You are invited to move beyond the initial experience of salvation and seek a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit that empowers your daily life. You should not settle for a dry faith; instead, ask God to fill you until you overflow with His power to impact those around you. Today is the day for you to stop waiting and start walking in the authority Jesus gave you to destroy the works of the devil.
We are in or we're starting a new series titled Walking by the Spirit. And I kinda wanna give you maybe the the premise for the series like the the thought behind it. You ever went to a a party or the a group of people, you're with a friend, you've been there for a little bit, and your friend points out a smell, And and, now that your friend points it out, you begin to smell that same smell, and you realize that that smell had been there the whole time. It was a reality that was there, but you were unaware of it until someone pointed it out to you. You ever you ever had that ex that experience before?
And and maybe even just a little more clear, don't pull it up yet. I'll I'll tell you when in a second. But, I had an epiphany 5 years ago. I was dry I think I was driving down the road, I could have been searching on the internet, but saw the FedEx sign. And and my friends had told me about the FedEx sign that it was more than just letters.
Actually, in the FedEx sign, there is an arrow that is kind of centered around that that that is just marketing genius. Do you guys has anybody never seen the arrow in the FedEx sign? Who's never seen the arrow in the FedEx sign? So this is gonna be an epiphany for you too. I'm a point out a reality that has been there the whole time.
And every time from now on, when you see the FedEx logo, you will probably see the arrow. Will you pull up that that that FedEx logo? Look between the e and the x. Oh, everybody's starting to get it. Somebody hadn't got it yet.
That's okay. Just look between the e and the x in the white spot. A reality that's been there the whole time, but you never noticed because nobody ever pointed it out to you. You get it? So the Holy Spirit loves you, cares for you, he's with you.
If you're "born again", he's in you, and he's there. And it's important. And at the end of this series, my belief is that God has structured this series in such a way that by the end of the series, you won't be able to go through any aspect of life without recognizing that the Holy Spirit is there. Amen. You know how important it is?
Very. *Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness*. Seek ye first, King James version, growing up, learning, memorizing the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The purpose of that is whatever you put first, your life is centered around. And he wants you to seek first his kingdom righteousness in every area of your life because he wants every area of your life centered around his kingdom and his righteousness.
Well, what does it mean to seek first his kingdom? *Romans-14:17* says, the kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, of peace, and of joy in the Holy Spirit. Now, follow me here. Theologians would agree with me. You can take that little in the Holy Spirit in the original context and put it with every word.
So it's righteousness in the Holy Spirit, peace in the Holy Spirit, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So then, if we take that verse, we'll say, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but the kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, you can't relate to the Father or to *Jesus* except by the Holy Spirit. That's how important it is. It's the will of the father, the word of Christ, but the working of the Holy Spirit.
That's how important he is. *Romans-8:14* says, those that are led by the spirit of god are the children of god. Understanding and recognizing the reality of the holy spirit in every aspect of your life, and then be willing to submit your will to the leading of the Holy Spirit is called Christianity. And so our prayer is that you recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit, that he's with you in every situation by the end of this this series. And, I have to make a confession to you.
I I have been convicted as a teacher and preacher of the good news. Book of Acts, really, the New Testament in general. But it was even alluded to in the Old Testament multiple times. They longed for this. But, I haven't given adequate weight, adequate importance to the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I'm gonna show you how important it is in Acts. In Acts-19, Paul just gets done or he leaves Antioch in order to go on his third missionary journey. He's been on the road for at least 26 days walking, but he stopped at multiple cities, so it's probably more than that. He gets to Ephesus, and when he sees believers at Ephesus, the first thing he says is not, how's your church doing? The first thing he says is not, how's your family?
How's the persecution going? The first thing he says when he sees believers after his long travel is, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit? And the believers say, no. We've only heard of John's baptism, the baptism of repentance, which is important.
*Jesus* said, I mean, Paul then said, no, you gotta believe in the 1 coming after that. So, then they're born again. He baptizes them in the name of Jesus in water there, and then he lays his hand on them, and they're baptized in the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in tongues and prophesying. That's how important it is. First thing Paul said when he met him.
I'll give you another example. In Acts-8, Philip is in Samaria and he's preaching the gospel. And people are coming to know Jesus. They're being born again. I'm talking, I mean, miracles, signs, wonders are happening.
