Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 So this morning we are on our journey, our discipleship series. Have we got any disciples in the house this morning? Yes. Yeah. Have we got any followers of Jesus? Yes, absolutely. Brilliant. And so over this discipleship series, we have been laying a foundation for us as a church in Newton Abbott because how many of us know that we have to lay good foundations, right foundations, biblical foundations, if we are going to be all that we can be as we follow Jesus Christ in our lives. Amen. All right. And we wanna be the best followers of Jesus that we can be. Yes. I wanna be the best disciple that God has called me to be. I won't be a perfect one, but I wanna be the best one. I wanna be more like Jesus every single day that I live become more and more like him until we see him face to face.
Speaker 1 00:01:00 And this whole discipleship series is we wanna set the right foundations in place for us. Why? So that we will then disciple others. You know, we've just started a new believer's course. Let me tell you, there will be people in this room in six months time who will be leading that new discipleship course not me. It'll be people sat in this room and you'll be taking new believers through discipleship courses. Anybody up for it? Come on, we've got one, one person. Honestly, that's just terrible. Oh, I don't, I don't <laugh>. But the important thing is that as we are discipled, as we grow, it's not so that we just get fat and we sit. It's so that we can disciple others. It's so that the church can absolutely grow and multiply in these days, okay? And it's not so that we would get a thousand people all sitting here on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 1 00:01:56 That may happen, brilliant if it does. But I believe many people will come get discipled and then they will go out into other places and disciple others. And so we want Jesus to be absolutely evident in the life of this church, the way his truth, his life evidently flowing through us as people. You know, we don't want a wishy-washy church. Anybody wanna a wishy-washy church? I don't wanna be a wishy-washy disciple because let me tell you as well, we cannot afford to be wishy-washy people in these days. The world needs truth. The world needs the gospel. The world needs Jesus Christ. And how do the world see Jesus Christ through a cross on a door,
Speaker 0 00:02:48 The
Speaker 1 00:02:49 Through his people? That's exciting. Okay. And so, um, we started this series looking at four pillars. I'm not gonna do a test this morning. Everyone's shrinking in their seats. <laugh>, it was here for the test that just went down like a lead balloon. Yeah, it was terrible. Okay, I am gonna do a little test. Okay? And I will just ask this question. So we started on the four pillars, if you like, all the four essentials in building our foundations, right? As a follower of Jesus. The first one. Does anybody know? Repent. Repent. Thank you Lawson. Thank you. Good repentance. Repentance is a beautiful thing. It's when we've gone our own way for so long and then suddenly we realize actually God's way is so much better. And I think I come to that realization probably every week when I come to make a bad decision.
Speaker 1 00:03:41 I kind of get to those crossroads and think, do you know what his way is better? I should have just done his way in the first place. I should have just taken what he said in his word, you know, as truth and gone for it. Or am I the only one here who's been vulnerable? Have we got anybody else who tries to go their own way now and again? Yeah. All right. So repentance. The second thing, believe in Jesus Christ, okay? Have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. The third thing, be baptized in water. Do you remember that? Down under and raised. So in other words, we are identifying with the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. Thank goodness. Next week when we come to our baptisms, we've got water baptisms next week. Okay? But thank goodness Jesus doesn't call us to go on a cross to identify with him.
Speaker 1 00:04:37 He was the one that suffered. He was the one who took our punishment on the cross. And he calls us to obediently, go down into the waters of baptism to identify with him and what he went through. And the amazing thing is that when we identify with him like this, as he's raised from the dead, we also will be raised. And particularly we think of the last days as well. We're gonna be raised, judge. We're gonna be raised gloriously to meet him. Okay? And then the final thing on this part, particular part, cause we'll be going into other things like kingdom life in a couple of weeks, is receiving the Holy Spirit. Amen. This excites me. Yes, this excites me because if the Holy Spirit, if he is not here, then we might as well shut the doors. Might as well shut the doors. All right? And I just wanna pray really quickly cuz I believe the Holy Spirit is gonna transform lives this morning. As I've been waiting on this, uh, sermon this week and over the last couple of weeks, God has been transforming me afresh and I believe he can do it. So can we just bow our heads this morning? He's gonna pray a quick prayer. So we just welcome you Holy Spirit this morning.
