Access God’s power source for your life.

The first Jesus-followers were filled with a power source that allowed them to do things beyond their wildest dreams or qualifications. Brian Tome explores how to tap into that power for your own life.

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    Well, that's we're going to talk about
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    for the rest of our time this morning.
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    Let's pray before we go any further. All right?
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    God, I am talking to You,
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    not because it's the churchy thing to do
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    or what pastors do.
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    I'm talking to You, God, because I know
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    You can do things in all of our seats
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    and all of our sites and online
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    that I and nobody else can do.
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    You can touch us with Your Spirit.
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    You can enlighten us, You can encourage us.
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    You can strengthen us, empower us and heal us.
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    I believe this and I'm asking You to do this today
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    and that you would help me accurately represent
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    Your deep truth.
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    And I pray these things according to the character
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    and identity of Jesus. Amen.
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    Well, as Chuck mentioned last week,
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    Chuck did a great job last week, didn't he?
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    Yeah, Great job.
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    The Book of Acts, which we're going to
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    spend a little bit of time in,
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    could refer to some people as Acts of the church,
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    Acts of the apostles, or as we're looking at it,
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    Acts of the Spirit, Acts of the Holy Spirit.
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    I want to mention today, I want to say this,
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    today there's going to be weird things.
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    Today weird things are going to be --
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    Some of you weirdos are like, "Whoa, good.
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    Yes, weird. I like weird."
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    We do like weird. We do. We enjoy weird.
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    This is why we enjoy fixating on Bigfoot.
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    We enjoy fixating on UFOs.
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    One of the more freaky books I read
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    in the last year or so was on
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    all of the disappearing people there are
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    in national forests and national wilderness areas.
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    Kind of freaky.
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    I spent over 30 nights a year camping
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    out in those kind of areas, and they talked about
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    how many people just are abducted and gone missing.
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    They're just gone.
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    Like, people who are not mentally ill,
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    people who are very fit, people who are who understand
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    how to survive outside, and gone.
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    And they don't get reported very much because
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    they're not sure how to report it.
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    Is this a county thing?
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    Is this a local sheriff thing?
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    Is this a National Parks and Recreation thing?
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    Is this a forest service?
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    So part of that is they don't get reported as much.
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    There's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.
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    And they have two reasons, two possibilities
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    for why this might be.
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    And we laugh at these, but two possible.
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    One is Bigfoot.
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    One is that Bigfoot is actually real.
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    Bigfoot is real.
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    And there's people who have stories of this and that.
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    You might not believe in Bigfoot.
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    Okay, well, okay.
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    The other one is UFOs.
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    People are getting abducted.
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    These are the two ideas they come up with.
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    There may be others, but there's something weird
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    happening because too many people are going missing
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    in national forests over the span of a year.
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    I don't -- I'm not threatened
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    by either one of those things, by the way,
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    because the Bible is really agnostic
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    relative to UFO and Bigfoot.
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    There's a lot of things that are in the world
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    that the Bible doesn't talk about.
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    The Bible doesn't talk about largemouth bass.
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    UFOs, I'm sure there are. I guess, maybe.
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    Why? Is it because there's evidence
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    that I've seen, I believe.
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    No, it's because God is a creator.
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    That's His core. He is a creator.
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    Do I really think that God would create this earth
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    and say, "Whew, I'm glad I did that. I'm done creating"?
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    No, man.
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    There were galaxies and planets and multiple universes
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    that he was working on long before earth came along
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    that the Bible was primarily concerned with,
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    and long after.
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    Who's to say that one of those things
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    couldn't be more advanced than us
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    and they're coming here and checking us out?
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    Let's just hope they all know Jesus
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    so they don't zap us with their lasers.
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    Let's just hope that. Right?
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    I don't know.
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    All I know is this: I'm very comfortable
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    with things that are weird and strange because
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    my faith is weird and strange because I believe in a God
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    who's done weird and strange things in and through me.
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    I've seen weird and strange things.
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    It's all through the Bible.
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    It's what we're calling the series The X Factor.
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    You know, the X factor is that thing,
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    you just can't notice it, you can't define it,
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    but it's real.
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    Like, there are some people who, in terms of
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    their attraction, they're just very, very attractive.
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    You're just drawn to them. Right?
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    Of course, it's your spouse if you're with them, right?
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    Just say, "That's up to you, honey."
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    Just tell them it's them. It's no one else. Just them.
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    What is that?
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    There's people who have that X factor,
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    that that sexual allure, that draw,
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    who will never make a cover of any magazine.
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    And there are some people who make
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    the cover of a magazine, they just-- they don't have it.
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    It's the X Factor.
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    Like, there's something about, I feel chemistry.
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    It's the X factor, can't define it.
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    In athletics, you ever see Tom Brady's 40 yard dash
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    when he trained for the combine,
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    when he did the combine for the NFL draft?
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    He is a dork, an utter and complete dork.
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    There is nothing physically about Tom Brady
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    which would have indicated that he would be
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    the greatest of all time.
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    Why? He has The X Factor.
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    There's something about how he sees the field of play.
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    Something about how he behaves.
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    Something about, he just -- he has it, The X Factor.
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    The ultimate X factor is when God,
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    God comes and fills us, He fills us.
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    Jesus prophesied this in John 16.
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    He says, "It's to your benefit that I go away.
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    Because when I go away, the helper will come to you."
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    By the way, in case slides are missed today,
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    I've got 3 points I'm going to give you today,
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    but I'm not going to actually give you the 3 points today.
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    I'm going to just talk and then let you digest.
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    I'm going to try something new this week.
