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00:00 Open up your word that it'll be your word that touches our hearts and moves
00:06 our hands and our feets and our mouth that your name will be glorified, your
00:11 kingdom be extended. For we ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. The theme of um First
00:17 Baptist Church for this year is growing in the knowledge of him. As we grow in
00:24 him in our innermost being, as we experience Jesus Christ in our lives, we
00:29 cannot help but grow outwardly as well. Just as those Sunday school kids will
00:35 come and the first thing you'll know from a Sunday school child is every well I don't know whether you did this but I
00:41 did used to do this. Every few weeks you'll come and stand by a ruler and you
00:46 measure yourself against a ruler and say hey I'm a little bit shorter. you know,
00:52 taller. All right? And I think the same thing goes from adults. The trouble is we take Christian growth for granted and
00:59 often we don't measure ourselves. We don't look at our own growth and we're not accountable for our growth. So this
01:04 year our theme and our sermon series will be looking at how do we grow in our
01:10 knowledge of him. As we grow in our knowledge experience of Jesus Christ, we grow the church in the same manner. So
01:15 we're going to look at Acts 2:es 1-14. I'll read it to you.
01:21 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together at one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound
01:26 like a mighty rushing wind. And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Then divided tongues as the
01:33 fire appeared to them. They rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
01:39 speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men
01:46 from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each
01:52 one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished and saying, "Are not all
01:58 these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear each of us in his own
02:04 native language? Paththeians and me and Alommites and residents of Mesopotamia,
02:10 Judea and Capidosa, Pontis and Asia, Friia and Pamplia, Egypt and parts of
02:16 Libya belonging to Sirene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proelites, Cretans and Arabians. We hear him
02:23 telling in their own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and
02:28 perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others mocking said, "They're filled with new wine.
02:36 So this is the uh events that happen in Pentecost. Now
02:42 when we're looking talking about church growth and the growth of the kingdom, we might need to remember what Jesus said
02:49 in Luke chapter 13 when he said that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
02:55 And if you ever seen a mustard seed, there's a picture of a mustard seed. You really really find that it's very very
03:01 very small. It is a mustard seed that then grows into a huge tree. It's so
03:06 huge that birds can uh rest on it, build their homes on it and build a whole
03:13 colony on it. And if you can see the Christian church has grown from the time of Jesus when he ascended to heaven and
03:20 the apostles where Jerusalem, Samaria, Antioch, Edian lands right up to Rome.
03:26 The whole book of Acts describes the powerful explosive growth of the kingdom
03:33 of God right up to did you know that the last hundred years onethird of every
03:40 man, woman and child on this earth professes Christianity either Roman
03:45 Catholic or evangelical Christian. The kingdom has grown in leaps and bounds.
03:50 And today we're going to look at the center of the explosion. What happened?
03:56 What caused this growth of this wonderful kingdom? It starts off in Acts uh one which Dr.
04:04 Tan spoke to you last week about. You heard from me for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the
04:11 Holy Spirit not many days from now. This is the promise that uh Jesus said. Now
04:17 Acts chapter 2 verse one when the day of Pentecost arrived or was being fulfilled they were all together at one place.
04:24 Some people think this is an upper room. Some people saying it's near the the the temple. Whatever it is, Pentecost
04:30 arrived. Now, for us to understand what Pentecost is, it's very important to go back into a bit of Jewish history. If
04:36 you look at Jewish festivals, there are seven festivals that they usually celebrate apart from Purin, which is the
04:42 eighth one, which is added later on. But these are the traditional seven. And here we have Pentecost as the fourth
04:48 festival of the year. Uh this is important. Um these are the references you can get from the website later on as
04:55 to uh illustrate where the festivals derive from. Pentecost is actually the
05:01 festival of first fruits. When you actually see the first apples or grapes appear um on the ground, you basically
05:10 take these and you offer them to God. It is a basically a prophecy. What's going
05:15 to happen is it's foretelling what's going to happen. If you have got good crops in the first bit, it means the rest of the harvest will be wonderful.
05:22 There's also a Jewish tradition in the book of Jubilees that
05:28 places the um Pentecost at a time in Mount Si where the first ten
05:33 commandments were given. So it's very significant from that point of view. This is Exodus. If you look at Exodus,
05:40 Mount Si is wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it uh in fire. The
05:46 smoke of it went up like a smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly and the sound of the trumpet
05:53 grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. Huge amount of noise, amount of smoke. Um, and this
06:01 is when the law of God was given to the newly reconstituted nation of Israel.