Demons are being cast out. The sick are being healed. There's there's all kind of awesome stuff happening, and they're baptizing them in water in the name of Jesus. It's very clear. There's a verse for that.
Go look it up. And and the apostles in Jerusalem hear about what was going on in in Samaria, and it's so important to them that they send Peter and John to, like, pillars in the faith. They send Peter and John to Samaria to make sure that the new believers who have been baptized in water in the name of Jesus have also been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they hadn't yet. That's beginning to break some theological boxes. I encourage you to go into Acts-8 and read it for yourself so that you you test and and make sure that it's there.
So then, the apostles, they they lay hands on the believers and they're baptized in the Holy Spirit and begin to to prophesy and speak in other tongues, which is pretty amazing. It's important. It's vital. And you see it all throughout the book of Acts. So, real repentance means you take action in the other direction.
So, I'm taking action in the other direction. I'm valuing and raising the level of importance the best I know how to the level of importance that scripture puts on it. John the Baptist announced it before Jesus' ministry began. He said, there's 1 coming. I baptize with water, but there's 1 coming, and I don't, I'm not even worthy to untie the sandals, the sandal, the shoes off of his feet.
But when he comes, he will baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire. You realize like many Christians think and live as if conversion being born again is the end goal of God. It's not. I don't in no way do I wanna diminish being born again. Someone giving their life to Jesus.
It's vital and and powerful and very important. But being born again, conversion is the beginning. That's when you become a baby Christian. It's when you become a baby in the faith. And being a baby in the faith is not the end goal of the father.
Amen? Being born again is what qualifies you for what God intended in the first place, and that is for you to be filled and saturated with a river of life *overflowing* out of you and affecting the world around you. To be so possessed and filled with the love and power of God himself that you can't help but overflow it out to impact the world around you. So I wanna talk about it. You guys with me?
*Jesus* came with an assignment. You guys know what that assignment was? Don't guess. There's a scripture for that. There's a verse.
*1 John-3:8* clearly says Jesus' overall assignment. It says, the 1 who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of god, that's Jesus, appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. So, what was Jesus' assignment? To destroy the works of the devil.
Everything he did was a part of destroying the works of the devil. So, God became a man, but he did not become a full grown man. The father sent the son as a baby, Born of a woman. And then, *Jesus* grew up for 30 years with the awareness of his assignment to destroy the works of the devil. But, he would not begin to accomplish his assignment, and he would not on purpose.
I want you to understand something. *Jesus* was fully God, and Jesus is fully God. And he always has been fully God. And so, could have used his Godhood, chosen to use his Godhood at any time, but he didn't. He chose to live as a man.
Hebrews says, our elder brother. The bible often calls him the son of man, the first born among the dead. Our he chose to live as our example of a man perfectly submitted to the heavenly father by the power of the Holy Spirit. We're gonna continue to dig here for a second. *Authority* comes in the commission.
The father sent the son. So the son was commissioned by the father. And as he submitted to the father, he had the authority of the father. So everything that Jesus did when he calmed the storm, when he cast out demons, when he performed the miracles, when Jesus righted that which was chaotic, when he brought order, When he was doing that, he was he was undoing the works of the devil. He was doing his assignment.
When he confronted the religious mindset that tried to make itself God, or tried to be prideful and say, it should be with the way that I thought. Jesus was bringing order to the situation, and every time he did that, he had the complete and total backing of all of heaven because he was commissioned by the father and submitted to the father. Therefore, he had the full authority of the father in everything that he did. And it's important for us to realize this statement, that even with the commission, Jesus didn't and the authority, Jesus didn't do anything until he had his own encounter with the spirit of God. He could have done everything as God, but Jesus chose not to.
He chose to live with the same restrictions of any human being who has been born again, and he lived and he demonstrated that by living in perfect submission to the heavenly father, father by the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit. So he was waiting to fulfill his full commission until he had both the authority from the father and the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out that authority. I wanna show you in scripture. *Luke-3:21*. Remember, there's some scriptures for that.
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven opened. Now Jesus saw it important enough to be baptized. It was a baptism of repentance. Jesus lived the perfect sinless life, had nothing to repent for, but yet he still, as a son of man, chose to be baptized to stand as an example of what we should do when we give our life to Jesus.