Speaker 1 00:05:51 We welcome you in this place. Father, I pray for those who feel dry this morning, that you will come like a mighty Russian wind. You will come like streams of living water this morning. I pray for those in this room who are maybe new to the Christian faith, who do not ne yet fully know you, that Lord you will come and fill them with your spirit. Lord, come and do what you want to do this morning in and amongst our lives. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay, so we're gonna start this morning, um, right at the start, we're gonna just read some three particular verses that are very kind of, um, we, we know them. They're very popular when it comes to the Holy Spirit. And I just wanted to say this morning that our understanding of the Holy Spirit, right? That when we get saved, when we are born again, the Holy Spirit, he is, he is totally, completely involved in our conversion experience. Okay? He is there when we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes. But I wanna talk as well this morning about the Holy Spirit as a gift to the church because he's with us when the moment we get saved, he's with us. He's the deposit guaranteeing, okay, our salvation in Christ. But the New Testament also talks about us receiving a gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 00:07:27 And I believe what we've done over years and years is the church, is that we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. We've received the gift, but we've done a few things in the church. We've received the gift of the Holy Spirit and we've put him down and we've gone our own way. Sometimes we've received the gift of the Holy Spirit as a one-off event and then we've put him down and we've dried up on other occasions. The church hasn't even picked up the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I imagine some of us here this morning, we've been in congregations over years where there has been no mention of the Holy Spirit where he hasn't been welcomed at all.
Speaker 1 00:08:27 And yet we need the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna talk into that this morning. So we're gonna read three key verses. They're gonna come up on the screen with us. So let's just go through them really quick. Acts two, we all know this really well. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongs of fire that separated them and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongs as the spirit enabled them. Acts two, Peter replied, and this has been our kind of statement verse for this year, what must I do to be saved? Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you'll receive the what now You go, shout a bit louder. You receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far for all whom the Lord at God will command.
Speaker 1 00:09:47 Sorry. We'll call Acts one on one occasion. While he was eating with them, he gave them this command. He gave them this command. They had a choice. They had a choice. He gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about for John baptized with water. But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And he's so precious, he's so, so precious. Okay, really quickly, for the time, for time, I know that we've got some new believers in this place. The Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead. Everyone say Godhead God, we know we've got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And I want to quickly say as a congregation, it is not God the Father and then God the Son, and then God, the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 00:10:48 Okay? They are all equal. All equal persons of the Godhead, father, son, and Holy Spirit. And since, um, the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit respect, in our new believers class a couple of weeks ago, we were looking at how the Holy Spirit, he was there in creation, hovering over the waters, active upon the face of the Earth. And in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon a few people. We think of people like Sampson, that supernatural strength, okay? Gideon's army on David, even on soul, okay? The Holy Spirit came on, select people or few people, okay? As God used them to fulfill his plans and his purposes on the Earth. And in the Old Testament, the Old Testament prophesize about the coming of the Holy Spirit, okay? The, I guess we all know Joel too, in the last days, God said, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
Speaker 1 00:11:50 Men, women, young, old, the Holy Spirit. That's the promise. In Isaiah 32, Isaiah says, there's, there's, there's so much ruin and desolation. There's so much wasteland until the Spirit is poured out from on high. And even Isaiah prophesy not only about the coming of the Messiah, but the coming of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon people. And then we get to the New Testament. And if you want to do some study this week, go and study the Gospel of John. Because in John's gospel, Jesus talks heavily about the role of the Holy Spirit. And so in Luke chapter 11 and 24, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit. Let's just read those together. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. If you then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Luke 24, I am going to send you what my father has promised. Here's the promise. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 Ask the promise clothed with power from on high. Three things that I wanna note here about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a promise for us. The Holy Spirit is a gift for us. Yes, the Holy Spirit has to be received by us. So the Holy Spirit is in us at that point of conversion, but he's the promise, he's the gift to us. And it has, he has to be received by us. And in these verses, in fact, in a couple of weeks, we're gonna look at how do we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Alright? But in these two verses alone, we can see that Jesus tells us to ask. And there's also an obedience. He said to the disciples who were already followers of Jesus, I need you to wait. I need you to do this. You know, Sunday nights are gonna be so crucial for us because there's gonna be times where we are going to wait.