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    I'm going to give you access to my raw notes,
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    the things that I use on this iPad,
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    which is the scripture verses I use,
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    my cues for speaking,
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    the stuff that I have that doesn't make the cut,
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    it's underneath the lines, certain sources,
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    certain stuff like that.
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    That way "I didn't get that point
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    or I want to take notes."
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    Please you can take no notes if you want,
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    but sometimes what I say doesn't line up
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    with what's actually in the notes.
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    But if you want to look at it at the end of our service,
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    I'm going to give you a QR code
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    and you can just go there and you will see
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    exactly what I have here, all the verses,
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    all kind of stuff. Okay, cool?
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    All right, good. You can do that if you want.
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    Where was I? Where was I?
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    What was I talking about? Qr codes.
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    Oh, yeah.
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    Jesus says, "It's to your benefit that I go away
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    because when I leave the Holy Spirit,
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    the helper will come and be with you."
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    You would think that, no, it would never be our benefit.
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    I'd rather have Jesus physically with me.
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    Jesus says, "No, you actually want me to leave."
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    He says to the disciples,
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    "Because when I leave, you get an X Factor.
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    Right now you have Me physically in the flesh
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    who can encourage you, motivate you when I'm around you.
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    But when I leave, there's going to be a new era
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    of redemptive history that comes in
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    where you're actually going to be able to possess,
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    inhabit, inside of you is going to be the Spirit of God."
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    What would you rather do: Be around God or have God?
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    The answer is have God, the answer is have God.
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    It's the X factor for all the things
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    that people of faith can do.
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    When this is unleashed,
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    when the Holy Spirit is unleashed,
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    is after Jesus leaves the Earth,
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    which is about 50 days later.
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    There's a high holy holiday of Passover,
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    which is when Easter and the crucifixion
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    and the resurrection, all that stuff happens.
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    50 days earlier, Passover,
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    and then another high Holy Jewish Day,
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    holiday is Pentecost.
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    So as their gathering at Pentecost,
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    this is what we're going to read today.
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    And let's hear what happens
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    with the weird that happens by the Holy Spirit,
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    the empowering that happens by the Holy Spirit.
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    Here's what it says:
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    The ultimate X factor is the Holy Spirit.
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    Now, today I'm going to say two things.
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    I'm going to refer to the Holy Spirit,
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    and I'm going to refer to Holy Spirit.
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    You might have heard during this weekend,
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    Todd Pierce, he might have said,
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    "What Holy Spirit does is this."
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    You might have said at one point,
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    that's that's the great thing about Holy Spirit.
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    He blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, blank.
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    It might sound awkward if you haven't heard that before
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    because you think, wait,
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    you're forgetting something there.
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    It's the, like, the Holy Spirit.
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    Actually, the majority of times in the New Testament
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    that Holy Spirit is referenced, it's without the the.
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    That's the definite article.
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    You can do that and look at that in the Greek.
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    I wouldn't say proficient. I know my way around it.
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    I've been to cemetery.
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    I know how that how that stuff, how that stuff works.
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    And here in this specific instance,
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    this specific instance where it says
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    filled with the Holy Spirit,
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    the is actually not in the manuscript.
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    It's just filled with Holy Spirit.
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    Now, don't go mistrusting the Bible now.
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    Don't do that.
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    There's other times where it does say the
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    and the translator sometimes is like,
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    it's just not going to read well,
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    it's referring to the same person.
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    So and it's tradition.
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    So they put it in there to be be consistent
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    but here in this but it is Holy Spirit,
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    meaning it's a name.
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    Holy Spirit is not an aura.
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    Holy Spirit is not a sensation.
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    Though there may be an aura,
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    though He may give you a sensation.
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    He's a person.
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    That's why Jesus calls Him a person.
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    It's to your benefit that I go away.
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    The helper, also known as the Paraclete.
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    Para, how we get paralegal,
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    the one who will come alongside you,
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    not just in you, but alongside you and will help you.
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    He'll give you an X factor of strength.
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    An X factor of comfort.
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    When the Holy Spirit comes.
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    And at this point, the Holy Spirit has not come
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    and filled average people who have received Jesus.
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    This is the moment where it does.
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    All these people are gathered in this house
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    and all over the place.
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    All over the place,
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    all the Jews from all over the Roman Empire
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    have come to the high holy city of Jerusalem.
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    And as they're there, the thing that Jesus prophesied
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    about actually takes place.
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    All of a sudden, wind breaks out.
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    Pneuma, Holy Spirit.
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    Spirit is the word pneuma, which is wind.
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    Wind breaks out going in amongst them,
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    going in around them.
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    Wait, wait, wait, I've heard this wind before,
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    I've sensed this before,
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    but this is this is a different thing.
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    This is an X factor that's happening.
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    And as the Holy Spirit comes in,
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    crazy things started happening,
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    like people start hearing languages
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    that they've never learned.
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    [overlapping foreign languages]
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    - Tongues of fire coming, resting upon them.
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    It was like tongues of fire and wind coming
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    and languages, this is weird.
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    This is an X factor they couldn't describe and define.
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    They're hearing, and now when I say they,
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    I'm talking about Jews that are in the area,
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    Jews who have not seen Jesus as Messiah.
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    They're hearing Jesus, the words of Jesus
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    in their own language, because the Roman Empire
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    was all different kinds of people groups,
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    all different kinds of countries and ethnicities,
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    all different languages,
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    and miraculously different tongues
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    start to come out where they are hearing them.
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    It is astounding.