06:07 This is to be the first covenant where the for the people to have God's law. If
06:13 they were to obey God's law, they would be his people. Now, let's look in that context in the book of Acts in this
06:21 Pentecost. And suddenly, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty gushing
06:26 wind. It filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as of fire appeared on them and rested on
06:34 each of them. Here you have some of the elements very similar to what happened
06:40 if you look back in Exodus. There's sound, there's fire, there's smoke, there's great trembling. Here we have
06:47 the disciples in a situation where there's a great sound like a mighty rushing wind. And this sound tells us
06:54 this God is doing something wonderful. It filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as of
07:00 fire appeared on them. And this are tongues of fire. Not really fire. It appeared as if it was fire. And fire is
07:07 important. Fire is how God reveals himself to the people of God on the Mount Si. Fire is when burning bush uh
07:15 appeared before Moses. We see pillars of fire guiding the people of Israel from
07:20 Egypt right out to the promised land. Um it's a God is described as an all-consuming fire. So here we have a
07:28 marvelous event that something is happening and John predicted this. John
07:34 answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but he who is much mightier than I is coming, the straps of
07:39 whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
07:45 and with fire." And if you actually were following scripture, you're wondering, "Ah, yeah, this is where this particular
07:52 prophecy is fulfilled." Dr. Tan put up this slide to give us some kind of
07:58 context of where we are. This is the old age where Israel is in exile. They've
08:03 got the first covenant. Mount Si given the ten commandments didn't quite work out because although the commandments
08:09 were good, the people weren't able to follow that. And so therefore, we've got
08:15 the first Pentecost. The second Pentecost is right here where we're in the last days where Israel is restored
08:21 to God spiritually, where God's kingdom is growing. And this um Pentecost comes
08:28 uh 50 days after the Lord's supper. Same thing as in the Old Testament. 50 days
08:34 after the Passover, the covenant law was given on Mount Si. Here we have the Lord's supper. 50 days after that, we
08:41 have the new covenant. The Holy Spirit comes in a start a new covenant for God's people to live in a new way. And
08:48 here we have a salvation pattern, a pattern where there's salvation and then there's covenant renewal. Where before
08:55 we've got the covenant written on stone tablets where the people could not possibly um obey, now we've got the new
09:03 covenant written into people's hearts. And this is done by the Holy Spirit.
09:08 This is a very important verse in Ezekiel which I always bring up time and time again for us to memorize. It says,
09:14 "And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your
09:21 flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to
09:27 obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God."
09:34 How can we be God's people? We can only be God's people when we are
09:40 like God created in his image. Like God in our behavior, in our values, in the
09:47 direction of our lives and the only way we can do that is take the same ten commandments, the same law which God
09:53 gave us and then put them in our hearts. And the Holy Spirit is the one who comes
09:58 in the new covenant to enable us to do this. And then they were filled with the
10:04 Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. The Greek word is um in
10:10 indicates to be filled with a sponge or the filled with enthusiasm or filled to prophesy. It's something that comes into
10:17 you and and the thing is it's not once for all. It's you actually can have it filled again and again. I want to talk
10:24 to you about this controversial topic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Um, is
10:30 this an additional uh experience to conversion? There are some churches uh when people always get confused. They're
10:36 saying, "Look, uh, when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you should be able to speak in tongues because of
10:42 the same thing that happened in Acts chapter 2." Uh, and uh, it's an additional experience. It makes you more
10:49 powerful. It makes you more alive to the purposes of God. Uh, you really have to
10:54 pray for it. Um, is this true? If you look at Jerusalem,
11:00 first Christians came to know God. They had a relationship with Jesus Christ way back in the gospels. They didn't receive
11:08 the Holy Spirit till you know lots of time later on 50 days at least. Baptism
11:13 of the Holy Spirit happens spontaneously. So it's a when you converted, you come to know Christ and
11:19 then there's time elapses and then you have a second experience. So a lot of churches will take that as a second
11:25 experience. You have to have a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then you look at Acts chapter 8, the Samaritans. These
11:32 are the northern kingdom folk uh who were a bit mixed with the Syrians. Philip preached the gospel. They were
11:39 converted. They gave their life to Jesus Christ, but they did not receive the Holy Spirit. And later on uh Peter and
11:46 John came and prayed for them. Then only they had the Holy Spirit. And so people are get excited. So wow, there is a
11:51 two-stage process. You become a Christian first and then you get the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Makes sense,
11:57 isn't it? Then you look at another passage here. You've got Acts chapter 19. These are John's disciples. These
12:04 were people who had the baptism of John of repentance. They became Christians.
