Holy Spirit? What does that mean? It means that you make him sorrowful. You make him sad, that he can grieve and he can mourn, that he has emotions. Just think about that for a minute. Think about those moments in your life where you know, like how many of you have ever sinned before and like when you do that, you're like all of a sudden, there's something inside of you that kind of aches and you're like, you feel guilty or you feel like there's grief in your heart over that sin of, David described it as our bones being crushed. You ever felt like that before? Here's what I want you to know. You're not the only one that feels that way when you sin. The Holy Spirit feels that way. That feeling that you have on the inside, that is the whole part of that is the Holy Spirit showing you that he's grieving over your decisions. You know why, by the way, the Holy Spirit can grieve? Grief is rooted in love. He has the ability, he loves us. You realize the Holy Spirit loves you? That's why he grieves.

He knows he's got a plan for your life. He knows what's best and when you deviate from that, it grieves him because of his love. Let me use this analogy. If I was to get news that a 16-year-old boy was to drift off the right path, or was to maybe get into drugs and begin to live a reckless life and you know, this is a path of destruction, and I just, I hear a story about that. My heart just kind of like, man, I feel sad about that. Anybody else feel that way? But if you were to tell me that that 16-year-old boy, that his name is Noah Connitz, I'm not just gonna feel sad, I'm gonna feel grief. Why? Because of the depth of love that I have for him. If he was to go astray, if he was to live a reckless life, I would break on the inside because of the love that I have for him. Listen, this is the way the Holy Spirit feels about you. He loves you and he grieves when you sin because he has emotions because he's a person. Here's number three. He has a will, the Holy Spirit has a will. All these, this is 1 Corinthians 12, all these, the word these there is a reference to the spiritual gifts. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one a gift.

One and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually, listen to this, as he wills. So your spiritual gift is your spiritual gift because the Holy Spirit, because he has an intellect, he has discerned what is best, he knows what is best, and because he has a will, he has determined that you have the gifts that you have. The Holy Spirit has a will, he is a person. He makes decisions and he has a desires and he has a will. And he sets that into motion in our life. He's a person. So notice everything that we're learning here, that the personhood of the Holy Spirit, he has a mind that he knows with, he has feelings that he experiences emotions by, he has a will that he acts within, he is a person. So let me give you a couple of others. I don't have a lot of time for all of this because we could go on and on about the way the Bible describes us. Let me give you a couple of bullet points here. Extra evidence of the personhood of the Holy Spirit. Write this down if you're taking notes. He is referred to with personal pronouns. He, him, I, seems to be a big deal in our culture today. John 14 and 16 Acts 13 too, this is the personal pronouns. The Holy Spirit is not referred to as it in the Bible. Why? Because he is a person. Here's the next one.

He can be lied to. In Acts chapter five, verse three, when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead because of their dishonesty with they gave, they sold the land and they donated the proceeds and they lied and said, we're giving the full amount. The truth is they weren't giving the full amount. They lied about that and the Bible specifically says they lied to the Holy Spirit because he's a person that can be lied to. Here's the next one. He prays for us. Romans chapter eight, verse 26, beautiful passage of Scripture. How many of you have ever been in a season of life where your heart was so heavy that you wanted to pray and you got alone but you didn't have the words to pray? Anybody ever felt like that before? If you're a believer, you know what the Bible says? In that moment, the Holy Spirit will actually begin to commune with the Father on your behalf because he has a mind, he knows what you are thinking and he knows what you need and he intercedes on your behalf. Here's the next one. He communicates his thoughts. He speaks to us. The word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit and there are times when you'll read the Bible and you'll know this is a Spirit-inspired word

and then there's a verse of Scripture or maybe a story in the Bible and it just speaks to you. Like this is a season I'm going through and now you're kind of hearing this thing in your life. You're going, okay, this is the direction I need to go or this is how God feels about me. What's happening in that moment is the Holy Spirit is communicating with you through his word. I love this in Revelation 2, seven that Jesus gives individual messages to individual churches. I love that because that means that Jesus knows us but notice what John says. He says, let the people hear what the Spirit says to the church. In other words, this message from Jesus is through the Holy Spirit. He speaks his thoughts. Why? Because he is a person. I love what A.W. Tozer says about this, the personhood of the Holy Spirit. He says, the Holy Spirit is not a personification of anything but the Holy Spirit is a person just the same as you are a person. He has all the qualities of a person. The Holy Spirit has substance but not material substance which means he's invisible. He has will and he has intelligence and he has feelings

