Romans #33 – Real Ministry: Power (Romans 15:14-21)

28 Jun Romans #33 – Real Ministry: Power (Romans 15:14-21)

– All right, hey, we’re in a great book of the Bible called Romans. If you’ve got a Bible go to Romans chapter 15, and as you’re finding your place, it’s really interesting because God made us and God is so great and so large and so powerful. There’s something in us that just wants to be connected to something bigger than us, to have our lives, make a difference, to make an impact, to leave a legacy. For some people this leads them to invest all their time and energy in a company. For others they get really motivated politically. For some folks this is where you pick up your hobby or your favorite sports team go zones. And pray for the diamond backs too if God could raise the dead that’s the only hope that the diamond backs up. And what happens is we’re always looking for someone or something to sort of give our time and our money and our energy to invest in, to contribute to, to make a difference, to make the world a better place. And that’s because God made us to be part of his mission on the earth. For the Christian we give our best time and energy and money to the church, which is the outpost of God’s kingdom on the earth. And when he stopped to think about it, the existence of the church, and even what we’re doing, just gathering here as a church family, it really is quite incredible. And some of you may have been going to church for a long time or you may not think about how the church of Jesus Christ came into existence, but it’s really one of the greatest stories in the history of the world. And that is that Christianity is the largest movement of any sort of kind in the history of the world. It’s the longest lasting. Now going a few thousand years, it’s the most diverse. More languages and nations and cultures and tribes and kinds of people who are part of the church of Jesus Christ. There’s nothing as big as the church. There’s nothing as significant or as impactful as the church, which means you being part of a church is investing in God’s work in the earth and the most important thing that is happening on the earth. And then the question is, well, how does that come to be? Most nations have a leader. Well, we don’t have any singular human leader alive on the earth today for Christianity in the church. If you have a nation, you have a headquarter. So perhaps the white house or something like that, we don’t have a headquarters on earth. And the question is, well, how does the church come into existence? And how does it sustain itself? And it’s not because we get along on everything. If you find three Christians you’ll find seven opinions. And it’s also not because we’re the most organized, somebody solely recently, “I don’t believe in organized religion.” Neither do we Christians, we tend to be very disorganized. And so the question is how does the biggest movement come into existence? The X factor has to be the God is involved. That God must love the church. That God must have birthed the church. That God must have sustained the church that God must love the church. And this is where we read in Acts chapter one. This is after Jesus lives and rises, his people are so excited to tell everybody, “Jesus is alive, sin is forgiven,” “death is conquered, heaven is open.” It’s the best day ever. And here’s what Jesus tells them. He ordered them not to depart Jerusalem. That’s where they were at the time. But to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, “You heard from me for John baptized you with water,” “but you will be baptized with the Holy spirit,” “not many days from now.” So they’re super excited. We’re gonna go tell everybody about Jesus. Like it’s not time. So there’s God’s will, there’s God’s power and there’s God’s time. And to walk in the will of God, we need to have all three lined up and sequence. The will of God is go tell people about Jesus, but you can only do that by the power of God. And you can do that at the time that God chooses. And what he tells them is to wait because ministry can’t be done life, can’t be done, our Christianity can’t move forward, the church can’t be birthed without the presence and the power of the person of the Holy spirit. So the Holy spirit, he is the X factor in human history. The reason that Christianity exists, the Holy spirit has been at work in for through people on earth for thousands of years. The reason why we are here, that you are here is this is all evidence of a miracle meaning, the church couldn’t exist, Christianity couldn’t exist, our church couldn’t exist apart from the ministry of the Holy spirit. And where Paul is going to transition in Romans 15, he’s gonna talk about a local church just like ours. And he’s gonna talk about how the Holy spirit has been working for them in them, through them. He’s going to encourage them. And he’s gonna talk about what it looks like for us to live together in the Holy spirit. Up until this point, he’s talked a lot to the church. Now he’s gonna talk about the church. So I’m gonna make this a real personal sermon and not just talk to you, but talk about you. And the good news is it’s gonna be encouraging. Less I totally blow it. So I’ll let you know in an hour, but that’s my hope. And also in this, how great is it that you’re part of what God is doing in the world? I mean, we wake up every day it’s like, I hope I’m putting my time, my energy, my money into something that matters. If you are filled with a spirit, part of a Christian Church and serving the Lord Jesus, you’re part of what God is doing, which has to be the most important thing that is happening on the earth. And so Paul starts by encouraging them and I wanna start by encouraging you. And so these are kind of the themes that I’m pulling out of Romans 15, and then we’ll look at the verses in succession, but encouragement is highlighting the spirit in people. When you are, I are in relationship I always like to say, that criticisms or corrections they are withdrawals. You’re taking out of the relational account. That encouragement is a series of deposits, okay? And so let’s say you’re raising a child. If all you’re ever doing is correcting them, but not encouraging them, eventually you’re going to bankrupt the relationship with the child because you’ve made more withdrawals than deposits. And if you’re married, this is true, okay? And if you wonder how it’s going ask your spouse ’cause the truth is always with your spouse. But the truth is that we in relationships when we encourage, when we point out things that we appreciate things that we are grateful for, ways that we see God working, those are deposits. Corrections and criticisms withdrawals. What he’s gonna do here, he’s gonna make a lot of deposits. And then a chapter 16, he’s gonna make a little withdrawal. He’s gonna say there’s some demonic things happening. Some divisive people have come. He’s gonna make some corrections in chapter 16, but he’s gonna precede that with some deposits. And he says it this way, Romans 15: 16, he tells the church that they’ve been sanctified by the Holy spirit meaning, they’re learning, they’re growing. And I want to encourage you ’cause sometimes you can be very discouraged when you hold up God’s standard of perfection. And then you realize that you’re not there yet. But what I don’t want you to do is just focus on God’s standard of perfection that was met by Jesus. And I want you to also look at the progress that has been made in your life. Now, some of you are not where you wish you were, but you’re not where you were, amen? How many of you you’re like, I’m not there yet, but at least I’m going north, I’ve made some progress, things are changing. I see God at work in my life and it’s not perfection but it’s progress. And sometimes the way we discourage ourselves, we keep demanding perfection of ourself or others. The way we encourage we note and pay attention to and highlight the progress. And what he says is, “You’re being sanctified.” What this means is, there’s progress. They’re not who they were and they’re not who ultimately they will be when God is done with them. But they’re faithfully along that journey. They’re beginning that journey with God. I’ll tell you this about me. As I look back, I see great progress in my life. And as I look forward, I see a lot more work that needs to be done. That’s the Christian life. But if you are a Christian, God has been working, He has been changing, He has been leading, He has been correcting, He has been directing and He wants to encourage you in that. The second verse that he gives on this theme is Romans 15: 18-19. He talks about what Christ has accomplished through word indeed by the power of signs and wonders by the power of the spirit of God. And what Paul is saying is that in your individual life, God the Holy spirit is working, okay? And I just have a front row seat as your pastor who loves you, I get to see it. One of our favorite things as a staff and leadership team is just to get together and just to share the stories. What is God doing in people’s lives? And I’ll be honest with you, I think we could do a better job telling these stories. So I think we need to do a better job, even on social media