Speaker 1 00:14:29 The times we're gonna gather in the upper room actually, and it's called the upper room, not because we're being so super spiritual here, it's because it really is in the upper room, okay? There are times where we are gonna wait to see what God wants to do by his spirit, because we want his agenda, his purpose, okay? And so ask and wait and there's no obedience. And this is, is important for us to understand here because anything that's a gift, when we are given a gift, it is a choice whether we accept this gift or not. Like I said before, we can either accept the gift and allow the gift to work in our lives, or we can put the gift down and simply go our own way. Receive or leave. Now, when Jesus is talking about receiving the Holy Spirit, can I just say something to us? I think it'll help us. He was talking to his disciples. Were they already following him? Absolutely
Speaker 1 00:15:36 In the gospels, there are times he even breathed upon them the Holy Spirit. This is before the day of Pentecost. Okay? So they believed in him, they were following him already. And even after the day of Pentecost, stay with me. Cause I want to explain why I'm saying these things. Even after the day of Pentecost, there were people in the early church who were following Jesus, who had put their faith in Jesus, some of them had had even been baptized in water, and yet hadn't received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna take us through those scriptures. And it's really important that we look at everything because scripture would seem to indicate to us that actually we can follow Jesus. We can even do good things in our Christian lives. We can even go through the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit has been deposited in us.
Speaker 1 00:16:33 But there I get this feeling that God is talking about something more of an infilling of his spirit that we need in order to live the lives that he's called us to live because we just won't make it. Amen? There's a reason why he sent his spirit to us. Let's look at some key scriptures this morning. Okay? Acts eight, and I wanna say this morning, <laugh> God goes to great lengths to make sure people hear about the Holy Spirit. Huge lents. He sends dreams and visions to people. He positions people from one place to another place so that they can hear about the Holy Spirit. And this is what he says. Acts eight when the apostles in Jerusalem. Now this is after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, okay? There was a lot of persecution happening at the time, but Samaria, after the gospel had been preached, received the message just a bit like what's gonna happen in Newton Abbott?
Speaker 1 00:17:40 They're gonna hear the gospel and they're gonna say in faith, now, what must I do to be saved? Anyone seen the coffee shop recently? She's looking beautiful. The windows are changing. There's paint going on the walls the carpenters are in. We've got a vision Morning coming soon, wherever Dan, I can't see him. Um, I think he's gone vision morning soon. It's wonderful. <laugh> burn out. But the, the Sam, uh, Samians had received the gospel message. This is why I said, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, it said they sent Peter and John to Samaria when they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit. So it wasn't just assumed that they had received the Holy, holy Spirit upon believing, okay, they might receive the Holy Spirit. And it says, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them.
Speaker 1 00:18:41 They had seem simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John place their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Can I pose a question? How did they know they'd received the Holy Spirit? I'll just, I'll just pose in the question, okay, acts 10, and this is incredible and this is the great lengths that God will go to, all right? Where Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came upon all. Who heard the message in Acts 10? Lemme just put some context. There was a centurion, a Jewish centurion called Cornelius. If you know your scriptures, you know the story. And um, he'd had a vision about Peter visiting him and telling him the full gospel of Jesus Christ. And Peter, the Lord tells Peter to go and see Cornelius. Alright? And it says, well, Peter was still speaking these words. The Holy Spirit came upon all. Who heard the message? The circumcised believers, that's the Jews who had come with Peter were astonished <laugh> that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out. Even on the Gentiles, the Jews are going, wow, even the non-Jews. Amazing. The gift is for them. Yeah, thank you. Any non-Jews here this morning. <laugh>, the gift of the Holy Spirit can be poured out on us as well. <laugh> listen to this. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Speaker 1 00:20:17 Okay? And the final one, acts 19, Paul had met some disciples on the road. I think it says they were 12. Don't quote me on that. I think there was 12. And um, and they were, yeah, they were on the road. And Paul bumped in and said, uh, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. Actually, no, it skipped off this, let me just, lemme just do the context. Paul had met them and Paul asks them this question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they went, no. In fact, we've not even heard of the Holy Spirit. But they believed, but they hadn't even heard of the Holy Spirit at this time. This was in the early church. And so Paul says John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him that is in Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:21:10 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus when Paul placed his hands on them. Seems to be, doesn't their theme of somebody laying on of hands, okay? And we'll talk about that in a couple of weeks. Laid his hands on them. The Holy Spirit came on them. They spoke in tongues and they prophesied three situations in scripture where it shows us that people, that God was very gracious, that he went to great lengths to ensure that people had not only heard about the Holy Spirit, but that they had res they would receive the Holy Spirit. Can I ask a question this morning? Have you received the Holy Spirit? Yes. Have you received the Holy Spirit? And the reason why I'm saying this this morning is because I believe the church for so long has settled. The church has presumed upon the gift, the church has taken the gift for granted.