and he has knowledge and sympathy and the ability to love and to see and to think and to hear and to speak and desire and to grieve and rejoice. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is a person. So eyes right here for a second. I want to help you because here's what I get all the time. I hear people referring to the Holy Spirit as it. I feel it. Like what is it? And what are you feeling? I've heard people say this, that my Holy Spirit as if there's some sort of spirit that you have that's different than the Holy Spirit. There's this misconception. In fact, here's what we see in studies. Lifeway did a study about the Holy Spirit and one of the questions it asked about the Holy Spirit whether it was a force or a person. And this was in 2022. 59% of those polled, this is just Americans at large, agreed that the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person. Another 15% said they had no clue which means that 74% of Americans are confused about whether or not the Holy Spirit is in fact a person or just some force or just some power that's out there. And listen, this matters. It matters because if we approach the Holy Spirit as if he's a force or a power that we tap into or an it that we want to feel,

then we miss the relationship that he wants to have with us. See, many of us, we treat the Holy Spirit like Star Wars, like use the force, Luke, right? Like we have this concept that there's this floating power that's a non-intellectual being that we get this feeling from or get this power from and it's not a person, it's just a force. And we've gotta understand that the Holy Spirit is a person that you can enter into a relationship with, that you can get to know and to walk with and commune with that this is what R.A. Torrey, great theologian, says about it. He says, it is also the highest importance from the practical standpoint that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is merely some mysterious and wonderful power that we in our weakness ignorance or somehow to get a hold of and use, or whether the Holy Spirit is a real person, infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely mighty, and infinitely tender, who is to get hold of and use us. This is huge here. You see, the Holy Spirit, if he's merely a force or a power, then we will pursue him in order to use him. But if we understand he is a person that we've been gifted to have a relationship with, here's what that means. It means that he's a person that gets a hold of us so that he can use us. And that makes all the difference in the world. You see, the Bible describes the Holy Spirit

in different ways. He is the counselor that gives us wisdom. He is the friend that brings us comfort. He is the companion that prays for us. He is the intercessor who encourages us. He is the teacher that reveals truth. He is aware of our failures and our struggles. He is the one that brings conviction into our life. He is the very presence of God in us that when we walk with him and fellowship with him and know him, he provides supernatural strength to our life. So the more we know him as a person, the more we walk with him, the more we obey him, the closer we come, the greater understanding we have of God's plan for our life and his purposes for us. This is crucial. Holy Spirit does this. Now, how many of you have ever thought this about the Christian life? Like, it would be so amazing if Jesus was still on earth. Anybody ever thought that? I mean, just think about that for a second. Your alarm goes off, you hit snooze three times, Jesus taps you on the shoulder. Hello, this is four times, you're gonna be late again, we gotta get up, here's your coffee. You know, thanks, Jesus, this is unbelievable coffee. It was water, I touched it, now it's coffee, it's amazing, right?

And let's go get in the car, and you're like walking out with Jesus. Hey, the day's gonna be great. He's talking about your schedule, and you're just gonna be communing, and he's like, are you gonna drive? I'm gonna drive, well, you're Jesus. Jesus, you should be the one that drives. You're a much better driver than I am. And so you get in the car with Jesus, and you get to your work, and you walk in, and every time there's a dilemma, you're like, hey, Jesus, I don't know what to do here. Could you give me some wisdom? And he's like, yeah, do this. Or hey, there's a person needs to be witnessed to. What do I tell them? And then Jesus just says, well, let me just do it for you, and just goes and talks. How many of you think that would be the coolest Christian life ever? Well, Jesus would disagree with you. Let me tell you what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit as a companion and friend. Listen to what Jesus says. John chapter 16, he's preparing his disciples for his departure. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. It's your advantage that I'm not here.