Amen? And the Holy Spirit, after he was baptized, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, said, you are my son whom I love. With you, I'm well pleased. Now, Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. Chapter 4 verse 1.
*Jesus*, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days, he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry. The devil said to him, if you are the son of God listen to that. If you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone.
Something took place here that Jesus needed before he was to start his commission. He came with authority, but now because of the filling of the Holy Spirit, he not only had the authority of the father, but he also had the power to use that authority to accomplish his assignment by the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember, he was God, But, he came and chose to accomplish his assignment as a man. Even after this, in the wilderness, after he was filled with the Holy Spirit, in the wilderness, Satan tried to get him to accomplish his mission as God. Satan tempted him to use his godhood to go around the father's plan and to accomplish it sooner.
Satan knew what Jesus was doing. 1 of the later temptations was Satan told Jesus, hey, if if you'll just worship me, I'll give you everything. Well, Jesus was gonna take all authority and everything anyway. Satan was trying to get him to go around the father's process and by doing so to sin. But Jesus was resolved to live as the father had spoken in perfect submission to the father by the power of the holy spirit.
And so, he refused to use his godhood and instead lived as a man in submission. You follow me? There's a scripture for that. *Acts-10*. This is important and this is going somewhere.
*Authority* and power are commission. *Acts-10:37-38. You know what happened throughout the province of Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that Jesus* preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. There it is right there.
The father anointed the son with the Holy Spirit and power to carry out his commission with authority and power, destroying the works of the devil. You guys see it? Yeah. There's a there was a scripture. So we know throughout Jesus' ministry, and just keep following.
We're going somewhere here. We know throughout Jesus' ministry that Jesus commissioned the disciples with some of the authority that he had. Jesus told them, you have the authority to cast out demons and to to heal the sick. And the disciples accomplished casting out some demons and healing some sick with with just the authority that Jesus gave them. But with just the authority alone and not the Holy Spirit and power, they ran as cowards when Jesus was crucified on the cross.
1 betrayed him, the rest denied him and ran away. See, it's important for us as believers to not just operate under the commission with authority, but also to operate with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The cross that Jesus was being crucified on, the cross was the price. *Pentecost* was the price. The cross was the price.
Pentecost was the price. The cross was the price for us to be born again, for us to be washed clean, for us to be made new into a temple, a sanctuary that can be filled to overflowing with the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost was where the gift of the Holy Spirit to overflowing was poured out on all that have been born again or that were willing to be born again and receive the power of Pentecost. The cross was the price. Pentecost was the price.
*Jesus talked about it in John-7:37-39*. He said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. And by this, he meant the spirit whom those who believe in him were later to receive. And at that time, up to that time, the spirit had not been given since Jesus had not been glorified.
God's mass is little bit different. You take a drink, and just a drink is multiplied to be a river within you, to overflowing and impacting the world around you. You can see the the character and and characteristics of God, the nature of who he is and the way that he does things by looking at nature. Look at a river. It starts in the mountain tops with a source, a small trickle, And then it multiplies as it goes down and becomes something that changes geography, gives life to crops, and whole civilizations are built around the river.
Our life is meant to be that. An *overflow* of the power and presence of God because we were willing to take a drink. The ability to overflow his presence in that way starts with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many people, Christians, are trying to accomplish the *commission* with half of the provision. Let me explain what I mean.
Many people are trying to accomplish the assignment of God with the *authority* of the commission, but not having waited and received the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's read. Let's read it. I'll show you some scriptures for that. *Matthew-28*, the great commission.
We've heard it over and over here, and I wanna read it again. Verse 18, then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go. There's the commission. Authority was given to Jesus.
*Jesus commissioned*. So, if we're living under that commission, then we have the authority Jesus had. Authorities in the commission. K. Follow me.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded with you, and surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age. Watch this. I don't think I gave you guys this verse, but in John-20, *Jesus* says, this is how he commissioned them. Verse 21. 20 verse 21.
Again, Jesus said, peace be with you. As the father sent me, I am sending you. There it is. How the father sent him? He sent him with his authority to destroy the works of the devil.