and stuff. Just telling you all the wonderful things that God is doing. Not only is God at work in your individual life, He’s also at work through the Holy spirit in our collective life as a church family. And this is to encourage us and to encourage someone is literally to pour courage into them. That this world can be very discouraging. That sometimes our decisions can be very discouraging. But ultimately, what he’s talking about here is, if you keep paying attention to where the Holy spirit is working in your life and in your church, it’s going to increase your hope. It’s going to give you encouragement, make deposits into your soul and that’ll help you be stronger and more resilient for the future that God has you. So I’m just gonna start with a question. This is the third question that I ask at the Driscoll house all the time with the kids. I like to see where the Holy spirit is working in the life of Grace and my kids. So, oftentimes at dinner or driving in the car or whatever, I’ll ask questions like, what is God telling you? What is God showing you? What is God teaching you? What do you think God is doing in your character right now? What is God revealing to you about himself? I’ll just ask open-ended questions and I’ll listen. And then the kids’ minds will sort of ruminate. And then they’ll tell me, well, I feel like God’s saying this, or God’s showing me that, or I’m grateful for this, or God is helping me overcome that. And all I wanna see with Grace, the kids and you is just the Holy spirit at work. And I just want to see progress. And then what we wanna do, we wanna pay attention to that progress. And then we want to encourage that progress. And I’ll be honest with you as well. I think I do a better job at encouraging the kids and sometimes I can be more critical of my wife. And if you know what this is like, how many of you have somebody in your life that when you see God at work, you tend to encourage them. You see someone else and you want them to change more quickly but you start with a criticism. And these are the errors that I’ve made in my close relationships. I don’t make enough deposits through encouragement to then encourage people to make progress. Sometimes I jumped too quickly to the correction or to the things that need work. What I love about what Paul does, He says, “let’s start with encouragement.” “Let’s start with life in the Holy spirit.” “Let’s start with the progress that’s already been made” “in your life and in your family and in your church family” “Let’s start with all that God has done before we get” “to all the things that still need to be done.” And then he’s gonna jump in and he’s gonna encourage us as a church family. So this is more of a talk about us as God’s people. And he’s going to talk about what a spirit filled church looks like. When the Holy spirit shows up amongst a group of people, what happens? What does it look like? How is it different? So he jumps in. A spirit filled church loves one another. The fruit of the spirit is love. So there’s one God, three persons, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit. God, the father loves you with a father’s affection. He’s devoted to you, he cares for you. He knows that our sin has separated ourselves from him. So he sends our big brother, Jesus. He is God. He becomes a human being. He adds humanity to his divinity. Jesus comes down to mend that broken relationship that we have with God through sin. He lives, he dies, he rises, he returns to heaven. Then the question is, are we gonna be abandoned? Are we gonna be orphaned? No, he sends the Holy spirit so that you and I can live by the same power that Jesus did. The Christian life, like the life of Christ, is live by the power of the Holy spirit. So now God gives you the same power that empowered the life of Jesus. And the fruit of the spirit is love. And so one of the ways that we know that we are living in the spirit is when we’re loving in the spirit. He says it this way, “I myself am satisfied about you.” My brothers, that yourselves are full of what? Of goodness. He says you’re good people filled with all knowledge enabled to instruct one another. And what he’s talking about here is that God has really changed who these people are. That earlier in the book when he’s talking about non-Christians and before we meet the Lord Jesus, we talked about a doctrine called total depravity. And that is that sin infects and affects all of our being. So, our thoughts and our motives and our emotions and our words and our deeds. They’re all infected and affected by sin. But now what he says is that you are filled with goodness, that’s the Holy spirit my friend. The goodness in the believer is the Holy spirit. And the good change that begins in the believer is by the power of the Holy spirit. And the good works and the good fruit that comes out of the believer is by the goodness of the Holy spirit in the believer. What Paul looks at, he looks at a whole group of people in the church and what he says is, “The Holy spirit is in you.” “Therefore there’s hope for you.” Let me say the most hopeful thing is when somebody gets the Holy spirit. When you’re just living without the Holy spirit, there’s not goodness in you. So there’s not a lot of hope for you. Once the spirit of God is in you there’s goodness in you. There’s hope for you. And what you start to see is that the goodness of the Holy spirit starts to do good things to change you. Change your emotional life, your mental life, your relational life. Things start to just change. Grace and I were out last night right before a crazy monsoon hit. Wow, I’ll tell you. July in Arizona is exciting. I mean it, we get all the seasons in 15 minutes. It’s interesting. It’s very interesting but right before everything hit we were out having dinner and just a young couple came up to us and just told us their story. And their dad came home and he’s like, “You know what?” “I met Jesus, I received the Holy spirit.” “God’s changing me.” He apologized to his wife and to his kids said, “I’ve been sort of workspace, now I’m gray space.” It was just like a short drive by conversation. As we were headed out to dinner with people we never met before. And you know what it was? The Holy spirit showed up in dad and just changed dad. So the dad goes home and looks at mom and says, “I’m changed, our relationship’s gonna change.” And she says, “That sounds great.” So they look at the kids. Mom always says great. And then they look at the kids. It’s like dad’s changed. And so things are gonna change on how we parent now. It’s the Holy spirit does good work in people. And I’ll tell you this. It’s amazing to see how somebody can literally just change. The spirit of God shows up and everything changes. Sometimes all at once, sometimes in a change process. But what he’s talking about is that ultimately there’s a goodness there. There’s a love there. And what he’s talking about here that there’s goodness in you. And then you’re able to be filled with knowledge enabled to instruct one another. And the filled with knowledge is what we call, open your Bibles to learn the ability to encourage and to help one another we call open our lives to love. So what Paul is bringing together here is literally the foundation of our church. We say we open our Bibles to learn. We open our lives to love. That’s what we do. Romans one through 11 is opening your Bible to love. It’s about theology and learning about God. Chapters 12 through 16 is relational. Opening your life to love. It’s about a relationship with others. And what Paul says here is this, that the Holy spirit has showed up in the life of that church family and those dear precious people just like you, that God loves with his whole heart. And now they are growing in knowledge. They’re learning the Bible and they’re able to love and to help and to serve and to minister to one another. And literally here, this is what we would call counseling or care. And what he’s saying is you are able to instruct one another. So let me give you an encouragement. If you belong to Jesus you have the Holy spirit. And everything that God is teaching you is not just for you, it’s for you and then for you to help someone else. And the things that you learn, you can help them learn. the struggles that you have. You can then comfort them in their struggles. The hardships you overcome, you can walk with them to help overcome similar hardships. And what he’s talking about here is this, that unlike a lot of other things in our world where we pay people to serve us in the Christian Church, there’s no spectators in the stands. We’re all players on the field. And what he’s saying is that God has ministry for you. We’re gonna talk about that a little bit here in the rest of Romans 15 but I want you to just be encouraged. What he says is there’s goodness in you. Some of you don’t no that even though you’re Christians, if the Holy spirit is in you, there’s goodness in you. His name is the Holy spirit. In addition, you do have knowledge. God has taught you some things and I want you to be encouraged by that. And you can now instruct and help others. There are people that God is going to bring in your path and God has prepared you to love and to serve them