For if I do not go away, the Helper, this is a name for the Holy Spirit, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, I will send him to you. Do you know what Jesus is saying here? It's better for you that I go to the Father, and that the Holy Spirit comes to be your new companion and helper. In other words, what Jesus is saying here is, is that the Holy Spirit in you is of greater advantage than Jesus with you. Now, think about this. Because of Jesus's incarnation, him putting on flesh, there were aspects of his deity that they laid aside. Jesus, because he was in bodily form, could not be at all places at all times, right? Jesus was with disciples. When he was with disciples, he was not with the crowds. When Jesus was not with the disciples or the crowds, he was by himself. Jesus was not present with them in those moments. So think about how miserable life would be if that was the Christian life. I mean, Jesus showing up to church on Sunday would be hard. You know how many churches there are? They're like, what, is this, is Jesus scheduled? We get Jesus this week, or does somebody else get Jesus this week? I think this is our week. Church is gonna be amazing.

Every other week, it stinks. Jesus is gonna help me with this task. I'm going on a mission trip, guess what? Gonna buy an airline ticket, go with Jesus. Guess what that means for you? Good luck, because he's with me and not with you. But Jesus says that it's an advantage that the Holy Spirit comes, because just like Jesus was a companion to his disciples, just like Jesus was a friend to his disciples, just like Jesus walked and taught and empowered and encouraged his disciples, he's saying, when I go away, the Spirit's gonna come, and all of you get that friend and companion if you're in Christ. You know what that means? Like right now, think about this. The Holy Spirit is with us right now. When we leave this place, he's with you and he's with me. That's to our advantage. In the Bible, according to Jesus, calls him a helper. Think about this. What does it mean to be a helper? The idea is this, not that the Holy Spirit is a tool that we use, but he is a person that comes into our life who then provides for us what is lacking. That's what the idea of helper is. Think about it in a marriage context. In Genesis chapter two, it describes the marriage

relationship as Adam was created, but he couldn't do the things God called him to do, and so he needed a helper. The idea of helper wasn't that a wife was gonna be the assistance of the man, but rather she was gonna come with her gifts and her abilities and her wisdom and her insights, and she was gonna provide what was lacking in his life so that as the two walked through life, they could accomplish everything God called them to accomplish. In a greater way, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of us as a person who is our helper, who comes and Jesus says, listen, there are things that you're lacking in order to do what I'm calling you to do, so I'm gonna send the friend, the helper, to come and he's gonna live inside of you and he is gonna be that companion who provides everything that's missing. That's the person of the Holy Spirit. Here's number two. Here's the second truth I want us to see is not only is the Holy Spirit a person, but the Holy Spirit is God, so he's not just a person, he is a divine person. So he's a person like you and I are people, but he's also greater than that. He is God, and so when it comes to this idea of the godness of the Holy Spirit or the deity of the Holy Spirit, let me just lay the cards on the table. The concept of the Trinity blows my ever-loving mind.

Say, what is the Trinity? Well, the Bible reveals that God is one, everybody say amen to that, we have one God, but the Bible shows us that he reveals himself in three parts, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So there are three persons who make up one God. Now, so can I be honest, I've read a lot of theology books on the subject, and I can't wrap my mind around it. So what I'm gonna do over the next 30 seconds is I'm gonna explain to you the Trinity in a way that you'll never be confused again. You should run me off stage for saying a statement like that. I'm gonna give you about three minutes on the Holy Spirit, and it's gonna help you understand, and you will be just as confused when I'm done as you were before. Like, there's a complexity to God, right? Like, there's a complexity to him that we don't quite understand, and so when we think about there is three persons and one God, there's a lot of analogies we try to use to paint the picture of, okay, what is that like? And we can't wrap our mind around it. For thousands of years, we've tried to wrap our mind around this concept, and we can't, because of the complexity of God. So let me give you a failed attempt here, right? So let me give you an analogy that helps me,