12:09 They became followers of Jesus, but didn't have the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 19, um Paul lays hands on them
12:17 and then they get the Holy Spirit. From these three incidences, u some folk will
12:23 derive that there is a two-stage process. Not enough to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You got
12:28 to have a second experience. But if you just take the book of Acts as it is like
12:33 this, um this is not necessarily the predominant or all the pattern. It's not
12:39 complete. If you look, there's the area of Acts chapter 10 in Cesaria. These are
12:44 Gentiles under the ministry of pizza. And what happens that it is not a
12:50 two-stage process. It is a one-stage process. Let me read to you. It says, "And he told them that he has seen the
12:57 angel stand by the house and said, "Send to Japa and bring Simon who is called Peter. He will declare to you a message
13:03 by which you will be saved, you and your whole household." And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just
13:11 as on us at the beginning. And I remember the word of the Lord. He said, "How John baptized with water, but
13:17 you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And if then God gave us the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believe in
13:24 the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way." And here he
13:29 is. He goes back to Jerusalem and describes to the Jerusalem church how when he was speaking and talking and
13:38 sharing the gospel to the people in Cesaria, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit fell and everyone sitting there and they
13:44 not only believe but they actually got the Holy Spirit at the same time. All right? And Paul, sorry, Peter describes
13:52 this exactly the same experience as they had in Jerusalem. And here we actually
13:58 have Pentecost, Samaria and Ephesus as dual events. And you've got the single
14:05 event where Cesaria or Saul of Tarsus, Ethiopian treasurer, uh Lydia, Philippian jail, they all believe and
14:11 receive Holy Spirit at the same time. The one event or some of it is not written. So it's not true to say there
14:17 are two necessarily two events all the time in the book of acts. What happens is that why do we have this situation
14:24 where you when you become a Christian and then you've got the Holy Spirit coming later on. These are milestones in
14:31 history. It doesn't really happen again. You've got this gospel coming and people
14:36 and the Holy Spirit coming in Jerusalem then Samaria and then John's disciples.
14:41 There are milestones in the history of the church. And this particular milestones it happens to have the
14:47 pattern where belief is later on followed by the Holy Spirit. And this pattern isn't necessarily repeated all
14:53 the time. Let's look at what Peter says about the Holy Spirit coming. He says, "In the last days it shall be," God
14:60 declares that I will pour out my f my spirit on all flesh. Remember, all
15:05 flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream
15:12 dreams. Even on all my male servants and female servants, on those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall
15:18 prophesy. very clearly when G Peter stood up to explain what happened on
15:23 Pentecost that day when people are rolling out and speaking in different tongues. He's saying this is when God's
15:28 spirit is poured on all flesh all of flesh who acknowledge him as Lord and
15:34 Savior. So it is described not for a select few but for all uh who would come
15:39 into his kingdom. And Paul echoes this thought in 1 Corinthians 12:13. And he says, "For in one spirit we are all
15:47 baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. All were made to drink
15:52 from the one spirit." Very clearly Paul tells us that there is no second experience. There is this one experience
15:58 when you accept our Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. We are all
16:04 baptized into the one body by the same Holy Spirit. Now what happens later on?
16:11 Now under there they were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews and devout men of every nation under heaven. And this at this
16:16 sound the multitude came together. They were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
16:22 They were amazed and astonished and saying are not these who are speaking Galileans. How is it that we hear each of them in his own native language? This
16:29 is a miracle. They speak in their own language. If you were Chinese at that time and you found Peter as a Jew coming
16:35 out speaking Chinese and you were there and you oh yes I hear Chinese. If you're Tamil and then you hear him speaking
16:40 Tamil. So basically that is the situation. Foreigners who were there heard them speak in their own native
16:46 language. Is this gift the same as the one in Acts chapter 12 one Corinthians?
16:53 One Corinthians some people think it's a little bit different here. The the event is directed towards people so that they
16:58 will see the testimony of different tongues actual languages which are recognized and the purpose is to witness
17:05 the reception of the spirit. in the Corinthians is directed towards God and in some ways the the the the the
17:12 language is unrecognizable as it requires interpretation and the purpose is either edify yourself or build up the
17:18 church. There are slight differences and scholars are quite divided as to whether it's the same gift of tongues or a
17:25 different gift of tongues. And on the sermon on Sunday, I won't go into the intricacies of the diff difficulties
17:31 sorry differences but what are the points to take forward? This is the reversal of the curse of Babel. Remember
17:37 the power of Babel, men first started having different languages and men had
17:43 because of the difficulties in communication had to separate and spread all over the world where they were
17:49 actually uh barriers of languages set up in the reversal of the curse of uh Babel
17:55 and the coming Holy Spirit. The church is the place where people are reconciled again where in the church the different
18:02 barriers of ethnic and uh and and and um uh language barriers are removed. These
18:09 are the nations of Pentecost. It stretches right from the east to the west. the whole world known world at
18:14 that time all are mentioned Paththeians me Elommites and they all correspond to
18:21 the offspring of Shem Japet and Ham which were the original uh children of
18:27 Noah mentioned in the table of nations just like Genesis chapter 10. So it
18:32 bring the author brings us back to Genesis chapter 101 where you've got the
18:37 curse of Babel people separate and you got a table of nations. Now you've got a table of nations where people are
18:42 brought back again to have a common understanding of the different languages
18:48 which tells us that God's kingdom is multi-ethnic, multilinguistic
18:54 uh in and and God is the one who actually super uh intervenes supernaturally. Missions is his
18:59 emphasis. Wherever we go uh in the world today, missions is important. Imagine
19:06 you've got this church all the time. You got a bunch of China men up here and they're all singing songs. This morning
19:11 we've got Africans. All the Africans come halfway around the world. American lady come halfway around
19:17 the world and they're all singing and we're so much blessed because they're different from us. The way they sing,
19:23 the way they talk, the way they act is different and it blesses us. You see, God has this ability to traverse all
19:30 barriers by the power of his holy spirit. Now, how do we apply Pentecost?
