You are called to more than just a form of godliness; you are invited to experience the tangible power of the Holy Spirit. Open your heart to this habitation today so you can walk in the confidence needed to share the gospel. Let the fire of God purify you and equip you for the mission He has for you.
Thank you. Good morning, Real Church. I am so honored to be able to speak with you today. It's I love this church, the "heart of multiplication" and discipleship. The moment Heb said I was an evangelist, all of you guys kinda got tight.
Well, my message isn't changing. So buckle up, put on your harness, we're going in. Alright, so since since March, I said it, we'll say it a third time, 2 33 salvations are decisions for Jesus, come on, outside of the 4 walls of the church and I'm just amazed and excited that I get to serve with that ministry, man. Like, it's a it's a beautiful thing to see fruit in the great commission and be able to say like, man, I actually had a partnership with that. It's amazing to see the work of God fulfilled and you you can actually say like, man, like that was the labor that we had put in through and of course, it's all by his spirit.
People only come to the Lord if the Father first draws them, but that's why we pray so earnestly. So, I learned early on in my life that if you want to move, if you wanna see a move of God, you have to first "move with God". And so that means I'm finding out what God is asking us to do and then I'm aligning my life to make that my yes. I'm I'm aligning my life with obedience and however he decides to mold me or change me or rearrange me, Lord, he is the creator and I am just the clay. And so, I I encourage you guys, so next Saturday is the make disciples event.
Come get equipped in the great commission. If you might be sitting here and you might say, well, Robbie, that's not that's not really my thing, like outreach is not for me. Like evangelism isn't for me. And my friend Chris Donald always replies to that, he says, you're right. Evangelism is not for you.
It's for the lost who are looking. It's for the broken hearted who need healing. And so evangelism isn't for you and that's probably why you don't like it. Because love is not self seeking. So evangelism is selfless.
It requires you to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow him. Because even as you're going out, you're not even seeing fruit. Well, maybe the fruit is you and God's making you a disciple. Maybe God's discipling you before you see someone get saved. He's like just with you in the trenches and he's like producing more of character until you find the 1.
So I recognize I'm fairly new here, you guys don't really know me that much. So let me share my story a little bit. I grew up, my dad was a pastor at a Southern Baptist Church, so I grew up Baptist. I said a prayer when I was 6 years old, and I said it by myself in my bedroom the next day, my dad wanted to confirm, so he led me through a prayer again. But there was something, I knew the gospel, I had the knowledge, I knew the scripture, but there was something still missing in my life.
There was a hole that was missing. I always knew there was more, but I didn't know what it was. When I was in my teenage years, I always followed the Lord, I would have even claimed to be on fire for God, but I was lacking something. There was something missing that that I was not unsure of, And then, I get in a relationship with a girl, that of course ends badly, and and then my heart begins to sink, I have depression, I'm in isolation. I wasn't sure what to do with myself and I was losing my purpose.
So when I was 17 years old, I went into a youth camp and that was the only time we actually heard worship songs like we heard today in in my context of church. But just like today, we felt the presence of God and I heard the Lord speak to me and call me, call me forth, and I all of a sudden, I just surrendered everything to him. I said, you have my life, you have my will. So so many times we give him our hearts but not our life. Oh, that's an issue.
He never never even wanted, he never said, give me your heart, he said, "give me your life". He said, deny yourself. So with with the calling and giving him my will and giving him all of me, he spoke to my heart and just said Africa. Like, okay, I guess I'm supposed to be like a missionary in Africa or something. And so, going down life, I graduated from high school.
I had the opportunity to move to South Africa for 10 months, so I took that opportunity. And so, when I got to South Africa, I was surrounded by faith filled missionaries all around. The leader of it had a testimony of raising someone from the dead and of course that wrecked my theology. I grew up cessationists. I actually argued against the supernatural.