Speaker 1 00:22:20 We've received the gift that is for us. Now, explain a little bit in a moment, but the seed of the gift, that's for us. And we've left the gift and we've gone in our own strength to try and do things, to try and accomplish things. Believe today that God wants to do something in our church. I actually believe this is almost like a stake in the ground for us and and, and the direction in which the Holy Spirit is taking us as we go forward. I've heard so many times in, in 20 odd years of leadership, people say, well, if God wants to do his thing, he'll do it. God's got a plan, he'll get on with it. He'll do it on one hand. That's absolutely true. But on the other hand, let me tell you, you are his plan. We are it. We are called to be his witnesses. And for too long we've been too dull because we have neglected the Holy Spirit in our gatherings, in our lives. Remember, not only do we receive the Holy Spirit when we converted, there is an in filling of the Holy Spirit for our lives. And we are to continue maintain the life of the Spirit in him.
Speaker 1 00:23:57 Well, he'll just do his thing. But God has chosen his church to be witnesses. He's chosen us to be witnesses in our home. He's chosen us to be witnesses through what we say, through what we do, through how we handle things. Let me tell you, the world is watching us. Boy are they watching us. They wanna come down on the church when the church makes mistakes. But we need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to receive the power of the Holy Spirit because I believe God wants to manifest his presence and his power through his church.
Speaker 0 00:24:43 Jesus
Speaker 1 00:24:43 Said to his disciples, he said, it's to your advantage that I go away. Can you imagine walking with Jesus? Living with Jesus for three years? And suddenly he says, look, it's your, it's your advantage. I'm going, I'm walking out of that door. Actually, he didn't walk out of the door. <laugh> is, it's your advantage that I'm going away. And I can imagine the disciples, Peter and all the women going, no, no way. How can it get better than this? How can it get better than you? Jesus being here with us? But you see, when Jesus is on the earth fully God fully man, he could only be in certain places at one time. And so Jesus says, it's to your advantage. I'm going away because someone else is coming.
Speaker 0 00:25:29 Yes,
Speaker 1 00:25:29 Someone else is coming and you are going to need him. You're going to need him. And I want you to receive him and the way I want you to receive him as I want you to ask. And I want you to wait for him because having the Holy Spirit with us is just as good as having Jesus with us all the time. Come on.
Speaker 0 00:25:59 That's,
Speaker 1 00:25:59 That's the truth. Let me just, we did for our other church, and Phil and I planned our other church up north. We, we kind of put some things, we did a whole series on the Holy Spirit. 31 things that the Holy Spirit does. Let me run through these really quickly. And this is why we need him. Anybody need help? He helps us. He guides us. He teaches us. He speaks, he reveals, he instructs. He testifies of Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:26:25 He comforts us. He calls us. He fills us. He strengthens us. He prophesies through us. He bears witness to the truth. He brings joy, he brings freedom. He helps us to obey. Anybody need help to obey. I do. He calls for Jesus' return. Hallelujah. He transforms us. He lives in us. He lives in us. He frees us. He renews us. The outward is fading away, but the n-word is being renewed day by day. Hallelujah. If you're over 40 <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I'm, that is my my go-to scripture at the moment. He renews us. He produces fruit in our lives. He gives us gifts, he leads us, he convicts us. He empowers us. There's so many of these. And listen to this. He prays for us. How many of us need help with our prayer life? Let me take you back to a Monday. Monday the 30th, 2015. It was a normal Monday. Um, our children in 2015, our children would've been eight, six, and four. And on that morning, woke up, Phil had gone out for the day and I normally have Monday mornings tidying up the bomb. That has happened over the weekend at home, alright? And all that kind of stuff. And around 11 o'clock on that Monday morning, the house was quiet. I felt the Lord say to me, you need to go and pray.