with the goodness of the Holy spirit, with the knowledge of the Bible and the ability to instruct them and to help them. And I just want to say I’m super encouraged. Our churches isn’t even five years old yet we are seeing this constantly. New leaders rising up people that have great wisdom, people that are lifting burdens for others, people that are blessing others. And it’s incredible to see. That’s life in the spirit. In addition, he talks about a spirit filled church and he talks about a spirit filled church loves Bible teaching. And this is probably my favorite point in the whole sermon. So I don’t know if you guys know this, I get really excited about the Bible. And I don’t think that people just believe what the pastor believes. I think they get excited about what he gets excited about. I get excited about learning the Bible. And what he’s talking about here is if you have the spirit of God in you then you have an appetite for the word of God. You wanna learn. You want to learn what God has to say. Says it this way in Romans 15:15 and 16, “But on some points I have written to you.” He’s talking here about Romans, this whole book of the Bible that the Holy spirit has inspired him to write and then deliver it to the church. You very boldly by way of reminder. Sometimes in learning the Bible, you need to learn new things. Some of you, God has new things that he’s teaching. You’re like, I didn’t know this. I’m learning this now. for some of you, You don’t need to learn new things. You need to be reminded of old things. Sometimes what happens is we forget some things and we need to be reminded of them. There’s like a married couple that exchanged their vows. And years later one of them is like, “Hey, you said you’d be nice.” I’m like, “Oh, I forgot.” That’s why we wrote it down. Okay, we’ve got to revisit that. That sometimes we need to be reminded. And sometimes it’s not that we forgot what we learned but we forgot to do what we learned. See what we tend to think sometimes is that information leads to transformation. It does it, let me give you a simple little equation. Information plus application results in transformation. It’s not just hearing but hearing and doing that leads to changing. As soon as you’re like I already know that but are you doing that? No, like how many of you your last physical with your doctor or like change your diet maybe exercise wants, just see how it goes. Do a sit up, just baby steps. And the next time you come in for the physical they’re like, how’s it going anything? Well, he’s gonna tell you what he told you last year. Okay, here is what you need to do. Because it’s not that you didn’t know it, it’s that you didn’t do it. So sometimes we need to be reminded because we forgot. Sometimes we need to be reminded because we’re not doing what we were told. And so we need to revisit it. He says I’m by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles and the priestly service of the gospel of God. So that the offering of the Gentiles, that’s the rebellious folk like us maybe acceptable, sanctified by the Holy spirit. He’s gonna keep talking about the goodness in you of the Holy spirit. The Bible being written by the Holy spirit. Ministry, being done by the power of God, the Holy spirit. and being sanctified or growing in relationship with God, the Holy spirit. And he’s talking here in particular about the Bible in general but this book of the Bible that the Holy spirit inspires him to write the book of Romans. And what he says is it’s for Jewish people and Gentiles. That’s what he’s saying. For us, this can get very confusing because most of us don’t walk around asking, are you circumcised? And if you do stop, like please stop. I mean, you’re just creeping us all out, okay? But in that day there were Jews and Gentiles, but the Jewish people would have been the religious people over on the far right. And the Gentiles would have been the rebellious people over on the far left. And what he’s talking about here is that Bible teaching is needed for both those who are religious and those who are rebellious. And what happens is oftentimes religious people and rebellious people, they argue with one another. So the religious people are like, you guys are all rebellious. You don’t even know what to do with the belt. You’re naughty. You shouldn’t have put that on social media. And a hangover is not a fruit of the spirit. And then the rebellious people are like, well, you’re judgy, you’re self righteous and you’re no fan. True, okay, so and what they’ll do their argue and fight with each other. What Bible teaching does it corrects religious people and rebellious people. It tells the religious people, Look, you’re not supposed to just judge them, you need to judge yourself. You don’t need you to start talking about all their problems, you’ve got to deal with your own. You’re proud, you’re arrogant, you’re judgmental. You’re unloving, yourself righteous. And then God speaks to those who were rebellious. And it’s like, “Hey, you’re not the highest authority” “in your life.” “I did make you.” “I will judge you.” “And there is heaven and there is hell.” ‘And if I am your creator” “I need to be the Lord of your life” “and you need to obey me.” And what Bible teaching does it brings rebellious and religious people together in a way that nothing else can. And what he’s talking about here is that he starts. So Paul, where did he start? Religious or rebellious? Super religious. And now God has called him to preach to those who were rebellious, the Gentiles. And what he’s not trying to do is make rebellious people religious because he was religious and that was his problem. Instead, Paul had does life change? Not through rebellion or religion but a relationship with Jesus by the power of the Holy spirit. And what he says is I wanna teach the Bible so that rebellious and re excuse me, that religious and rebellious people, they both come to a relationship with Jesus by the power of the Holy spirit. How many of you are more on the religious side of the spectrum? If you’re going to go one way or the other and if you’re a Republican just raise your hand. I mean that’s our team, right? How many of you are more rebellious? Okay you’re your Democrats. Okay, so this is just how it works. This is how it works. Somebody’s like that’s offensive. Okay, well, and true. So what happens is we either go to the writer to the left and God wants us to go up. So, you know what? I want a relationship with Jesus. I don’t want the Holy spirit to come down. And what Paul is talking about is that Bible teaching does something but nothing else does. And it takes religious people, rebellious people, Jews, and Gentiles and it brings them together. And it changes them through relationship with Jesus and the power of the Holy spirit. And it makes a new team, it’s team Jesus. And he’s saying that this is what Bible teaching does and nothing else can do that. And what he says is that the Holy spirit uses Bible teaching so that people can be sanctified by the Holy spirit. What Paul is saying is this, there is a supernatural power in God’s word that I’ll just tell you I don’t fully understand. God saved me at age 19, reading the Bible that Grace gave me. And then God told me to preach the Bible. So that’s what I have tried to do by God’s grace ever since. I’ve been a senior pastor for 25 years, half my adult life. I’ve now preached her top through more than half of the books of the Bible verse by verse. And you know what? Every time I’m still shocked. I can’t believe like things happened that I like God showed up. It’s just amazing to me. I can guarantee you this. If we got here every week and we picked any other book, you wouldn’t get the same results. Right?” So give me your a favorite book other than the Bible. Okay, Harry Potter, you didn’t say it, but I can read your thoughts. So if I got up every week and just we went verse by verse, not verse by verse through Harry Potter. Okay. Do you think we’d have the same result? No and if you do, you’ll need to stop going to Comicon. Okay, you just got to quit. You just got to repent. There are so many books written, but if we just get together and study them, the results are not the same, right? We could read Steinbeck novel. We could read shake could get together and pick any other book. And if we went through it meticulously, we wouldn’t get the same results. You know why? The Holy spirit wouldn’t show up in the same way. This is what’s just crazy to me. I mean, God, the Holy spirit not only wrote the scriptures, but when they are taught, he shows up in an unexpected way to do incredible things. And he says that through the scriptures, the Holy spirit shows up. He makes people acceptable to God. So that’s the starting of their relationship and sanctified meaning it grows their relationship. The way people become Christians is through Bible teaching. And the way people grow as Christians is through Bible teaching. Again the super course in conversation we had last night. My husband came home. We were in Romans and still his wife is like, “Ah, I’ve been religious and works.” “I’ve not been relational and grace” “and so I’m gonna get baptized and start over.” “And I apologize.” “Is that a good day?”