You would have seen me in the high school years. I was an I was into apologetics, but I it wasn't the full context of the Holy Spirit. And so, I'm surrounded by faith filled missionaries who who are living by faith. They're getting paychecks out of nowhere without any type of sponsorship, and and then this guy's raising someone from the dead. They're sharing all these testimonies of of miracles and gas multiplying in their Jeep when they needed it.
It was all this stuff stretching me. And so all of a sudden, it provoked me to get in the bible, and I I opened the bible and I said, Lord, I don't wanna read this with any man's filter or man's perspective, and I only wanna believe what I've read in your word. So for a time, I set aside everything I grew up with, and I decided to only believe what I've read, which only caused me to really read quickly because I'm like, I don't know. I gotta I gotta get to the cross at least, like And so and so we When we first got there, I had developed boils on my skin, and so I had boils all over me. I was using medicine.
Nothing was really working, and I wasn't sure why they were there. But then, some other missionaries were visiting. When they came, they had a word of knowledge that there's a pastor's son who leads worship, and then they handed me a guitar and said, you're gonna lead worship for a healing service. I was like, okay. I told the Lord, I was like, Lord, I'm about to lead worship for a healing service that I don't believe in.
This is weird, but Lord, if it's real, I want it. So my heart was opened to everything that was gonna happen. And so I led worship and and then at the end, they they laid hands on me and they didn't even pray for healing, they prophesied that I would begin to prophesy, dream dreams, and have visions, other things I didn't believe in. I was like, okay. Well, that night, I get home and I looked and I'm like, have none of those boils were there anymore.
They vanished. And I said, God, this is real and I want it. Because I don't wanna miss out if God provides it. And then when I was reading the Bible for myself, I noticed that, okay, the disciples heal the sick too. I only heard about Jesus healing the sick.
I believe I'm a disciple of Jesus, is this possible for me? And and then that moment confirmed it, like, okay, well, want this. And so moving forward, I get to the book of Acts and all of a sudden I'm seeing every time someone received the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in tongues and prophecy. Well, that stirred me a little bit too. And so I dive into that.
I said, Lord, I'm open to tongues. Lord, I'm open I'm open to prophesying, whatever that looks like. But I noticed, I noticed that that when I got to Acts-1:5, Jesus told his disciples. He said, John baptized with water, but soon from now I will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. I read that and my understanding was the day of Pentecost was the first day of salvation.
So this was a little bit different verbiage. I was like, is that salvation? Like, what is this? But I got alone in my kitchen, I said, Lord, I've never heard this phrase. But I said, Lord, if I haven't experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit, would you baptize me in the Holy Spirit?
All of a sudden, in my South African kitchen, all by myself, I feel a breeze rush into the room. I feel the tangible presence of God, and I feel the presence of God in such a beautiful way that I've never felt before. I just felt that it was right that I should just lay down, and so I laid down in the presence of God until I felt like it was right to get back up. And then I leave that moment and the mentors that I had, they're like, you look like you're glowing. What happened to you?
I was like, I don't know. I I didn't know. It was like 1 of those, like, well try it, Lord. It's in the Bible. But But I didn't know what happened to me.
Something beautiful happened to me because I was then beginning to hear the voice of God. I was then reading the Bible and it began to read me. I was then hearing the voice of God in such a beautiful way, like a devonel to encourage others with it. And and they were like, that was spot on. Like, I don't know.
I just knew it. I don't know. But but God was forming me in that time. About 3 months later, I began to speak in another language. I thought it was the native language there because we were around it so much, but no, the Lord gave me the gift of tongues and he confirmed it that night because I fell asleep, and my roommate's like, why were you speaking a different language in your sleep?
I was like, I don't know. That's pretty cool though. So it confirmed to me this guy who didn't believe in that stuff, and that's what I needed. And so, today I'm gonna bring you on that journey with me. But when we When I got back to The States, of course my family was freaked out.