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    Now, one of the reasons why churches tend to
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    not talk too much about Holy Spirit,
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    is Holy Spirit is made by certain people to be divisive.
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    Christians are just like everybody else,
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    we love to judge and we like
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    to feel superior to everybody else.
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    We like to feel superior to people
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    who are inside of our own church
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    or inside of our own faith.
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    And so one of the things that happens is
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    the way I'm experiencing the Holy Spirit
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    is not the way you're experiencing the Holy Spirit.
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    I have these gifts. You don't have that gift.
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    And one of the things that is used is say,
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    well, if you don't have the gift of tongues,
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    that is speaking in a language
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    that you've never formally learned,
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    you don't have the signs of the Holy Spirit inside of you.
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    There's two different kinds of tongues in the Bible.
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    One kind of tongues is what we're seeing here in Acts.
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    It's the most profound kind.
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    It's is the kind of tongue where a literal language
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    you could learn at a university,
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    but you haven't spent time learning at the university,
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    you can instantaneously speak it.
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    And you can do it to enable people to receive Jesus.
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    This happened in one of our early Go Trips.
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    In the early days of Crossroads we had a big thing.
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    We were just taking people over to South Africa.
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    Our first time in South Africa,
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    our church I think was 4000 people
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    and we took two groups of 300 over the summer.
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    So we took over over a tithe
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    of our church to South Africa, just overwhelming.
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    It was amazing.
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    It was back in the days of AIDS
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    and government funding not being in.
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    And we just jumped in, all in.
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    And it was a really great and wonderful time.
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    When we went over, we would do different seminars
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    to help the locals.
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    And one of my favorite stories is a woman
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    who was teaching a music class.
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    South Africa, has a bunch of different tribes,
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    a bunch of different languages.
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    Someone came up afterwards and said,
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    "Thank you so much for what you did today.
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    It was wonderful.
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    We especially appreciate that you spoke to us in Zulu."
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    And she said, "I don't know Zulu.
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    I didn't speak to you in Zulu."
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    They said, "Well, we heard you in Zulu the whole time."
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    Tongues manifested in that moment.
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    Either she was speaking it
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    that she didn't know and it was natural
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    or they were hearing it in that.
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    That still happens. That's one kind of tongue.
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    The other kind of tongue.
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    And I don't have personal experience with this one.
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    I wish I had this one.
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    Some of you are going to judge me
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    because I don't have this one
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    is kind of a heavenly language
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    as I've heard it described.
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    In the book of 1 Corinthians 13:1,
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    the ultimate love chapter in the New Testament,
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    the Apostle Paul talks about speaking,
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    "If I don't have love, I have nothing,
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    even if I have tongues," he says,
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    "speaking in the languages of men or of angels."
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    So some people have what they would call
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    a private prayer language, a heavenly language
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    where they can pray and say stuff
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    that sounds like gibberish to the --
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    sounds like gibberish, but to them it's not
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    and to God it's not.
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    I don't have that gift. Wish I did.
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    I want all of it, all of them.
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    I want all the gifts.
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    I don't have that one. Don't have that one.
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    But this thing that happens in Pentecost
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    is languages you could learn if you knew them,
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    except getting them immediately.
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    And the purpose is to bring people to understand Jesus.
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    This last week a part of my regular discipline
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    in getting with God is to do the Crossroads App.
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    I recommend it highly.
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    I probably, 2 to 3 times a week,
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    I choose to post my journal notes.
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    I don't every day, but 2 to 3 times a week I do.
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    And this last week Acts 2 was in there
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    and I posted it.
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    And I'll just kind of distill down for you
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    what I said there and actually blow it down a little bit.
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    You can imagine what would have happened
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    as there were thousands of people,
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    thousands of people who were hearing tongues.
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    It's going to say later on that God
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    added to their number new believers, 3000 that day.
  • 00:16:30
    So there are thousands and thousands of people
  • 00:16:33
    who are gathered for this festival.
  • 00:16:36
    And these languages are buzzing all around.
  • 00:16:40
    And you can just imagine the confusion.
  • 00:16:41
    It sounds confusing.
  • 00:16:42
    And there's people there who come to Christ,
  • 00:16:44
    3000 people, but there's also probably thousands
  • 00:16:48
    as well around the area that don't come to Christ.
  • 00:16:50
    They're just like,
  • 00:16:51
    it sounds like gibberish and awfulness.
  • 00:16:53
    And there's a person who's going to step forward
  • 00:16:56
    and describe this, and it's going to be Peter.
  • 00:16:59
    Peter is going to explain what it is they're experiencing.
  • 00:17:03
    And let's see what Peter does
  • 00:17:06
    while he grabs the microphone and explains
  • 00:17:09
    to all the masses what's happening here.
  • 00:17:12
    Here's what it says:
  • 00:17:14
    But Peter standing with the 11.
  • 00:17:16
    That's the 11 apostles. He's one of them.
  • 00:17:18
    There was 12. One killed himself.
  • 00:17:32
    That's how they're interpreting it,
  • 00:17:33
    people just must be drunk.
  • 00:17:35
    This is like a cacophony of sound.
  • 00:17:36
    People don't get this crazy unless they're drunk.
  • 00:17:46
    That's his comeback?
  • 00:17:49
    You know, he could have said,
  • 00:17:50
    "These people aren't drunk.
  • 00:17:51
    You know, people like us don't drink."
  • 00:17:53
    He could have said that.
  • 00:17:55
    He could have said, "These people aren't drunk.
  • 00:17:57
    You know, that's below our morality."
  • 00:18:00
    He says, "It's 9 a.m.