– Yeah.

– It’s a credible day. You say, how did that happen? The book of Romans, because the Holy spirit shows up for Bible teaching in a way that he doesn’t for Netflix. I’m not against Netflix but what happens with Bible teaching is the Holy spirit shows up. And so what happens is people will be like, “You can’t go through books of the Bible.” No you can’t unless the Holy spirit shows up and then you can. Well, you can’t have long sermons, answer? Actually you can. And they’ll say, well, people’s attention span is only 22 minutes which is a television show minus the commercials. Well, that’s their attention span unless the Holy spirit shows up. Next thing you know, People are good for an hour or two or three. We’ll see how it goes. So, Our great opportunity is just to get Bible teaching out. And then just to see what the Holy spirit does with the Bible teaching. I want to take every one of these points and I want to add an encouragement. So here’s the thing that really encourages me. So just to explain most of your new and many of you are online. And so we’re at the Trinity church here in Scottsdale, Arizona. And if you’re not in Arizona, this is always a question. Is it hot, answer?

– Yes.

– Oh yeah, no, like hell’s warm. This is hot. Like, this is crazy. So yeah, it’s hot. And what happens is we go through the Bible here at the church and the church is like a light bulb. And then there’s something called real faith ministries that our daughter, Ashley oversees and directs, and it’s like a light house. And we get Bible teaching out to the nations. And what’s really incredible is how the Holy spirit will multiply Bible teaching in a way that is quite supernatural. And one of my great joys is I just really, I love you and I want you to learn the Bible. And I know God’s gonna show up. I just don’t know how, and I know God’s going to change your life. I just don’t know how because I’m not the Holy spirit. I don’t get things done, he does. But I get to talk from the book that he wrote. And then he shows up to bless the word that he delivers to you. And if you want to any more Bible teaching, just go to legacy.realfaith.com just to it’s free. You get what you pay for the lawyer expectations. The app is also free but up there, there’s hundreds of sermons. They’re in audio they’re in video, the sermon notes are there. The transcripts are there, offering. There’s study guides, there’s books, there’s eBooks, there’s daily devotions, five days a week. I’ll send it to you going through books of the Bible as a general rule most of the time. There’s stuff for men, women, parenting, marriage, Grace, and I do a real marriage podcasts with marriage today. And that platform there’s stuff on you version. And I disciple and pray.com and Sirius XM radio and locally on Salem. And what’s really amazing is from our church family right here, four year old, almost five-year-old church plant. We’re studying the Bible. And this year not Bible teaching is going to go out to a hundred million people. A hundred million people, okay?