Jana dated me a year before and she saw me after. She's like, who is this man? She still married me, so that's beautiful. But I mean, I was on fire and this fire was not going out. I locked myself in my bedroom for 5 to 6 hours a day, blasting some worship music, sermons, or just praying loudly.
My parents were like, he's not leaving his room. All he does is read his bible. And so when I when I allowed God to form me into solid form me into solitude and and produce sonship inside of me because I learned righteousness. Oh, it provoked the fear of the Lord in such a beautiful way in my life where the fear of man was no longer an option. I was a burning 1 for him because I encountered the living God.
There is power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And so, I was having all these stories come up. I worked at a bookshop, and so while while I was working at this bookshop, I I saw this guy, and immediately I had an image of like an x-ray, and I heard 4 surgeries, and I saw his his back doing like a s. And so I approached him, I said, hey, man, do you happen to have a need of surgery right now? He's like, yeah, have 4 surgeries coming up.
And then I said, so is your spine like an s? He's like, yes, how'd you know that? I said, how'd you think I know that? I said, it was Jesus, man. So I got to pray for him, his little daughter came to me after, he's a little weirded out.
I don't blame him. His little daughter came up to me and she said, thank you so much for blessing my dad. And stuff produces something in you guys. God disciples you when you walk out in faith. So, what was I encountering, man?
The thing that was different was I encountered the person of Jesus. You know, 1 of the roles of the Holy Spirit, his activity for us is John-16:14 through 15. He says, he will glorify me. Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. He says, he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine, therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. So the Holy Spirit's role is to reveal Jesus to me every day, and he is the spirit of God. I wanna read from Colossians-1:15 through 20 because this is what Jesus, who but the Holy Spirit reveals to us about Jesus. Oh man, and it's more than just a 1 time encounter guys, this is a everyday thing. We should get a revelation of who Christ is.
*Colossians-1:15*, the son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything he might have supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Man, who is this Jesus? Who is this Jesus that he left heaven to be among us? He died on the cross to cleanse us. He raised from the dead to restore us, and he ascended back to the father so he could live in us.
Who is this man who is fully God, who decided to pursue humanity in such a beautiful way he wore a crown of thorns to rid you of anxiety? That took nails in his hands that said, your work's finished. My work has just finished. Oh, who is this man who is fully God and when he looks at you, he's got the eyes of fire and full of love? Who is this God man?
Who is Emmanuel, a God with us that own didn't only pay a price to forgive us of our sins, but to live his life through us? Who is this man Jesus? Oh, we just sang about him, the presence of the Lord came. Why? Because when you speak about Jesus, he just shows up.
It is the Holy Spirit, the revealer of Christ. Man, Jesus paid a higher price than just a visitation from him. He wants you to be a habitation of him. The Holy Spirit wants to live in us. Whoo, I told you guys buckle up.
There is there is this man. But see, he's so much more than the crucified Savior. He is the risen king, the 1 seated on the throne and when he comes into the room, the air shifts. The chains begin to break. When he walks into the room, the dead begin to raise.
Demons get cast out. Oh, who is this man? His name's Jesus. He is 100% man, 100% God. There was no 1 like him, no 1 beside him.
His throne or dominion does not shake or tremble, but everything that's not like him does. Oh, let everything that can be shaken be shaken in my life so I can look more like his kingdom. I wanna be produced to look like his image. Man, and so when I talk about Jesus, you can feel. And that's what we offer on the streets.
We're not just giving people an argument. We're not giving people a theory or a principle to live their life by. Man, we're giving them Jesus. We're letting them experience the person of Christ because it's Christ in you, the "hope of glory". If Christ can be in you, that is the hope of glory for others.
Oh, let our hearts not be hardened while we're saying the blood of Jesus was enough for me, but I don't know about that person, so I'm not gonna share. Oh, man. Don't forget how much you've been forgot, forgiven. Man, he's forgiven and forgotten your sins. We doing alright?