but if we press into this like any other analogy, if we like dive in and start dissecting it, you're gonna be like, Pastor, that doesn't work, and I'm gonna go like, you're right, it doesn't work, because God is God, and I'm not, right? But to show you how simple-minded I am, the pretzel. So this is one pretzel, and this pretzel has three parts to it. So the three parts make a whole, but there are three individual parts that we see here that if you were to lose any one part of the pretzel, you don't have the whole. And with the Bible, again, we keep pressing into this, this is gonna break down like any other analogy, but here's the picture I want you to give. We have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have one God, three distinct parts, three distinct parts that if you don't have any one of them, you lose the whole. We can take away the pretzel now. Complex, isn't it? Can I tell you why this should be encouraging to you? I mean, the fact that you can't wrap your mind, I can't wrap my mind around this idea of three parts, one God, three persons, and how does this work? They're individuals, and yet they're one. How does this work? I don't know, my mind can't comprehend it. Let me help you see why this is so important. It's important because if there is a God

that your finite mind can comprehend, he ain't that impressive. But because he is so incomprehensibly complex, He's infinitely incomprehensible. You know what that means? There is a wisdom and a power and an authority that he possesses that goes well beyond our capability, which means that we can trust the fact that there is someone who is outside of everything, who is over everything. And oh, by the way, he has made himself known to us, and he is not only incomprehensible, and he is beyond our ability to understand, but he is also good, and he's loving, and he's kind, and he's gracious. So you've got a God that's so big that, listen to this, we have put people on the moon. We have, with our mind, created the ability for us to, now think about this, some of you, you don't even know, like my mind goes crazy sometimes, and I think about technology. I have the ability with a device in my hand to talk to someone on the other side of the world instantaneously with no line connecting the two. Like, am I just simple, or is that just, that's just crazy, it blows my mind, like. And we do this every day, and this is humanity. We have the ability to find invisible waves that allows us to communicate with people on the other side.

You say, well, I'm a scientist, I can explain it. Yeah, you can explain it to a certain point, and then there's gonna be a point where you're like, yeah, that's kind of cool, isn't it, that we can do that. And yet, that mind can't comprehend the nature and the essence of God, because he's that big, and he's good, and he loves us. That's why the mystery of God is one of the greatest blessings that we have, and here's the statement I would give you on this. He is infinitely incomprehensible, but he's also intimately relational at the same time. That's the beauty, that's why he is worthy of it all, all of the worship and all of the adoration, amen? The Holy Spirit is God. Let me give you what the Bible teaches us. So the Bible shows us attributes of the Holy Spirit that are given both to the Father and the Son. So the attributes of deity that you see the Father possess and the Son possess, you also see the Holy Spirit possess, and let me give you three of them. The omniscience of the Holy Spirit, he is omniscient, which means all-knowing. Listen to Isaiah 40, verse 13. Who has measured the spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding? This is, by the way, rhetorical. Like Isaiah's not really trying to get an answer. His point is no one. And what's his point? The point is, who can help the one who has all understanding understand? Who is gonna grant wisdom to the one who is all wise? Who is gonna grant knowledge to the one who knows everything? No one can do that, and the point is this, that the spirit of the Lord is all-knowing. He is omniscient, just like the Father, and just like the Son. Here's number two. He is omnipresent. He is in all places at all times. He is everywhere. I love Psalm 139, most comforting passage of Scripture, and the most convicting passage of Scripture, all at the same time. Where shall I go from your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence if I ascend to the heavens? You are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

The psalmist is acknowledging the fact that I can't escape the Spirit of God. Why? Because the Spirit of God is everywhere. He's everywhere. Let me just dial that in for a moment. The Holy Spirit is here in this room. He's here. But if I was to drive seven, eight miles east of here to Marbley, as my friend Andrew is preaching this morning, my friend Nathan's preaching for Andrew this morning, actually, the Holy Spirit of God is speaking through him and is moving at Marbley. If I was to get in a vehicle and drive an hour and a half west of here to First Baptist Church, Forney, where my friend Nathan Lino pastors, the Holy Spirit is present there as well, if I was to go to Chicago, where my friend Sam is pastor, and go into their church, the Holy Spirit is there. If I was to be right now in East Africa, where Adam and Emily Kelling are calling it a day after a long day of ministry, guess what, the Spirit of God is there with them as well. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. It means you can't hide from Him. You can hide from your wife, you can hide from your friends, you can hide from your spiritual leaders, you can't hide from the Holy Spirit. He's always with you.