– And to me you say, well, how does that happen? It doesn’t, unless the Holy spirit shows up, the Holy spirit wants Bible teaching to go out more than I do, more than you do, more than we do. And what Paul is saying is he’s like, I’m writing this whole letter, cause I just want to get you God’s word. And I want you to help me get God’s word out. And I wanna encourage you in this. There was a president of a major evangelical Bible teaching ministries, a friend of mine, I love him. I won’t name dropped who his bosses. But he doesn’t live in Arizona, but he’s in Arizona quite a bit. And when he is in Arizona, he comes to the church at Trinity. And I always give him a hug and good to see him, he’s a buddy. And he told me recently, “Everything I tell you,” “I wanna encourage you.” He said, “Mark, I’ve been on the road my whole life” “with this Bible teacher and a good Bible teacher.” And he said, “I go to church and conferences and events” “almost every day of the year.” And he said, “I’ve never been in a place” “where as many people open the Bible and take notes,” “percentage wise as Trinity church.” He said, “The whole planet everywhere I’ve ever been.” He said, “The percentage of people who either bring a Bible” “or open it on your phone, it counts.” Okay, it does. And then they take notes. He said, “I’ve never seen this many people percentage wise” “that come to learn God’s word.” And he said, “It’s super encouraging.” He said, “Is you I appreciate and I started looking around” “and everybody’s got their Bible open” “and they’re taking notes.” It’s like they just wanna learn God’s word. You know what that is? That’s the work of the Holy spirit in you. The work of the Holy spirit in you is he’s like, I wanna speak to you. I have a message for you. There’s a lesson you need to learn, I’ll help you learn it. There’s a burden that needs to be lifted, I’ll help you lift it. There’s a brokenness that needs to be healed, I’ll heal it. There’s a deliverance that needs to occur, I can deliver you. And what the Holy spirit is saying is I’m gonna use the word that I inspired to be written. And if you’ll open it, I’ll apply it to your life and all unleash its power and you’re gonna live in the spirit. And you’re gonna live in the spirit according to the word of God. And this friend of mine, he said, “And they pay attention,” “they take notes.” You do. And then he said, “Everybody stands up” “and they raise their hands and they sing.” And he said, “They’re thanking God for what they learned” “and they’re inviting God to apply what they’ve learned” “in their processing with God,” “what they’re learning and feeling.” And every time I’m in town he said, “I come to Trinity because just to be with those people” “is a great encouragement and refreshing to me.” That just means the world to me. God’s people are here. God’s word is here. God’s spirit is here. You know what? It’s a broken world. We wanna be a healing place. You know what? It’s a really discouraging world. We wanna be an encouraging place. It’s a really wicked world. We wanna be honest people. And this is life in the spirit. But again, as Paul is saying, “There is no life in the spirit without the word of God.” It goes on to talk a little bit more about life in the spirit. A spirit filled church loves ministry. Not only is there just things to learn, there’s things to do. And I’ll be honest with you, I love the church. The Bible says that Christ loved the church and gave his life for her. Like I wanna give my life to whatever Jesus gave his life to. If Jesus feels like the church is his bride, that’s his love and his priority, then I wanna love his priority. And it’s not just learning things but it’s doing things. So here’s how he explains it, in Christ Jesus then I have reason to be proud of my work for God. How many of you you’re like, that seems a little, proud, that’s bad, Satan is proud, that’s the worst sin. Here’s the key proud of my work for God, which is right. What Christ has accomplished through me. Ministry is three things. And we always like to say this way, God works for you in you and through you. So God works for you, that’s Jesus, okay? We looked at this earlier in Romans. God becomes one of us. He becomes a human being. And he works for us. Meaning his whole life is perfect obedience and sinless perfection He does all the work. And then he dies on the cross in our place for our sin. And he says it is finished. He did all the work. That’s God’s work for us. The life, death, burial and then subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death. That’s God’s work for us. And this is honestly most of the first third ish of the book of Romans. And then he starts to talk a little bit more about God’s work in us. I’m just remembering in Romans five, He said, “God loves us and he’s poured out his love” “into our hearts through the Holy spirit” “whom he has given us.” So God’s work for us is the life death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ As our savior for our sins. God’s work in us, He pours out his love through the Holy spirit. Once the Holy spirit is in you, now you have faith and you trust God. Now you’re a new person, new creation. You have a new nature. You have new desires. You have a new mind. You can obey Romans 12 and no longer be conformed to the pattern of the world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You used to not love God, now you love God. You used to love sin, now you hate sin. You’re changing from the inside out, God’s work in you. And then God’s worked through you. That God is going tO use you to be the means by which he ministers to others. This is the miracle of the Christian life. When God uses you, when God uses you see there are people in your life that God is going to have them become Christians and you’re gonna be the one who’s praying for them, serving them and talking to them. Now God is gonna save them, but he’s gonna work through you. There are people in your life that they’re struggling and they’re hurting and they’re in a tough season and they feel abandoned or isolated or alone or hopeless. And if you live on the earth, we all get there at some point, so don’t feel bad. But God’s gonna send you, and the Holy spirit is in you so that’s gonna be the ministry of presence, God is gonna go there with you. And you’re gonna love them with God’s love. And you’re gonna encourage them with God’s encouragement. And you’re gonna help lift their burdens because Jesus Christ is the one who’s lifted your burdens, and God is gonna work through you. God could do everything without us. Why do you think He includes us? He loves us. And he wants us to be a part of what he’s doing. And he wants us to have the joy of the Holy spirit, not only working for us in us, but also the joy of the Holy spirit working through us. And this is where Christian ministry is really supernatural and it’s really incredible. And oftentimes when we hear of pride, well, there’s the secular version of pride. I’ll just hit the lever and flush that. And then there is the bad version of pride where it’s pride in, proud in who I am, proud in what I do. And then there’s pride that’s pride in God. I’m proud of my God. How many of you are proud of Jesus? I’m proud of Jesus, right? I’m proud of Jesus. We’re gonna have a pride parade. Let’s have one for him. And I’m proud of who Jesus is. And I’m proud of what Jesus says. And I’m proud of what Jesus does. And when Jesus chooses to work through us, we’re really proud that he was so good to us. And so what he’s talking about here is really a ministry is being used of God and being available and surrendered to God. And then being proud of what God does, but being really encouraged that God did it through you. Again, my friend, God doesn’t need you, He loves you. And the reason he includes you is not because he couldn’t do it without you, but he wants you to be blessed by him doing it through you. Is this is how good God is when we do ministry? Not only is the person we’re ministering to blessed, so are we. How many of you have served someone? You’ve been generous, you blessed someone, you prayed for them, you taught them something. And there’s just a deep profound satisfaction in the Holy spirit. Like, hey, thanks God, I got to be a part of that. That’s amazing. And sometimes you’ll be like, thank you. And you’re like, actually, God’s so good. That when we live in the spirit and we serve in the spirit and we minister in this spirit, they’re blessed and we’re blessed, God’s so good, He blesses both of us.

– Amen.

– Yep.