I'm gonna smile so y'all y'all know I'm not mad at you. I'm just talking about the Lord who I'm deeply passionate about. I just read in Colossians that we were created through him and for him. When we get to know Jesus, he reveals our purpose. His purpose is to show us how that we can get to know him in a personal and real relational way so then we can invite others into that.
So if you're in here, this is maybe the first time you've even, you've heard about this, who this Jesus is. I want to, I wanna show, let me give you a simple gospel demonstration that 1, we were not by default a child of God. We have to be born into it. Let me explain. Jesus in John-3 says to a religious guy, he's like, I know the, I know because of the things you say and the things you do that you're from God.
Jesus kinda sidesteps that and he's like, well, verily truly I say to you, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Guys like, does that mean being born from my mom twice? It's like, very truly, I say to you, unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the water, that which is, you must be born of water and spirit. Being born of water is not baptism, that being born of water is just that your mother's water broke and and you were born.
You had a physical birth. Being born of the spirit. So, says, that which produces human life only gives human life, but that which is born of the spirit has spiritual life living in them. And so he brings it up in 2 different ways. He said, being born again and born of the spirit.
Let me break it down. Being born again means your first birth is not enough. It's not what gets you into knowing God. You must be born a second time. Being born again means God gives you a new beginning, a new life created and designed for God.
And then then being born of the spirit means God fills you with his Holy Spirit to empower you for that godly life. And so it's it's not just these principles and the rules that you gotta follow. No, it's about the person who comes and changes you from the inside out. And so that means I'm choosing to say no to me and yes to Jesus, to to fully detach myself from the things of this world so I can cling fully to God. And so here in a moment, I'm gonna ask those who are wanting to be born again, we're gonna have a mid sermon just call here because the next part is important for believers.
So if you're in this room, you've never been born again, you've never known Jesus in the personal way that I've just explained, would you just raise your hand and I would love to pray for you to be born again right now. Would you be bold enough to raise your hand? Okay. Alright. Well, amen.
So the next part is is about the power of the Holy Spirit, man. I just shared my experience and my encounter, and so after I came back from Africa, I was started starting to walk in healing and words of knowledge in my everyday. I I got invited to this summer camp, which was another, like, South Mountain Baptist camp, so I got invited to my old camp that I worked at in my teenage years. They didn't know how much I'd changed in South Africa. So I went there for a week, and and these guys were all cessationists.
They grew up the same way I did. And so I knew I'm gonna be here for a week. I'm not gonna go fully on the first day, like, here's everything, you know, that's different now. I was like, I'm gonna "play the long game" this week. So I I was patient, and then 1 of my buddies, his name is Clay.
Well, Clay, he's he's already talking about how his back is hurting, and so I simply just said, hey, man, I did it when we were private because the way we grew up, it was like you have to get the whole church to pray for healing at the same time. And so, in private, I just say, hey, let me pray for your back, man. He's like, okay. And so I prayed for his back. He bends down and his back pops and he's like, what just happened?
He's like, I have no pain. I was like, it's Jesus, man. So the next day, I was waiting for a meeting, I was hanging out in the staff cabin. These guys were hanging out, and I overheard some of some of the guys complaining about, like, physical elements and stuff. And so it wasn't word of knowledge, it was just physical knowledge, like normal knowledge.
But 1 of the guys, he he had some pain, he he's taking pain meds every single day. 1 of his organs was in need of surgery, and so and so they're, he's complaining about their pain. Well, 1 of the dudes, he gets his bible and he starts whacking him and he's like, "be healed", be healed. And he's mocking healing. And in my heart, I'm saying, Lord, forgive them.
They don't know what they're doing. But in my heart as well, I was smiling because it reminded me of Psalm 23. It said, the Lord will prepare a table for you before your enemies. These weren't my enemies, they were my brothers. But the the table was being prepared when watching this mockery.