  • 00:18:02
    Come on. We don't start heavy drinking at 9 a.m.
  • 00:18:04
    Come on, folks. Let's be rational here.
  • 00:18:06
    We don't drink at nine."
  • 00:18:07
    I think this is awesome.
  • 00:18:09
    There's just something earthy about Peter.
  • 00:18:11
    This is -- This is true.
  • 00:18:12
    But that's the defense that he gives.
  • 00:18:15
    And Peter is now going to go on
  • 00:18:17
    and he's going to describe what is taking place
  • 00:18:22
    in that place and what can take place with you and I.
  • 00:18:25
    Many of us in here do not have The X Factor.
  • 00:18:30
    You don't have the X Factor.
  • 00:18:31
    You may have the right beliefs about Jesus.
  • 00:18:35
    You might -- You might even be going to heaven.
  • 00:18:37
    And you might have enough of the Spirit
  • 00:18:40
    to have His presence in you.
  • 00:18:43
    But the X factor of power, the X factor of fullness
  • 00:18:47
    you don't have because either you haven't been told
  • 00:18:49
    or you're just not interested in that kind of life.
  • 00:18:52
    But this is real. This is true.
  • 00:18:55
    This actually takes place.
  • 00:18:57
    And when you get the X Factor,
  • 00:18:59
    you have the marks of Holy Spirit in your life.
  • 00:19:02
    Marks of Holy Spirit, marks of Jesus,
  • 00:19:04
    marks of the Father, all the same,
  • 00:19:06
    all one, all the same, three separate identities,
  • 00:19:10
    but have the same values, the same systems.
  • 00:19:12
    Three things, one is this Holy Spirit restores
  • 00:19:15
    instead of rejects.
  • 00:19:21
    The Holy Spirit restores instead of rejecting.
  • 00:19:27
    You may think right now that you don't have the X Factor
  • 00:19:29
    or God can never use you in for whatever reason
  • 00:19:31
    because of what you did in the past,
  • 00:19:33
    because of this or because of that.
  • 00:19:35
    You may think that, but the Holy Spirit doesn't think that.
  • 00:19:39
    You may think that, you may be hearing that,
  • 00:19:42
    but that's not what God is saying.
  • 00:19:45
    And the fact that Peter here,
  • 00:19:47
    Peter is the guy who gives the keynote address,
  • 00:19:51
    the key explanation of all that's about to happen.
  • 00:19:53
    And I'm only going to give you a snippet of it today.
  • 00:19:55
    The fact that it's him is astounding
  • 00:19:59
    and an example of the Spirit's work.
  • 00:20:02
    50 days earlier, Peter rejected Jesus publicly.
  • 00:20:08
    50 days earlier.
  • 00:20:10
    50 days earlier he three times in a row,
  • 00:20:14
    three times in a row, someone came and said,
  • 00:20:16
    "Hey, aren't you the one that --"
  • 00:20:18
    He said, "No, no, no, not not me. I didn't do that."
  • 00:20:20
    "Hey, aren't you the --"
  • 00:20:21
    And it actually says this in 2 Peter --
  • 00:20:23
    Excuse me, Luke 22:60, Peter said,
  • 00:20:25
    "Man, I do not know what you're talking about."
  • 00:20:27
    And immediately while he was standing there,
  • 00:20:29
    the rooster crowed and the Lord turned
  • 00:20:31
    and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered
  • 00:20:34
    the saying of the Lord how He had said to him,
  • 00:20:37
    "Before the rooster crows today,
  • 00:20:38
    you will deny me three times."
  • 00:20:41
    And he went out and he wept bitterly.
  • 00:20:44
    50 days earlier Peter denied and rejected Christ
  • 00:20:49
    three times publicly.
  • 00:20:55
    And he's the one 50 days later
  • 00:20:57
    who's giving the keynote address
  • 00:20:59
    that defines and describes the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:21:02
    Let me tell you something, one of the ways
  • 00:21:04
    that I know the Holy Spirit is active in you
  • 00:21:06
    is how good, how good you forgive.
  • 00:21:09
    When you're a crappy forgiver,
  • 00:21:10
    you do not have the X Factor.
  • 00:21:13
    When you are bitter, you do not have
  • 00:21:14
    the full presence of the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:21:16
    When you cannot get over what somebody else has done,
  • 00:21:20
    it's a sign that you may have the residue of the Spirit,
  • 00:21:23
    but you don't have the filling of the Spirit,
  • 00:21:26
    because where the spirit is, He restores.
  • 00:21:28
    He doesn't reject.
  • 00:21:29
    Peter gets restored here. Peter has been restored.
  • 00:21:33
    It's not here.
  • 00:21:34
    Right after, right after the time when Jesus comes back,
  • 00:21:41
    He interacts with Peter and He basically gives him
  • 00:21:43
    the same question three times,
  • 00:21:45
    looking for Peter to say,
  • 00:21:48
    "You know, I do. I love you, Lord, I love you."
  • 00:21:50
    He give him three times to say I love you.
  • 00:21:52
    It's kind of Jesus way, I think,
  • 00:21:53
    to offset the three times that he rejected Him.
  • 00:21:56
    So Peter and Jesus, they've gotten good with this.
  • 00:21:59
    They're good with each other.
  • 00:22:00
    And the fact that he's with the 11 Apostles
  • 00:22:03
    shows that they're good with Peter,
  • 00:22:05
    they're good with Peter.
  • 00:22:06
    When we as a church, when we as Christians,
  • 00:22:09
    our high standards means we never forget
  • 00:22:12
    the bad things that someone has done.