– And this is the joy in the spirit. This is the life in the spirit that God wants for all of his children. And again, I wanna encourage you. Every one of these points, I just feel inclined in the spirit and with an encouragement on this one, this past year, literally five years of ministry work got done. This was a fast-forward year. We started new ministries. We grew as a church family. We got a lot of work done on property. It was an incredible, I mean an incredibly supernaturally, overwhelmingly fruitful year. And it’s July right now, so you’re getting your vacations and staff is getting their vacations. And then what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna finish Romans in a few weeks. And then I’m gonna do a short series on spiritual gifts. I wanna talk about your divine design. How God takes your personality and what I’ll call your spiritual gifts, your talents, your abilities, your struggles, your family, everything you’ve been through. God doesn’t waste anything. And he uses it all to create a divine design for you so that you are now able to do ministry in a way that is unlike anybody else. And that there are people that God will bring for you to minister to that they need you. They need your personality. They need your experience. They need your gift mix so that God could work through you to minister to them. We’re gonna do a four week series on spiritual gifts. I just finished a book. It’s about 35,000 words. I wrote it last week. Finished it on Thursday. Thursday was prophecy, healing, tongues, and miracles day. I drove home. Grace is like, how are you doing? I was like, my brain hurts big time. And we’re gonna get into all of these issues. But what I want is I want you to have the same experience that the Apostle Paul did. And that is that my life matters. I’m on team Jesus. It’s the biggest thing in the history of the world. And I just wanna know my position and my role. And I wanna know where you want me on your team. And I wanna find my place and I wanna find my joy fulfilling my place. And so some of you, many of you are serving. We love you, we’re glad to have you. That series that’s forthcoming is gonna help position you to find God’s divine design for you so that you can do ministry. The last two, a spirit filled church loves the kingdom. Paul says this in Romans 15:18-19, “For I will not venture to speak of anything except what” “Christ has accomplished through me.” And I’ll tell you guys, it’s really important to tell people what Jesus has done for you. It’s really important. Because our testimony is very powerful. Your testimony is very personal. And there are people who don’t know Jesus, but they know you. And if you tell them about Jesus, they may come to know Jesus too. To speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles, the rebellious to obedience. And here’s the key, by word indeed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God. Every time you hear goodness in you sanctified by the Holy spirit, signs wonders and powers by the Holy spirit. He’s talking about the anointing. I probably should’ve said this earlier in the sermon. The most important thing, the most important thing for the Christian is the anointing of God. The anointing of God is God’s hand on your life. It is knowing God’s will. Okay God, what do you want me to do? It’s God’s power. So you can walk in God’s will. And it’s God’s timing. We looked at that in Acts 1:4-5. It’s fine count your money. But the anointing is more valuable than your income. It’s fine to invest your life in business or family, relationships, courses, all of that is fine and good. The one thing that our world doesn’t understand is that life doesn’t work without the anointing of the Holy spirit. It just doesn’t work. This is why we just keep thinking. Well, if we just found out more money, that’ll fix people. No, only the Holy spirit can really fix people. Well, if we just had more education, well, you can have more education, but you don’t have more wisdom without the Holy spirit. Well, if we just did some more things, no, it’s not about what we do, it’s about ultimately what he does. And the older I get, the one thing that I’m looking for more than anything is just the anointing of the Holy spirit. If God’s there, that’s where I wanna be. If that’s what God’s doing, that’s what I wanna do. And what he’s talking about here is the anointing of the Holy spirit. This is why we wanna repent of our sin because it can block the flow of the freedom of the spirit in our life. This is why we wanna open the scripture so that the Holy spirit can speak to us through the word that he has written. I want you to put as the priority in your life, the anointing of the Holy spirit. Some people every day they just get up and say, “I wanna win.” “I wanna worship.” I worshiped with Jesus who got crucified and on that day it looked like he was losing. But he was worshiping. So people get up every day and they’re like, “I just want to be successful, I’d rather be anointed.” Well, I wanna be in charge. I’d rather be anointed, right? I’d rather be in control. Well, you’re not, it’s just better to be anointed. With all my heart the thing I want for you for me for us is the anointing of the Holy spirit on our life, on our family, on our church family. That’s the most important thing. And it used to be when I was a young Christian, I still got a lot of sort of convictions and beliefs and doctrines and theologies and I have a lot of opinions, okay? I just do try if you don’t know that you’re new. So I have a lot of opinions. But anymore, the people I want to do life with are people that I see the spirit in. I see the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. I just wanna see people who though the spirit of God he has his hand on their life. And, there’s an anointing that I just want to be with those people. And by God’s grace, I wanna be one of those people. And what he says is when the Holy spirit shows up, he does things that are, what we would call miracles. They’re inexplicable apart from the supernatural. God shows up. Miracles are things that don’t happen unless God shows up. So he talks about those here, signs, wonders and the power of the spirit of God. And what he’s talking about here is that here we are, we live on the earth. And then there is the kingdom of God in the unseen realm. Signs, wonders and powers of the Holy spirit are what happens for the church on the earth when the kingdom shows up. When the kingdom shows up and shows off in the church, supernatural things happen. Things that unless God is involved, these things are inexplicably and they are impossible. And he talks about ministry and word and indeed. So let me explain this. The kingdom of God is about word and indeed. That’s what he’s telling us. That the work of the Holy spirit is in word and indeed. In word, this is teaching, encouraging, blessing, worshiping, singing, praying, indeed it’s power signs, wonders miracles in the supernatural. This is because some people come into relationship with and other people grow in relationship with God in one of two ways. For some people it’s persuasion word, for other it’s power, deed. How many of you, your route to Jesus was more persuasion. You’ve a lot of questions, objections. You need some answers, you need some research. you need some footnotes, if you’re gonna join team Jesus. How many of you that was you, okay? How many of you, it was more power indeed? God healed you, an angel showed up, you had a vision, you had a dream, something supernatural happened in your life, you’re like, God’s real, I’m in. I talked to a couple recently, they got baptized here at the church and they got saved right about the same time. God’s timing for them was very interesting. He explains his story, persuasion word. He’s like I had a lot of questions and objections and a lot of philosophical obstacles that God had to overcome. And what she says is I prayed and God answered. So I knew he was real. So she got cuts in lines. She was like yup, help, yup, he’s like, I don’t know. I got to read more dead guy. So his process was a little longer. God works through persuasion and power through word and in deed. And God has ministry in both realms of word and deed of persuasion and power because there are different people, they’re gonna use a different path to come into the saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And when it comes to signs and wonders and the power of the spirit of God, we’re gonna get into this in the spiritual gifts series that’s coming up and we’re gonna talk about something called cessationism verse continuationism. Does God’s still do signs, wonders, the supernatural, the miraculous or has that ceased and stopped. We’ll get into all of that. Wrote a whole chapter on it in the Book that I finished this week. But I do wanna talk about the supernatural. And there are three things I just wanna briefly mention. Number one, we don’t chase signs and wonders. Where Christians can really err is God does signs and wonders and we get so excited about the signs and wonders, we forget about God. So all of a sudden you’re like, I just wanna go to this conference. I wanna get this high. I wanna do this thing. I wanna feel it. And some of you are the feelers, okay? You’re the artist. You’re the creators we can tell you’re wearing converse and your hair is in its natural color, we can tell. So you’re those feelers but it’s not a bad thing that God does signs and wonders, but we’re not to chase signs and wonders we’re to chase God. Jesus says this in Matthew 12:39, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.” Okay? So we don’t chase signs and wonders and miracles, we chase God. Number two, we test signs and wonders and miracles. Paul says this in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, “The work of Satan he says is counterfeit power” “and signs and miracles.” The exact language that he just said in Romans, he said, Satan counterfeits in 2 Thessalonians. He will use every kind of evil deception. What Paul is saying is God creates and Satan counterfeits. That God will do real signs, wonders and miracles. And Satan will counterfeit those to deceive people. Satan will heal your body to damp your soul. Satan will send an angel that pretends to be an angel, but it’s really a demon. Over the years, dealt with a lot of people that come from witchcraft and Wicca and the demonic and drugs and all kinds of things. I’ll never forget it. There was a story comes to mind. I was dealing with a girl, her mom was a witch, literally ran a witchcraft shop and a coven. She grew up literally, it was like your mom’s a witch. She’s like, yup. I mean, literally that was her story. Mom was a literal witch. And so she met Jesus but she had what she called the comforting spirit that had been with her since she was a young child. I don’t know why I’m telling you this story, I’m just thinking about it. But it was her invisible friend. And it wasn’t imaginary, it was just spiritual. And it was still with her. And so I was meeting her with her one time and she manifested a completely different personality. She became someone else. And I said, who are you? And this spirit speaking through her said, My name is Jesus. And I said, are you Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary? And they got this wicked small, I’ll never forget the look on this woman’s face. They said, no, not that Jesus. It was a demon using the of Jesus to even deceive her as a little girl to welcome an evil spirit into her life. And now that she’s a Christian, she’s confused because this demon says its name is Jesus, but Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 11, he says that Satan will masquerade as an angel of light that he will pretend to be holy when he’s unholy. So what we wanna do, we wanna test. Okay, something supernatural did an angel did show up. He did get a miracle. You did get a healing. You did get a dream. Was that God, was that Satan, was that the Chalupa, like what caused that dream? I’ve had Chalupa dreams. They’re very confusing. And the sermon is okay, what’s the source behind this? So we don’t chase signs and wonders and miracles, we test signs and wonders and miracles, but here’s what we expect that as we follow God, signs and wonders and miracles, they will follow us. They will follow us. In my life, I’ve seen people saved, delivered, healed. I’ve had prophetic visions. I’ve had prophetic dreams and I’ve had demonic counterfeits. Our goal is not to chase power, but to be filled with God’s power and expect his power to show up in supernatural ways following us as we follow Jesus. I’ll give you three encouraging stories on this. Again, I wanna encourage, the Trinity church has been burdened sustain through, I’ll just use Paul’s language word indeed, powers, signs and wonders, the power of the spirit of God. An annoying thing, I don’t understand, I can’t control. I’ll give you three prophecies that brought this church into being and sustained it. And prophecy is God telling us the future, so we prepare for it. And we lived in another state. We were unsure what God had for us next. And we were in the time between the times, we’re meeting with a counselor, trying to heal up process everything that we’d been through Grace and I and loved the kids. And I felt inclined to go to an event in Florida, it was a pastors conference with some buddies of mine. I’m not part of the network, but I just went there. I just felt like I was supposed to be there. I don’t know why. So I got on a plane, I fly all the way across the country. And in the last session, before I was to catch a flight out, I just felt like I needed to go listen to the Holy spirit and just meet with the Lord. And so I left and I was looking for a coffee shop and I put one in and it was a dead end. The directions brought me to the middle of nowhere. So now my time is running short and I’m driving by a Mexican restaurant. So I pull over and go, the point of the story is when all else fails go to a Mexican restaurant. So I went to a Mexican restaurant and I walked in the door and the girl who was the hostess said, “Table for one.” I said, yeah, table for one, I’m gonna use the restroom I’ll be right back. Well, there was some people with their back to me and they turned around is pastor Mark, ’cause he could recognize my voice. I’d never met this person. He listened on the internet, lived in Florida, was a pastor. So I go into the restroom and I come out and he says, “Hey, could you come over and sit with us for a minute?” I said, yeah. He said, “I’ve been praying for you,” “praying for your family.” It was like total stranger, I’m in Florida. Like if the Holy spirit can come to a Mexican restaurant, you know that God is sovereign. Like he rules over everything. And so, he said, “Hey, can we pray for you?” Answer?