Now, what we want, and we're gonna talk about in the next few weeks, is the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit, where He shows up in an undeniable way. So He's always at all places at all times, but then there are times when the omnipresence of God then turns into the manifest presence of God, where He is there in your midst, and you know it. We sensed that Wednesday night, this past week, God showed up, and He was in the room with us, and we were aware, not just that He was there, but He was actually in the room with us. Number three, He's omnipotent. He is all powerful. He's omnipotent. The Spirit of God has made me, according to Job 33. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. What is Job saying there is that God is all, the Holy Spirit is all powerful, that He is the giver of life. He is the one who made Him. He was there at creation, hovering. When the Father was creating, the Spirit and the Son were all involved with creation. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is all powerful. He is lacking in nothing. All power and all authority, and this is what's so amazing.

Jesus says this, is that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you as believers, this power that He possesses, He then brings into your life. So the power is not independent of the Holy Spirit. The power is a part of the nature of the Holy Spirit. So what is the power of the Christian life? It is the very presence of the omnipotent, all powerful Holy Spirit in our life. I don't need the Holy Spirit to give me something. Check this out. I just need the Holy Spirit to be with me. Because when the Holy Spirit is with me, then everything the Holy Spirit has is now at work in my life. So let me give you three statements that kind of summarizes the Holy Spirit. He is co-eternal with the Father and the Son, which means He always has existed, He always will exist, just like the Son and the Father. Number two, He is co-equal with the Father and the Son, which means that the Holy Spirit is not the JV part of the Trinity, all right? Baptist church, hello? This is, we're afraid of Him, and we treat Him like He's lesser than. Our mantra in the Baptist world is Father, Son, and Holy Bible, when according to God's Word, it's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-equal.

Here's number three. They're co-existent, which means they all three exist at the same time, always has, and always will be. You see this very clearly at the baptism of Jesus. You have the Son in the water being baptized. You have the Father speaking, this is my Son, with whom I'm well pleased, and you have the Spirit descending on the Son as a dove, so what you find is the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, co-eternal, co-equal, co-existing all at the same time. Why? Because they're three individual persons, one God. I love how R.E. Torrey brings this application. Listen to what he says. He says, it is the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is a divine person worthy to receive our adoration, our faith, our love, or our entire surrender to himself, or whether he is simply an influence emanating from God or a power or an illumination that God imparts to us. If the Holy Spirit is a person, don't miss this, and a divine person, and we don't know him as such, then we are robbing a divine being of the worship and the faith and the love and the surrender to himself, which he is due. Listen, this is so crucial for us because when you begin to understand that the Holy Spirit is a person, but not just a person, the Holy Spirit is God.

And as believers, he has been given to us for companionship. So the fact that he's a person means that we can have a relationship with him. The fact that he is God means that we must also surrender to him. And as we get to that posture of surrender, and as we, Get to know Him. The Holy Spirit wants to commune with us. He wants to lead us. He wants to guide us. You see, I think for so many of us, we would echo an amen. Yes, the Holy Spirit is a person. Yes, the Holy Spirit is God, and yet we neglect Him in our life. We don't fellowship with Him. We don't talk to Him and commune with Him. Think about in your own personal life how little attention you give Him every day. How often do you talk to the Holy Spirit as you go through your day? How often do you, when you face that moment of decision, you're like, Holy Spirit, I need wisdom here. I need to wait on you and just spend some time until you speak to me. I need you to guide me in this moment. Holy Spirit, temptation's coming my way. I need you to be present,

because when you're present, I have victory. When you're not, I fail. I know that you have better plans for me. I hear your voice telling me that you have something better. Holy Spirit, I wanna listen and I wanna obey your voice. I want you to have victory in my life. Whenever you open God's Word for you, rather than just to jump in and read and see how fast you guys just sit down and go, Holy Spirit, you wrote the book. I'm gonna ask as I read this, would you speak to me? As you go through your day and as you listen to worship music maybe and this song begins to stir your heart, you begin to commune with the Spirit. Holy Spirit, help my heart worship Jesus in this moment. You see, knowing the person of the Holy Spirit and knowing he is God is one thing. Living and communing with him as if he is is a whole nother thing. And do you realize he wants to be your best friend? He wants to be the companion. And by the way, did you know that the presence of the Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ in your life? You say, well, what is the Holy Spirit like? Let me ask you this question, what is Jesus like? How does Jesus feel about your sin? He loves you, isn't it? He wants to free you from it.