  • 00:22:14
    We're not being like the early church.
  • 00:22:16
    We're not being the apostles.
  • 00:22:17
    That's one of the things I love about Crossroads.
  • 00:22:19
    We'll have people here on stage who will share our past,
  • 00:22:22
    whether the past was an adultery,
  • 00:22:24
    whether the past is a pornographic addiction,
  • 00:22:27
    where the past is stealing from whatever it is,
  • 00:22:31
    church funds, which I did when I was 23
  • 00:22:35
    and the previous church I went to.
  • 00:22:36
    Whatever it is.
  • 00:22:37
    And by the way, repented for that, made it all good.
  • 00:22:40
    I got to explain this, because I know
  • 00:22:41
    some of you are freaking out right now.
  • 00:22:43
    "What? What?" It was 32 years ago.
  • 00:22:46
    Relax your sphincter. My gosh.
  • 00:22:48
    Like, we think some standard
  • 00:22:50
    because we are used to rejecting people.
  • 00:22:52
    No, the world rejects.
  • 00:22:54
    That's what the world does.
  • 00:22:55
    The world cancels.
  • 00:22:57
    When you have the Spirit you're about restoration.
  • 00:23:00
    Peter has been restored.
  • 00:23:02
    Peter has come to experience something
  • 00:23:05
    that is actually quite astounding.
  • 00:23:08
    The fact that Peter is given this address
  • 00:23:13
    is a sign of the health of the early church
  • 00:23:15
    and a sign of restoration.
  • 00:23:16
    Are you open to restoration yourself?
  • 00:23:18
    Have you been restored?
  • 00:23:19
    Maybe you've been restored,
  • 00:23:21
    but maybe you're still holding on to it.
  • 00:23:24
    One of the names for Satan is the accuser.
  • 00:23:30
    He will constantly accuse you.
  • 00:23:32
    He doesn't want us to forget our past.
  • 00:23:34
    He didn't want Peter to forget his past.
  • 00:23:36
    He would have loved for Peter to shut his yapper.
  • 00:23:39
    Peter is always the aggressive one.
  • 00:23:40
    He's always pushing.
  • 00:23:41
    That's one of the reasons I think Jesus loved him.
  • 00:23:43
    He's always pushing, he's always going.
  • 00:23:45
    So he's like, "Anyone else want to speak to this?
  • 00:23:47
    Anybody else?
  • 00:23:48
    They're telling us, they're saying
  • 00:23:49
    we're just a bunch of drunk people
  • 00:23:50
    and they're not understanding the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:23:52
    This is what Jesus talked about.
  • 00:23:54
    I'll do it. I'll do it."
  • 00:23:55
    He pushes forward and does it.
  • 00:23:57
    He didn't listen to the accuser say,
  • 00:23:59
    "You can't be the first person to describe
  • 00:24:01
    and define the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:24:04
    You can't be the first person
  • 00:24:06
    that brings 3000 people to Christ.
  • 00:24:09
    No, no, no.
  • 00:24:11
    Not the person who publicly rejected him 50 days ago,
  • 00:24:16
    who was apostate."
  • 00:24:18
    You might have heard that word apostate.
  • 00:24:20
    I'm sorry. I'm giving you a little Greek lesson here today.
  • 00:24:22
    I get into Greek and I can't stop.
  • 00:24:24
    Apostate A in Greek, A in Greek means not.
  • 00:24:30
    Postate or postao is the word for faith.
  • 00:24:34
    So apostate is no faith, not faith, not.
  • 00:24:37
    Just like Holy Spirit has that definite article,
  • 00:24:41
    there's things you can clue together
  • 00:24:42
    about the identity of God.
  • 00:24:44
    They didn't say that Peter was disqualified,
  • 00:24:46
    but the accuser will tell you because of what happened
  • 00:24:48
    you can't be it.
  • 00:24:49
    Like the accuser tries to tell me all the time.
  • 00:24:51
    "Brian, what are you -- What are you talking about?
  • 00:24:54
    Do not -- you can't write a paper every week.
  • 00:24:57
    You're not a good student.
  • 00:24:59
    You took seven years to get your four year education.
  • 00:25:02
    You're not a good student. You're stupid.
  • 00:25:04
    Don't put your --
  • 00:25:05
    Don't put your sermon notes out for people
  • 00:25:07
    because they're going to see typos
  • 00:25:09
    and they're going to see you're not all that smart.
  • 00:25:11
    They're going to see that you just don't."
  • 00:25:14
    And I go, "I'm not going to be accused of that.
  • 00:25:16
    That's not who I am right now.
  • 00:25:17
    Maybe who I was."
  • 00:25:19
    Typos are still there for sure.
  • 00:25:22
    Well, it was, but I'm not going to listen to the accuser.
  • 00:25:26
    Ike I've said before, I've felt before
  • 00:25:29
    like I'm disqualified because I've done porn
  • 00:25:31
    more recently than I care to admit.
  • 00:25:34
    And I'll think about that and I'll go,
  • 00:25:36
    "Oh, no, I can't. I can't, I can't."
  • 00:25:39
    You might have lived with your grandmother.
  • 00:25:41
    You might have lived with your grandmother,
  • 00:25:43
    and then you get to a place where you're actually
  • 00:25:46
    owning multiple properties because God's blessing you.
  • 00:25:49
    But you think of yourself still as a couch surfer
  • 00:25:51
    who had to live with your grandmother.
  • 00:25:54
    No, the Holy Spirit restores.
  • 00:25:56
    That's not defining us.