Speaker 1 00:27:49 I'm like, Lord, I've already prayed this morning. Thank you. I don't need to pray again. No, go and pray. So I sat down in my, in the, in the lounge, in our lounge. And I said, right Lord, what would you like me to pray about? Like, is there somebody that you would like me to pray about? And I heard absolutely nothing. So I decided, right, I dunno what to pray. And when I don't know what to pray, I start using my heavenly language. I start speaking in tongues. That's what I do. And so I, I started speaking in tongs and this went on for about 30 minutes that morning. Alright? And we had this coffee table and over the 30 minutes I remember just circling this coffee table just in my heavily language. And I noticed 20 minutes in my heavily language started getting really aggressive after 30 minutes. I thought, I'm done.
Speaker 1 00:28:43 That was intense <laugh> really intense. I've never had that experience. And then I carried on with my day first. Bizarre. And actually I never even gave it another thought. Okay? The evening came and Phil and I had been out seeing a couple, um, passed into a couple. And uh, we came in about quarter two 11 that night. And my sister was babysitting the children said goodbye to her. About five to 11 we got upstairs. And Phil being a typical man, goes to sleep straight away. Yes. Have we got a man who just hit the pillow and you've gone <laugh>? Yeah. Yeah. Wives, put your hands up if that just annoys you. Like yeah, yeah. <laugh>. Okay, so Phil, it's 11 o'clock now and Phil has hit the pillow and I'm just about to doze off and all of a sudden I hear scratching.
Speaker 1 00:29:40 And so I nudged Phil and I said, Phil, this is really, really strange. I can hear this scratching noise. He's like, yeah, yeah, we're, we're in the middle of the country. It's, it's animals, whatever. And so I kind of just, okay, I'll just, I'll try and get to sleep. And then all of a sudden it happened again. There's this scratching noise. And I thought, I'm just gonna go to my window, right? I am in my pajamas. I go to the window, I open the curtains and there are two guys ball claver up with crowbars with metal poles. One just moments away from breaking into our home at 11 o'clock at night. 11 o'clock, alright? They look up at me, I can still, I can still see them now, but thank the lord, he's, you know, brought some healing. They're looking up at me, they're big ball claved eyes.
Speaker 1 00:30:36 And this is what happens. The big guy with his crowbar, whatever, it's grabs the guy out from underneath the window that is half open in our lounge. He pulls the guy out and they slowly back away off our drive. Wow. That was 11 o'clock at night. We called the police and the police said, why didn't they come in? They were ball claver. They had weapons. It's 11 o'clock at night. They knew they would find you awake. They were ready to find you awake. So why did they run off? And I said, I don't know, officer. I said, maybe they got scared of my pajamas or something, you know, like, I don't, but no, on a serious note, they backed off. And then only as we started a couple of days later, started to share this story with friends that our friends said, did anything happen that day? And the Holy Spirit reminded me that 11 o'clock that morning, 12 hours before the 11:00 PM the Holy Spirit led me to pray. I didn't know what I was praying about or for. I mean, clearly I was praying for protection. <laugh>, did they see me in my pajamas? Did they see somebody else?
Speaker 1 00:31:52 The point is the Holy Spirit, he prays on our behalf. Yes, he comes through for us when we don't know. Now, I wanna say this to us, and I wanna be sensitive here. I am not saying that the only evidence of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is speaking in a heavenly language. Truly. I'm not saying that this morning what I will say, okay, my, my granddad is a wonderfully saved man, but never ever spoken tongues. So I'm not saying that. What I will say to us as a congregation though alright, is that it is clear in the New Testament and through scriptures that people knew whether they had received the Holy Spirit or not. It was evident. Somehow. It was evident, evident. He prays for us. The next time we're gonna look at how we receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never force himself on us. He just doesn't because he's so lovely. He's so kind. He's so caring, he's so compassionate to us. And we will look next time Ruben speaking next week. But we're gonna look at the week after, how we receive the Holy Spirit and how we maintain the spirit life.