– Yes.

– Oh yeah, I needed google me. I need as much power as I can get. Oka so, so don’t do that. So he prays for me. And he’s a pastor. First time we’ve ever met. And I said, hey, thank you, I’m gonna go and eat. He said,” Wait, when I prayed God gave me vision.” I said, okay, what is that? He said, “I saw that you and your family packed up,” “moved across the country to another state,” “somewhere in the desert that was very hot and very warm.” “and God was going to have you plant the church” “and you were gonna do it as a family” “and it was gonna be very fruitful” “and he was gonna bless you.” “Does that make any sense?”

– Wow!

– I said, you know what, it’s crazy, I’m going to the airport to fly to Arizona. I’m leaving like in an hour or two to go to Arizona. Grace and the kids are gonna meet me there. And we’re asking God whether or not he’s calling us there to start a church. And so we flew in, I told Grace, I think we got her confirmation. We met with the pastors in the valley. They welcomed us and prayed over us. Total stranger at a Mexican restaurant, but he had the Holy spirit.

– Amen.

– And so God could speak to him and through him. So then we get here and I didn’t wanna push it with Grace and the kids we’d been through a lot. And so we’re just attending church. And then the kids come home and I said, we wanna plant a church as a family and do it as a ministry, which I just wanna honor the kids publicly. They’ve been through a lot and they still love and serve Jesus. They all do. They’re amazing. They’re inspiration to me. And so then I flew out and I met with pastor Jimmy Evans, one of our overseers and one of our pastors. I said, I feel called to plant a church. And we ran it by the spiritual authority that’s over us, a number of pastors. And they said we believe that’s God’s calling your life is to start the church. And so the kids named it Trinity Church after grandpa Gibbs church, Grace’s dad. And so I flew out to meet with pastor Jimmy Evans. And he said, “What are you gonna do for a building?” I said, I don’t know. He said, “I think I have a word from the Lord.” Great. You have the Holy spirit. He said that you’re gonna buy a building. It’s gonna be off the one-on-one. It’s gonna be in Scottsdale. Some of you have heard this story. It’s gonna be a historically designated church. It’ll be grandfathered in as a church. You’ll be able to buy it. And it’ll see about 800. That’s very specific. So I come back, I called the realtor. I said, well, the Holy spirit says, I got a building. Where is it? He’s like, I don’t know, It doesn’t exist. Then this building comes available. We get the keys to this building, have our first informational meeting five years ago on the 50th anniversary of the grand opening of the building to the day.

– Wow!