That's what the Holy Spirit wants. How does Jesus feel about the outcast? He loves them and wants to run to them. That's how the Holy Spirit feels about the outcast. How does Jesus feel about the Word of God? We gotta live by it. That's how the Holy Spirit feels about the Word of God. So whenever you get to know the Holy Spirit, you're getting to know Jesus. And whenever you get to know Jesus, you're getting to know the Holy Spirit. But that's an intentional journey of surrender. So some of you are in a place where you're like, yes, that's what I want. Like I want deeper intimacy with the Holy Spirit. I wanna know Him more. So how do I do that? There's two ways, here's the first. Your introduction to the Holy Spirit happens when you submit to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. We're actually gonna talk about that next week, about how the Holy Spirit at salvation makes us alive. But you can't have life in the Spirit apart from life in Christ. There's nothing the Holy Spirit gets more joy out of than making much of Jesus. And the first work that the Holy Spirit does in a person's life when he wants to enter into a relationship is he points us to our need for Jesus. He shows us our sin.

He convicts us of the fact that we need a Savior. He helps us recognize the emptiness and the brokenness of our life. He helps us begin to see that maybe there's, God's got a plan for us and it's found in Jesus. And then even the belief that we have that Jesus died and resurrected, it's the work of the Holy Spirit giving us eyes to see and ears to hear. But as he reveals Jesus in order for this relationship with the Holy Spirit to happen, he wants to introduce us to Jesus, to know him as Lord and Savior. And I'll just tell you from my own journey, there were years before I came to faith in Christ where I would sit in services like this and I would sense the stirring of the Holy Spirit. Didn't know this what it was. Like there was this awareness, there's something missing in my life and I think Jesus is it. And there was an awareness of my need for Jesus and I think Jesus is it. And there was an awareness of my sin and there was this holy fear of what was gonna happen to me when this life was over. And at night I would lay in bed and when everything would get quiet, there would be, not audibly, but there would just be something inside of me

that says there's more to life than what you're living. Jesus is what you're looking for. And I'm like, what in the world is that? But it wasn't until I was at a crossroads in my life. where I left my seat and I got fell down before the Lord and I say, I need Jesus to come inside of me and rescue me. What was it that compelled me to come to that place of surrender? It was the Holy Spirit of God. There are some of you that week in and week out, you come in here, when you hear the gospel message, there's something inside of you that says, I need that. There are some of you in this room that you've trusted in religion, you've trusted in your good works, you've trusted in your parents' faith and you've never trusted in Christ, but there is something inside of you that you just sensed and it's like the pastor's speaking right to me. It's like he's talking at me, showing me that I need Jesus and I feel in my heart that I need Jesus. Where's that coming from? Let me help you. That is not coming from you and it is not coming from me. If there is a stirring in your heart that says, I need Christ to save me from my sins, I need a relationship with God and it's found in Jesus. Hear me say this, that is the Holy Spirit that I've been talking about all morning and he's speaking to your heart saying,

come into relationship with me through Christ. And if you reject him, then you reject his work and you reject the salvation he's wanting to bring into your life. Don't do that. I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads just for a moment and I just, I really feel, this is eight o'clock service, we saw this happen. There are some of you in the room right now and that stirring that I'm talking about, you're sensing right now, maybe you've sensed it in the past and have not known what it is. There's this desire, I need Christ. I don't think I know God, I need Jesus in my life. There's something inside of me saying, he's what I'm looking for. And I would say to you, if you're sensing that right now, that is the Spirit of God calling you in the relationship. So right now, cooperate with the Spirit. First thing I want you to do is if that's you right now, just say to the Holy Spirit, say, Holy Spirit, I need courage to surrender. I wanna give my life to Jesus, surrender to him, repent of my sins. And I believe that Jesus died for me and that he resurrected. And Holy Spirit, I'm asking you to make me alive right now. If you prayed that this morning, just now you're saying, that's the stirring that I have and I'm recognizing that's what I need.