And so the guy who got healed yesterday for his back, he's like, why don't you get Robbie to pray for him? He's the real deal. And so, without hesitation, I jumped up. I I laid hands on him. He immediately feels electricity go through his body, and he was healed.
Pain gone, he didn't have to take pain meds the rest of the week, but when he first said he was better, they all thought he was joking. They thought I was joking. And so I looked to the guy who they've been kinda making fun of, he was like deaf in his left ear. I was like, let me pray for your ear, bro. So I walked up to them, they still think I'm joking.
I walk up to them, I pray for them, his mouth drops, he just runs out without saying anything. I'm like, okay. He runs in about 2 minutes later, he's like, what is going on? I could hear everything. And they're all of a sudden like, no way, no, you're just, you're messing with us, man.
And so I I told him, hey, why don't you sit down? You got 1 leg shorter than the other, it's about an inch off. He did as it was, and so every, all the guys in the staff, they saw his his heels go and match up evenly when we prayed in Jesus' name. They're all freaked out. And so, I'm still in need to go to my meeting.
They're like, hey, Robbie, does this mean you're like, you're the only 1 anointed for this? I was like, hey, who else has something they need healing for? 1 guy, he couldn't breathe out of his nose. Said, you lay hands on him, pray like this, in Jesus name be healed, nose be open. All of sudden, he could breathe out of his nose for the first time in years, and I have to go on to my meeting, so I go to my meeting.
And my meeting was interrupted and all of sudden I hear 1 of the girl's staff, she's like, Robbie, what are you, what have you done? I'm like, I don't know, I'm in a meeting. And so she said, whatever you did to the guy's staff, they're going around the entire camp praying for people to be healed and people are being healed. And the Lord hit my heart right there. What Woah, hold on.
1 more detail. This guy that I prayed This guy they prayed for, they He's ran into chapel like this. Like, what happened to that guy? He apparently was healed of knee pain that has been bothering him for years, and he's now doing some high knees, and he's praying for more people. And so But the Lord hit my heart in that moment and said, Robbie, you were made for this, to make disciples and multiply.
That's right. And I wanna share something about that. The reason Jesus told me that to my spirit wasn't because I wasn't already walking in it. That wasn't my first step to begin walking that path. I was walking that path and the Lord confirmed by the spirit.
Because guess what? We are all called to the great commission. Making disciples and teaching them the way they should go. All of us. No 1 is excluded in that.
See, I don't want in my life to have the form of godliness but lacking the power thereof. I want the spirit to be my, the clothing that I wear as he's already filled me up. And now again, you might say, Robbie, evangelism is just not my personality. And I say to that, well, since when are we allowed to use our personality as an excuse to disobey God? Oh.
0. Alright. So your personality is not a justification to say no to God because your entrance into *discipleship* was saying no to self. It's a big no to Robbie, a big yes to Jesus and carrying my cross and following him every day. Amen.
Some of you also might say, like, well, I I just evangelize in a different way. I just like to smile at people. And you know, say that, I was like, well, let me look at that smile. Oh, that is a beautiful, you could say glorious smile. But at some point, even if by a miracle, they're like, what must I do to be saved?
You have to open your mouth and declare the gospel to them. Come on, man. You have to say it sometime. You better get equipped now. Just having fun guys.
Alright, so Acts-1:8 says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses to be in Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria, to the end of the earth. It's interesting that it says you must be a witness and not just do witnessing. Your life lived out should be a witness. And everywhere you go, be unashamed of the gospel, man, for it is the "power unto salvation".
But it says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. I've recognized when I saw this, I was like, I didn't feel powerful when I got saved when I was 6 years old. So there had to be something more. There was a hunger in me that said, there has to be more to this Christian life. We're talking about God here.
And I wasn't experiencing his power until I did. And so what happened is I came to understand that in John-20:22, Jesus went to his disciples, he appeared to them, they believed in him, Thomas touched his his hands, his side, and he recognized that Jesus was was Lord. He is he is the resurrected king. He said this, he said, when when he said this, he breathed on them and them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. That to them was the born again experience.