How does Jesus send you? With his authority to destroy the works of the devil. You are commissioned as believers with the authority of God to destroy the works of the devil in your life and the life around lives around you by doing what Jesus did. Submission to the father, the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen?
Amen. What did Jesus say? Jesus went on to say after that, after he said what he said in John-20, as the father sent me, I'm sending you. So he commissioned them. The last verse or a couple of verses, 1 of the last verses in *Luke-24* verse 49, he says, I am going to send you what my father has promised, but stay into in the city until you have been clothed with power on high.
Praise the Lord. We don't have to wait 30 years like Jesus did. But as believers, we receive, we're born again, and made clean. And that's amazing. And we also need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Throughout Acts, can it happen right when you're born again? Yes. It can. We see that as an example in scripture. Corinthians' house, even before they were water baptized.
But, don't you dare let your theology theologize away. Acts-8 and Acts-19, where they were water baptized but had not yet, in the name of Jesus, but had not yet, especially Acts-8, received the baptism of Holy Spirit. And, there's many believers who have been living under the authority but not the power of the Holy Spirit because they've been taught wrong. And so, they just said, I don't need that. And because of it, there's a lack of overflow out of their life.
Here's what happened. *Acts-2*. I'm just gonna read it to you. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in 1 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 tongues of fire as separated and came to rest on each of them. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. Now, they were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each 1 heard their own language being spoken.
Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't all of these speaking who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Christians and Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they ask 1 another 1 another, what does this mean?
Some, however, made fun of them and said that they had too much wine. Other versions say they must be drunk. Holy Spirit falls or fills people. It's amazing and it's wonderful. And, there's the temptation for those that don't understand to make fun of it.
I don't ever wanna be 1 in God to make fun of what I don't understand. But, by faith, I want to. The Bible says, by faith, we understand. So, I wanna, by faith, understand what he says. And, if I if if it's a mystery to me, if it's a wonder, then I just wonder about it a little bit until he shows me.
Amen? I believe God wants to give you a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire today. The Bible says, seek and you will find. Ask and it will be given to you. *Jesus* said, if you ask the father, he's not gonna give you something else.
He will be faithful to give you the Holy Spirit. He will. Some might say, I've already been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I'd say, that's great. I encourage you to take another drink.
Because when you take a drink, a river flows out of you. And, we need to daily go to the source to be filled overflowing. Whenever you receive a drink from the Holy Spirit, from the source, that drink becomes a river that can overflow out of you for the rest of your life. I have many things that I received on the mountain top in my quiet place with Jesus that can overflow out of me at any time to impact anyone with what I received at that time. But, I want to continually take drinks.
Another person might ask, well, how do you know if you're filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, that's easy. You know when a cup is filled, not when you think it's to the top, but you know when a cup is absolutely filled, when it's overflowing. You can't say with absolute certainty that it's filled until it's overflowing. Would you agree?
So, you know when you're filled with the Holy Spirit because your life *overflows* and impacts the world around you. So, if you're not overflowing, then either you've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire, or you need a fresh dose. You need another drink because maybe you've spent too much time away from the source. Or maybe you just need more. Because God's will for you is not to be remain a baby or to remain a dried up teenager or whatever, however long you've been following Jesus and have grown in him.
God's will for you is to constantly overflow his goodness, his kindness, his love, and his power to the world around you, so that when other people see your life like in Acts-2, they are utterly amazed and want to take a drink. And, your very life becomes the encounter with God that they need. *Acts-1:8 says, you will *receive power** when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And, you will be my witnesses. If you're not being a witness, you probably need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit or go back to the source again.
Because, it's a promise, it's a declaration. You will be his witness. You will overflow. Amen? So, I want to encourage you, I want to invite you to stand.
And, I want to keep the band in the audience for now. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. So as a congregation of I want you guys, and I wanna invite you with me to begin to in whatever way your heart knows how to, I want for you to begin to cry out to God from your heart. Usually, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
So, you'll probably begin to pray a bit, maybe to worship. But I want you to cry out from your heart if what this message has created a hunger in you, a thirst in you for more of his presence, to realize his desire for you is to overflow. I want you to begin to just to hunger as a congregation and just to ask the Holy Spirit, ask the Father to pour out the Holy Spirit more in your life. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you.
If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up. Search for Real Church Clearwater. **God bless you** and the best is yet to come.