  • 00:25:58
    You might have had a bankruptcy, credit card debt,
  • 00:26:01
    bad business practices, whatever, bankruptcy.
  • 00:26:03
    And then you live that cloud thinking,
  • 00:26:05
    "Well, that means that
  • 00:26:07
    I'll never be good with money again.
  • 00:26:08
    That means I can never do anything significant."
  • 00:26:10
    No, no, because the Holy Spirit restores.
  • 00:26:14
    You might have been involved in an abortion.
  • 00:26:18
    And you might be thinking, "I'm not --
  • 00:26:20
    I'm not qualified to have my own family. I'm not."
  • 00:26:23
    That was, that was then.
  • 00:26:26
    God doesn't reject, the Holy Spirit restores.
  • 00:26:31
    This is the X factor of it.
  • 00:26:33
    And here's -- this is why people have
  • 00:26:35
    the Holy Spirit inside of them and are abiding Him,
  • 00:26:39
    this is why we want to be around them.
  • 00:26:41
    They have that X factor
  • 00:26:42
    because we're sensing them wanting to restore us
  • 00:26:44
    and hang with us.
  • 00:26:45
    There's just something about them.
  • 00:26:47
    Second thing that happens is that
  • 00:26:49
    the Holy Spirit reaches instead of insulates.
  • 00:26:53
    He reaches instead of insulates.
  • 00:26:56
    This miraculous outpouring of tongues
  • 00:26:59
    was for the purpose of reaching more people.
  • 00:27:04
    When you think that the gifts of the Holy Spirit
  • 00:27:06
    are all about giving you a spiritual experience,
  • 00:27:08
    you're missing what the Spirit does.
  • 00:27:11
    When you feel like you are supposed to grow spiritually
  • 00:27:15
    so that you feel better emotions,
  • 00:27:17
    you're missing who the Spirit is.
  • 00:27:19
    He does like us feeling emotions.
  • 00:27:21
    It is great when we have good experiences.
  • 00:27:23
    I want more of those.
  • 00:27:25
    But the main thing the Holy Spirit is doing here
  • 00:27:27
    when He is unleashed is reaching new people.
  • 00:27:30
    There is tongues so that new people
  • 00:27:32
    can hear about Him and be reached.
  • 00:27:34
    I think one of the reasons why God's blessed our church
  • 00:27:36
    and why so many good things are happening is
  • 00:27:38
    He sees that we're about reaching other people.
  • 00:27:41
    And as soon as we get insular
  • 00:27:44
    and just word about the Holy Spirit is for me a
  • 00:27:47
    nd just me, the X factor of whatever God may
  • 00:27:50
    or may not be doing a Crossroads
  • 00:27:51
    will kind of leave the building.
  • 00:27:53
    The Holy Spirit reaches new people.
  • 00:27:55
    It's really sad how many people feel cynical
  • 00:28:00
    about something that is growing, whatever it is,
  • 00:28:02
    whatever nonprofit or whatever it is.
  • 00:28:04
    It's really sad.
  • 00:28:05
    Can you imagine how it would be,
  • 00:28:07
    what would be said about 3000 people
  • 00:28:09
    coming into the early church on this day.
  • 00:28:11
    "Oh, something's weird there.
  • 00:28:13
    Someone's padding their pocket with something.
  • 00:28:15
    There's something really shady going on there.
  • 00:28:17
    There's something."
  • 00:28:18
    There's something healthy when the Spirit is unleashed
  • 00:28:21
    because that's what He wants to do,
  • 00:28:22
    He wants to impact other people.
  • 00:28:24
    He wants to reach new people instead of insulating.
  • 00:28:27
    Many of us are very insular in our faith.
  • 00:28:29
    We keep the Spirit to ourselves
  • 00:28:31
    and then we therefore don't have much of the Spirit.
  • 00:28:34
    We're about ourselves.
  • 00:28:37
    We're about our own finances.
  • 00:28:39
    We're about my own vision, about my own family,
  • 00:28:41
    about my own church experience,
  • 00:28:43
    the way I want to be, about my own vacation,
  • 00:28:45
    the way I want to do a vacation, about my own values,
  • 00:28:47
    about my own political opinions ruling,
  • 00:28:49
    about my own, about --
  • 00:28:51
    We're insular, we're insular,
  • 00:28:53
    and we're missing the X factor of the Spirit,
  • 00:28:56
    which is outward, going outside of us.
  • 00:29:00
    The Holy Spirit has come to empower and equip us
  • 00:29:03
    in part to go outside of us
  • 00:29:05
    and reach more and additional people.
  • 00:29:07
    This is just what Jesus says.
  • 00:29:09
    Why the last thing Jesus says is
  • 00:29:11
    go into all the world, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
  • 00:29:14
    and the ends of the world. Go.
  • 00:29:15
    He doesn't say stay in your holy huddle
  • 00:29:17
    in your comfortable little church.
  • 00:29:19
    He doesn't say stay within your own faith tradition.
  • 00:29:22
    He didn't say stay within the moral boundaries
  • 00:29:25
    for your life and feel superior to others
  • 00:29:27
    because you're more moral than them.
  • 00:29:28
    He says Go. Go.
  • 00:29:31
    Are you going? Are you up for an adventure?
  • 00:29:33
    That's adventure.
  • 00:29:35
    We need the Spirit if we're actually going to be
  • 00:29:37
    on a spiritual adventure.
  • 00:29:38
    Third thing is that the Holy Spirit,
  • 00:29:41
    Holy Spirit convicts verses condemns.
  • 00:29:48
    Convicts doesn't condemn.
  • 00:29:50
    Peter was convicted
  • 00:29:53
    after he had denied Christ three times.