They received their new nature right there. And then you can see in *Acts-1:4*, Jesus still telling his disciples to wait for the promise coming from the Father. Before they did any of their mission work, any of the great commission, he said, wait. That's what they did in the upper room. So John the Baptist actually wraps this whole sermon up very easily.
Well, 1 in *John-1* 29, John the Baptist sees Jesus and he says, behold, the "lamb of God" who takes away the sin of the world. We must understand that he takes away my sin because the Holy *Spirit* is the 1 who makes you holy, but you must be cleansed by the blood first. Matthew-3:11. John the Baptist is saying this, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Some of you, you might be like, I like the Holy Spirit part. I don't know about the fire. I don't know about that fire stuff. Well, I'm here to say, like, the fire is not a scary thing. It's only scary to the demons.
It's only scary to the demonics. It's only scary to the addiction. It's only scary to those sorts of things, but the thing is the the fire's purpose is to rid you of all those things. It is to purify you, to make you holy, to consume you, to fully immerse you. Like we were baptized in water and you get fully immersed, man.
It's time to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and immersed in him. Wherein in him, I live and move and have my being. I don't wanna go a day outside of his presence, and I don't have to because because of the Holy Spirit, I have access to him daily. Oh, to stir myself up in the Holy Spirit every single day, to walk out his ways and allow him to teach me and mold me. 1 of the prayer prayers that I often pray, it's almost daily, I say the Holy Spirit make me look like Jesus.
Whatever it looks like. Tom Roto says it like this. Says, in in the context of this, like, believe when I was born again, when I was saved, I had the fullness of God in me. Amen? Amen.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is just saying, I want God to have all of me. We have all of God, but I want God to have all of me. And so, this is also is not just a 1 time deal. I mean, if you look through the book of Acts, there's 5 different accounts where the Holy Spirit came on a group of people. And then there's a sixth 1 if you look at Acts-4, and they're just praying for boldness at that time, but the Holy Spirit shook the whole place.
So there's a place where we can have our experience with him, the experience with the Holy *Spirit* and understand that he is accessible and 1 of those times it says, and it fell on the Gentiles just like it first did the disciples. So that means the day of Pentecost is not exclusive, it's just for all of humanity who are hungry for God. Because God is constantly pursuing humanity, but there's something different when humanity begins to pursue him back. When you lock eyes with the God man, that went with the eyes of fire, and his love and kindness began to change him. So we were encounter we were created to encounter God daily.
Remember, he's not looking for just a visitation in this new covenant. He's called us to have a **habitation with him**. So sometimes when I experience the Holy Spirit, I've had it done by the laying on of hands, like Acts-19. Acts-19, Paul is like, hey, Hadeb, you received the Holy Spirit when you first believed? They said, we haven't even heard about the Holy Spirit.
And so he laid hands on them. They all began to receive the Holy Spirit and speak in new languages and prophecy. In other times, in Samaria, there was Peter and John who went and visited. It says, this is in Acts-8. They said, they had received the message of the Lord Jesus, but they had yet received the Holy Spirit.
So as they began to lay hands, they all received the Holy Spirit, just like they did before. So you don't have to put a title on this necessarily. God wants to encounter you no matter what this is, But there is the Holy Spirit in this place. And so for me, I've had times where I've had people, or I've had experiences with the Lord where I just feel this immense heat on my body, or electricity, or my heart starts feeling a burning on the inside, or my heart just begins to pound. Or maybe it's just a hunger that is stirred up inside of me like, man, I want this with all of my being.
Because trust me, I found in that upper, in the kitchen in South Africa, I found what I was longing for my whole life. I found what my soul was longing for and no other thing in this world could fill that vacuum, but I found him. Oh, and he created me to be anew in overflow.