– We couldn’t afford the building. Usually you get people, you ask them for money, they give you money and then you buy a building. We got a building and no people, no money. So I go to the denomination that own this church that had died and I said, we have no people, we have no money, I can’t go into a bank and just immerses on hope. And so, the denomination said, “Will serve as your bank.” I said, well, I’m gonna need a year to raise the down payment and you guys were generous and you paid for the down payment. And here’s what’s really crazy on that. I found out the money that we pay for the mortgage of the church that goes to the denomination and it goes into a special fund and it funds church plants. So, we’re aggressively paying off our mortgage. We paid cash for all the renovations and improvements. God’s been very generous through you. Usually you give money, it goes to a bank. We give it to a denomination and it plants more churches. That’s amazing. That’s like Jesus getting the fishes in the lows from a little boy. So it was an Easter service and now we’re open finally. And I asked, okay, how many chairs? We packed the place with chairs, 793 seats. And I said God, that was so close. And then I kid you now. We counted in the sound booth, there were seven seats, 800 seats. And then it was about a year and a half ago God spoke to me and said, you need to order some gear, some work to be done, new HVC, He gave me a long list of work to do on the property and in the technology. And I was like Lord, how can we do that? We’re open every week. God’s like, don’t worry about it, son. You’re gonna be able to do it. So I told grace and I told the staff and I told the kids, God spoke to me and I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I’m glad he didn’t tell me I would have been freaked out, right? And so it was crazy because it was a Sunday that the governor’s edict came down and we closed the church for a short season. That next day Monday, we had all of the supplies for installation and technology ordered to get us ready for real faith live and live capture and all the things that we’re doing. And the first work crews scheduled to come in and do the work that we needed done, were scheduled for Monday. The governor closed us on Sunday and we were already sequenced to start work less than 24 hours later. During the six weeks that we were closed, we got everything done that told me we were going to get done. And he did that ’cause he knew that he was going to more than double our church once we reopen. And so he was preparing us for you ’cause he loves you so much. And we wanna be a welcoming, hospitable church family. The point is this, when he talks about, by word indeed the power of signs and wonders by the power of the spirit of God. I’m just telling you that sometimes life in the spirit is just, it’s overwhelming. It’s like, God, you know the future. God, you can prepare us for the future. God, you could tell us what to do and if we do that, then our life looks totally different than what we would have done it and it’s better. And I just wanna, publicly just thank God, the Holy spirit for his faithfulness to us and for his anointing. Some people are like, “how do you do it?” You don’t, he does it. And Garrison he’s like, “How do you lead you?” You don’t, you follow The Christian life is very simple. Find the Holy spirit, stick close and do what he says. And then you’re gonna be okay. And if not, it’s gonna go bad. And then he closes with this and I wanna encourage you with this. And I’ll bring the band up. A spirit filled church loves lost people. We’re here because Christians need Jesus, but non-Christians really need Jesus. For those of you who know Jesus, imagine you didn’t. Imagine you didn’t have the Bible, imagine you didn’t have prayer, imagine you didn’t have Christian relationships, imagine you didn’t have the Holy spirit. Imagine your whole life was just you. You gotta fix all your own problems. You got to heal all your own hurts. You got to answer all your own questions. You got to lift all your own burdens. You got to chart all your next steps. He is what he says, so that from Jerusalem, all the way around to alert Illyricum, I think that’s how you say it, but I don’t know, I went to public school. So that’s how I say it. I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. He ministered for over a decade in one area. And then God is moving him to another. That’s my experience as well. And thus, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, unless I build on someone else’s foundation, he says, I don’t go in and take an existing church. I go start new ones. That’s what I do. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who’ve never heard of him, we’ll understand. What he’s saying is I was working here and now God wants me to work here. Let me just bring the band up and let me close with this. We’re in the fastest growing city and county in America. That there is an opportunity for people who’ve never heard about Jesus to hear about Jesus in very large numbers. The reason why people are moving here is because they want freedom. That if you’ve looked at something called the Left Coast there’s not a lot of freedom. There is anti faith, anti-family, anti freedom. So people are fleeing and they’re coming here ’cause they want freedom. But you know what? There’s no freedom apart from Jesus Christ.

– Amen.

– There’s no freedom apart from the Holy spirit, right? You can change where you live but God needs to change who you are.

– Come on.

– Right? The freedom isn’t just out there. The freedom starts in here. And if people are moving from around the nation to come to be near us so that they can find freedom, we need to tell them, we get to tell them about Jesus so they can experience true freedom.

– Amen. And so, I wanna encourage you because I believe that what God has started is only the beginning. Since we started Romans, we baptized 329 new Christians. Almost one new person meeting Jesus every single day, which is awesome. And I believe, I believe as Paul says, he’s got a plan and he’s got a big vision and he’s got hope and the Holy spirit is gonna show up. I’m very confident that that’s what God has for us. And so one was the band, just give me a little song. Give me a few things. There is a God. He’s good. He loves you. He’s willing to forgive you, if you’ve got a brokenness, he wants to heal it. If you’ve got a burden, he wants to lift it. If you have a question, he wants to answer it. His name is Jesus Christ. And the Holy spirit wants to anoint your life, and he wants to anoint our church family so that we can live in power and the joy and the peace that only the kingdom of God provides. And so what we’re gonna do right now as a family, two things I want you to do as we head into a time of song. Number one, I want you to ask the Holy spirit, Holy spirit, where have you been working in my life? Encourage me. What have you taught me? What are you doing? Where are you taking me? And I want you just to ask the Holy spirit to reveal to you specific things in yours personal life, where you can be encouraged. And number two, I want you to ask the Holy spirit, what he has for you to do. Paul here is talking about what God has for him to do. And I want the Holy spirit to meet with you and to lead you and to guide you and to encourage you and to anoint you for the future that God has for us. And so father, as we come into a time of worship, I pray you take my words and I remove whatever wasn’t of the spirit, but apply whatever is of the spirit. And Holy spirit I just wanna thank you for writing the scriptures and meeting with us and saving us and changing us and sending us and using us and blessing us and encouraging us. And Lord God, we just say thank you for the grace that you’ve poured out on us as a church family. We thank you for supernatural anointing. We thank you for the way that you have gone before us and prepared a clear path for us. And God we pray for all the people that don’t know Jesus yet, but they’re going to, we pray for the people who haven’t been saved yet, that they will. We pray for the people who have not been delivered yet, but freedom is coming in Jesus’ name. Amen.

– Thanks for listening to this sermon from pastor Mark Driscoll. For more free content such as sermons, study guides, daily devos and more visit legacy.realfaith.com.