  • 00:29:55
    That's why he weeps bitterly.
  • 00:29:57
    He's convicted. There's a piercing.
  • 00:30:00
    Very few of us can delineate between
  • 00:30:03
    conviction and condemnation.
  • 00:30:05
    Sometimes you might be in a Crossroads service
  • 00:30:07
    and you feel, you go, like, "I felt so judged."
  • 00:30:10
    I assure you you were not judged.
  • 00:30:12
    You were likely convicted
  • 00:30:14
    and you didn't like how it felt.
  • 00:30:16
    And so the only way you could address it
  • 00:30:19
    was to say, "I felt judged."
  • 00:30:20
    There's a huge difference
  • 00:30:21
    between convicted and condemned.
  • 00:30:23
    Convicted is a piercing of, ooh ah.
  • 00:30:27
    The Holy Spirit, He will do that to you.
  • 00:30:31
    But He doesn't condemn you.
  • 00:30:34
    It's not this now defines you, this is your identity.
  • 00:30:37
    He doesn't do that.
  • 00:30:39
    In the book of Romans 8:1, Jesus --or not Jesus,
  • 00:30:41
    excuse me, the Apostle Paul says:
  • 00:30:49
    No condemnation.
  • 00:30:52
    Conviction, absolutely.
  • 00:30:53
    Calling out that something's wrong,
  • 00:30:54
    but no condemnation,
  • 00:30:56
    no ongoing recollection of all that's wrong.
  • 00:30:59
    And this is now your new identity.
  • 00:31:01
    This is what the Holy Spirit does.
  • 00:31:03
    He convicts us.
  • 00:31:08
    Peter goes and he unleashes all of this truth
  • 00:31:12
    on all of these people, and he does this
  • 00:31:15
    to help them see that you can have
  • 00:31:17
    the power of God that operates in your life
  • 00:31:21
    and through your life.
  • 00:31:23
    There's a confidence that people
  • 00:31:25
    who have the Holy Spirit operate in.
  • 00:31:27
    I don't mean loud. I don't mean extrovert.
  • 00:31:32
    The Holy Spirit works in extroverts and introverts,
  • 00:31:36
    works in people who have speaking skills
  • 00:31:38
    and people who don't have speaking skills.
  • 00:31:39
    I'm not talking about those kind of things.
  • 00:31:41
    Some people have charisma,
  • 00:31:42
    other people don't have charisma.
  • 00:31:44
    The Holy Spirit isn't necessarily
  • 00:31:45
    going to impact your personal charisma
  • 00:31:47
    and make you a great salesman.
  • 00:31:48
    Maybe, maybe not.
  • 00:31:49
    Those things are maybe things we want,
  • 00:31:52
    but those aren't necessarily marks of the Spirit.
  • 00:31:55
    These things I'm talking about right now are marks:
  • 00:31:57
    being outside, being convicted, having restoration.
  • 00:32:01
    These are marks.
  • 00:32:02
    And when you recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit
  • 00:32:04
    that Jesus said that you'd rather be --
  • 00:32:07
    have the Spirit inside of me than have Him there.
  • 00:32:10
    When I go into a key meeting, when I go some place
  • 00:32:13
    where there are maybe power structures,
  • 00:32:15
    maybe there are power brokers.
  • 00:32:18
    And I walk into a meeting and I'm talking now,
  • 00:32:21
    like, when I was 30, not like
  • 00:32:23
    now I'm an older guy in the room and I walk in.
  • 00:32:25
    I'm talking about when I was 30,
  • 00:32:27
    going into places where I had no business to be.
  • 00:32:29
    The reason I was able to do that is because
  • 00:32:31
    when I walked in the room,
  • 00:32:33
    and when you walk into the room,
  • 00:32:35
    God enters the room.
  • 00:32:37
    God enters the room.
  • 00:32:39
    I'm not entering the room based on my education
  • 00:32:42
    and all that stuff.
  • 00:32:43
    But when I recognize, I recognize that
  • 00:32:46
    God's presence goes by wind and fills me, He fills me.
  • 00:32:51
    I am not divine because I am divine as a natural human being.
  • 00:32:56
    No, you're not divine.
  • 00:32:57
    There's nothing about you that's divine,
  • 00:32:59
    divine at all,
  • 00:33:01
    unless you actually are possessing divinity,
  • 00:33:03
    which is what the Holy Spirit does.
  • 00:33:04
    And so the Holy Spirit, as He's in me,
  • 00:33:07
    when I enter and when you enter a room,
  • 00:33:08
    God enters the room, righteousness enters the room,
  • 00:33:12
    faithfulness enters the room,
  • 00:33:14
    Grace enters the room, restoration enters the room.
  • 00:33:18
    All the attributes of God enter,
  • 00:33:20
    the creativity. Creativity enters the room.
  • 00:33:23
    Love enters the room.
  • 00:33:25
    Conviction enters the room.
  • 00:33:27
    Standards enter the room.
  • 00:33:29
    Power enters the room.
  • 00:33:32
    And when you know this and you sense this,
  • 00:33:34
    you just walk in the identity that God has given you.
  • 00:33:38
    This is the X factor.
  • 00:33:41
    This is not religiosity.
  • 00:33:42
    This is not who believes right.
  • 00:33:44
    It's the x factor of the presence
  • 00:33:46
    and the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:33:49
    Now, let's take a look at what Peter says to everybody,
  • 00:33:54
    because this is important for us, many of us.
  • 00:33:56
    I'm going to say a prayer in just a little bit.