And either I just pray to receive Christ or I know I need to. I'm gonna ask you to do something very bold. It's gonna take a lot of courage. We had the eight o'clock service people doing this. But as it's a testimony with everyone's head bowed, it's a testimony that you're receiving the gift of Christ and the Holy Spirit. I want you just to stand at your feet, if that's you, you just pray to receive Christ. You're saying, I just came to faith in Christ. Thank you right here, praise God. Anybody else? Anybody else? You say, I just, I sense him stirring in my heart today. And I said, yes to him today. I got this settled today. I'm gonna ask you to stand up. Praise God. I'm gonna ask you to stand up. I'm gonna ask you to stand up. Anybody else? Praise God right here. So believers, I want you to look up at me. Here in the room, if you know Christ, I want you to look at me and say, well, what's the second way that we experienced the Holy Spirit's presence and power in our life? I'll just tell you, we've watched this happen in our church. I've watched it happen in my life.

Evan Roberts is a great man of God that God used to bring about revival, an unbelievable movement of God, of outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And there were four parts of what he preached And there were four parts of what he preached that helped bring about the revival of the Holy Spirit. the people be put in a position to experience more of the Holy Spirit's presence in their life. And I want us to respond this way this morning. Here's what they are. Number one, we gotta confess every known sin. Gotta confess, you gotta get your heart, you gotta empty yourself out of any sin that you're holding on to, repent of that. You gotta lay aside every questionable thing in your life because there's some things in your life that are not sinful, but they distract you from obedience to the Holy Spirit. Could be social media, could be certain relationships. It could be what you're living for with your job and what you're pursuing. Things that you need to lay aside that are hindering your relationship with Jesus. Here's number three, immediately, this is huge, immediately obey the Holy Spirit, no matter what. See, what do you mean? So if you want more of the Holy Spirit in your life,

he's gonna begin to convict you of sin or show you things in your life that you need to lay aside. And if you say no to him, then you quench his work, you grieve him, he's not gonna pour himself out on you. You have to empty yourself out. So if he says to you, you gotta go and seek this person and say that you're sorry, you're like, I don't wanna do that, then you're gonna forfeit what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Whatever, some of you need to be baptized. You're like, man, I don't know if I wanna tell people that I wasn't a Christian and now I gotta be baptized. Okay, great, you'd be disobedient. Don't obey the Holy Spirit and you're gonna limit his work in your life. You can't ask the Holy Spirit to move and reject his movement, you gotta obey. Here's number three, testify about Jesus. Can I tell you, there's nothing the Holy Spirit loves more than the exaltation of Jesus, he loves it. You know what this does? This is where my life really changed in the past couple of years, I've got still doing this, is that testifying about Jesus makes this declaration less of me and more of him. See, what hindered the Holy Spirit in my life was pride and arrogance and self-absorption. But as you begin to testify to Jesus and say, Jesus, I want you to be glorified spirit,

I want Jesus to be magnified now, it's less of me and more in him. You know what the Holy Spirit says? I'm all about that. I'll pour myself out on a church that does this. When it's not about you and all about Jesus, the Holy Spirit says, I'm all in. This is where it begins. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna pray over us and we're gonna take a moment and respond. And I'm gonna ask you, listen, let's not rush out of here. How many would you say, I want the Holy Spirit to move in my life in a fresh way? Raise your hand if that's you. Then let's start by confessing sin and laying aside every questionable thing and obeying the Holy Spirit and testifying to Jesus. So we're gonna, just for a few moments, we're gonna begin that process by opening up this altar and we're just gonna ask the Holy Spirit to move in our hearts, come and kneel and say, Jesus, do a fresh work through the spirit in my life. Show me where I have quenched you, show me where I've grieved you, help me to know what it's like to walk with you in greater obedience. Father, I'm asking right now that you would begin this work in us today. We lay ourself before you. We ask that you move in Jesus' precious name, amen.