Speaker 0 00:33:14 Come on
Speaker 1 00:33:16 To finish up this morning, and I wanna pray. We're gonna look at Peter's life. My dad wrote a book, um, oh, in the eighties that was, uh, that went to the African nations, uh, for World Vision, uh, thousands of copies. And I, I managed to pull out, um, what he did. And I thought, this is, this is gonna be really helpful for us. And it compares Peter's life before the day of Pentecost to afterwards. Let me read these out to us. I think he's gonna encourage us this morning because if it happened to the early church, it can happen to us.
Speaker 0 00:33:52 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:33:54 Mark 14. Peter claimed that he did not know Jesus in Acts two <laugh>. Can you imagine it? He boldly preached about the name of Jesus. In Mark 14. Peter was so afraid to stand up for Jesus in front of a servant girl. But in Acts four, he was fearless in front of a Romans holder and chief priests. In Matthew 16, Peter was used by Satan to tell lies. In Acts five, he was used by God to speak the truth. In Mark 14, Peter was weeping with shame. In Acts two, he was so full of joy that people thought he was drunk.
Speaker 1 00:34:38 Matthew 14, Peter started to sink because he had little faith. Acts three, Peter healed a layman through faith in Jesus' name John 21. Peter went fishing but caught nothing. Acts two, he became a great fisher of men winning thousands to Jesus. Peter was a small stone. His name means petros means a stone. Dunno what your name means this morning, but this is what God calls him. Call you a rock. As Jesus said he would be in Matthew 16. In Matthew 16, he didn't want Jesus to die on the cross. In Acts two, he preached that Jesus had to die to fulfill the Father's plan. Peter finally got it. Come on, will you stand with me this morning? Carol, do you wanna just Carmen the Holy Spirit? We wanna be a church that welcomes the Holy Spirit. And in a couple of weeks time over these couple of weeks, I want you to prepare your hearts because we're gonna invite people to receive the Holy Spirit. Cut,
Speaker 0 00:35:46 Cut, cut.
Speaker 1 00:35:49 But just let's close our eyes this morning. Father, we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, Lord, at the start of this new church, this new work of the kingdom. I pray, father Lord, not only would we receive the gift that you've given us through your spirit, but Lord, that we would never, ever put your gift to the side and think that we can operate outside of your spirit. Lord, will you forgive us over the years, Lord, that maybe, maybe some of us in this room, I know I have Lord, where we have not really taken your gift seriously. We've stepped out with our own words, our own opinions, our own agendas. And we've not waited to hear the voice of your spirit. We've not waited to, to see where you're leading us. We've not been hungry enough. We've not been thirsty enough for this new life that you've given us. We've settled Lord for mediocre. We've settled for less than what you have for us. Lord, there's a reason why you said for us to be filled and to keep being filled with your spirit, Lord, because there is a world that is dying. There is a world that needs to know who Jesus Christ is.
Speaker 1 00:37:29 And Father, without your Holy Spirit, we would be so timid like Peter. We would not be bold. We would become passionless. So Holy Spirit, we say welcome. You are welcome at Rediscover Church Newton Abbott. You are so welcome to come and move amongst us, open as spiritualize, come and transform us. Lord, embolden us. Empower us so that streams of living water would flow out from our lives and onto the streets and into the neighbors houses, Lord, and into the workplace of God and into those churches that are dying out. Lord, resurrection power in Jesus name, come and fill our lives. Lord, I thank you Lord this morning that you are so gentle with us. I thank you that you are here to help us and guide us and lead us in your precious name. Lord, will you just bless your church Lord this day? Go ahead of us for tonight, Lord, as we spend time in your presence just seeking your face,
Speaker 0 00:39:08 Bring
Speaker 1 00:39:09 Great unity upon this body. Let us be one heart, one mind, one spirit. That you will be glorified, so glorified across the earth. Lord, we receive the gift. We receive your gift today. Gift of your precious Holy Spirit.
Speaker 0 00:39:41 Oh man.