  • 00:33:58
    And the prayer I'm going to say
  • 00:33:59
    is going to help those of us
  • 00:34:01
    who came into Crossroads today already being believers,
  • 00:34:05
    but the spirit seems to have drained out from us.
  • 00:34:08
    There's just not a lot of power in life.
  • 00:34:10
    I'm going to say a prayer for that
  • 00:34:11
    and I'm going to say a prayer
  • 00:34:13
    and you're going to say a prayer for those of us
  • 00:34:15
    who came in today and you want that power,
  • 00:34:17
    because you don't have Christ, you don't have Jesus.
  • 00:34:20
    You're a nice person.
  • 00:34:21
    No one probably --
  • 00:34:23
    people probably just assume you're a Christian,
  • 00:34:25
    but you're not.
  • 00:34:27
    You're just a nice person who goes to church.
  • 00:34:30
    You haven't actually made a commitment.
  • 00:34:32
    You haven't given your life to Christ.
  • 00:34:34
    You haven't entered into relationship.
  • 00:34:35
    And Peter addresses this.
  • 00:34:37
    Let's look at it. Here's what it says, verse 38:
  • 00:34:42
    Peter said to them --
  • 00:34:44
    this is part of his part of his sermon proper.
  • 00:34:56
    Now, it's interesting here the the is it,
  • 00:34:59
    the Holy Spirit, so it can go either way.
  • 00:35:00
    You can say Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:35:02
    So in this situation in the Greek,
  • 00:35:04
    it is the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:35:19
    Promise, it's the promise.
  • 00:35:21
    The promise of the presence of God.
  • 00:35:23
    It's for you, if you want to repent, meaning,
  • 00:35:27
    if you want to turn from the life of your self
  • 00:35:30
    to a life of God,
  • 00:35:32
    the life of being insular to a life of the Spirit,
  • 00:35:34
    a life of being about my agenda
  • 00:35:36
    versus the life of being about God's agenda.
  • 00:35:38
    A life of accommodating my past
  • 00:35:40
    and making up for my past
  • 00:35:42
    and doing good deeds from my past,
  • 00:35:43
    turning from that to,
  • 00:35:45
    no, Jesus did the good deeds from my past,
  • 00:35:47
    He died on a cross.
  • 00:35:49
    I'm going to repent.
  • 00:35:50
    And Peter says, "This is the way it is.
  • 00:35:52
    You receive Christ and you receive the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:35:56
    You repent and you're baptized."
  • 00:35:58
    We don't have any baptisms today,
  • 00:35:59
    but you can receive Christ right now.
  • 00:36:02
    You can make a new commitment
  • 00:36:03
    and a new ask of the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:36:05
    Let's do that right now. So here we go.
  • 00:36:09
    Merciful God, I pray for all of us
  • 00:36:14
    who have just gotten stale in our faith
  • 00:36:16
    and there's no X factor to it.
  • 00:36:20
    We're just following rules,
  • 00:36:21
    or even not following rules.
  • 00:36:22
    We're just not abiding in You and wanting You.
  • 00:36:24
    We say to You right now, I want you.
  • 00:36:27
    Just tell Him right now, tell Him I want you.
  • 00:36:28
    I want you.
  • 00:36:30
    Tell Him right now, fill me with Your Spirit.
  • 00:36:32
    Tell Him, fill me with You.
  • 00:36:33
    God, bring the winds, the winds of change
  • 00:36:36
    through all of our buildings
  • 00:36:38
    and through our bars and coffee shops.
  • 00:36:39
    Bring the winds of change, the winds of Your Spirit.
  • 00:36:42
    We receive You, Spirit, we want You. We want You.
  • 00:36:45
    And then to those of us who've never received Jesus,
  • 00:36:48
    just say this. Repeat this after me.
  • 00:36:51
    Jesus, I want You.
  • 00:36:53
    I want to turn and follow You.
  • 00:36:57
    Forgive me for my sin and I will abide in
  • 00:37:02
    You as best I can the rest of my life.
  • 00:37:06
    God, take these prayers we've given
  • 00:37:09
    and these commitments.
  • 00:37:11
    And I don't even have to ask You to be present with us.
  • 00:37:14
    I know you are present, but I'm asking that
  • 00:37:17
    You help us in some way be more aware of it
  • 00:37:19
    as we take steps, aggressive steps towards faithfulness
  • 00:37:23
    and being in tune with the X factor of Your Spirit.
  • 00:37:26
    You're good. Amen.
  • 00:37:29
    [wind whistling]

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s your favorite action movie? What about the movie makes it your favorite?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Describe a time you took action in a situation that was difficult or uncertain. What prompted you to take action?

  4. Describe a time you felt you needed to take action but chose not to. What influenced your decision?

  5. How have you seen the Holy Spirit restore something in your life? If you can’t think of anything, talk about something you’d like to see Him restore.

  6. One of the marks of the Holy Spirit in us is reaching out and not having an insular faith. What are some barriers you encounter when you consider sharing your faith?

  7. In what area(s) of your life has the Holy Spirit revealed truth to you?

  8. What’s one step you can take this week to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in your decision making?

  9. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Holy Spirit, thank you for empowering us, even with our flaws. Please give us more sensitivity to your voice. Give us the courage to rely on your power over our own. Help us discern the lies of the enemy that seek to steal our power. We know you’re always with us. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • What decision you’ve made (or not made) do you still believe is irredeemable?
  • What would your life look like if you lived free of your past mistakes?

0 people are discussing these questions

(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


May 7, 2023 1 hr 11 mins 39 sec

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