19:36 It has happened. We've received the Holy Spirit. What does Pentecost, what difference should it make in my life?
19:43 I'm sitting down here and I'm unimpressed. What should I do with
19:48 today's passage? Well, I tell you, Pentecost is important because it enables us in our church today in our
19:55 lives to fulfill our calling. Acts chapter 1 vers8, you will receive power
20:01 when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the
20:08 earth. How do you measure power? Use wattage.
20:13 Most powerful thing in the world is probably an earthquake. And you measure that in a richtor scale. God is telling
20:20 us to come in the Holy Spirit. The difference is it is about power.
20:26 And what kind of power are we talking about? Well, he describes this. Paul tries to describe it. Describing an
20:33 earthquake of seven compared to earthquake of nine is actually you
20:40 thought it's only two points higher. It's actually not two points higher. It's much higher because it's an exponential graph. A nine earthquake is
20:46 very very very much more powerful than the seven. Describing the power of God towards us. This is what Paul says.
20:52 Ephesians 1:19. It is to us. We have an immeasurable greatness of his power
20:58 toward us. The power that he has towards us is immeasurable. You can't measure on the RTOR scale. You can't take a meter.
21:05 If you put a needle, it'll shoot the needle shoot right across. It'll explode. It's immeasurable. It's so
21:11 great towards us. And the way you compare this power is that according to
21:17 the working of his great might that he worked in Jesus Christ when he raised him from the dead raised him his right
21:23 hand at the heavenly places far above all rule all authority all dominion above every name that is named not only
21:30 in this age but in the age to come. So what is this power about? What is this power like? The closest thing you can
21:37 describe or compare this power to is the power that can raise Jesus Christ
21:43 crucified, died, and raised him not only from death to life, but from life to be ascended in
21:50 heaven, sitting at the right hand of God above all authority, all dominion in
21:57 this age, in the age to come. Wow. Do you know that he Paul is telling us
22:04 that's the kind of power that we have in our lives today? And you're sitting down there. Well, that's interesting. I mean,
22:11 what am I going to do with all this power? If you look at all this power is like petrol, you know. Whoa. I'm going to have all this power
22:18 and I'm going to explode. Is this power for us to to flash around? and you go to
22:24 the marketplace and you conjure up some some images and and you you you do David Copperfield, you know, and raw display
22:30 of power or you explode. Well, I think the power is given for transformation
22:35 and transmission. He has a message. He has a message to give to the world and he needs to transform us as his
22:43 messengers, as his witnesses in order for that power to produce that purpose. In fact, we're like transformers.
22:50 If you need to run fast or drive fast, they change to a car. This bumblebee, he
22:55 changes a car and it powers ahead and he gets on fast. He doesn't change to this uh humanoid form. He only changes
23:02 humanoid form and he wants to fight and he changes that. If he wants to go fast, he changes into a car. And so raw
23:09 power is used. Raw power has to be channeled to particular purpose. And in Acts,
23:15 Luke says, "We are given power so that we shall be his witnesses." And it goes
23:23 on to Thessalonians 1:9 to10. Paul says, "For they themselves report concerning us." This is the Thessalonian
23:29 Christians. The kind of reception we had among you and how you turn from God to God, from idols to serve him, to serve
23:36 the living and true God, and to wait for his son uh from heaven. There's a story
23:41 of a drunk who came into a bus and he you know how many of you met have been
23:47 accosted by drunks in buses? Put your hands up. Not often but you go to western country that often happens. I
23:54 happened to me before once when I was just about 18 years old. He comes uh drunk comes into the uh bus and I was
23:60 sitt in the back of the bus and he started giving uh tracks to me you know drunk giving me tracks and he gives me
24:05 five tracks and he takes it back then gives the same five tracks again and I before I got a time to he takes it back and he gives the five one again. Well
24:12 this happened in the bus and and a woman was sitting there and he came up to the woman and uh and started smelling and
24:20 laying all over her. He was upset and turned to the drunk and says, "You know, you carry on like this, you're going to
24:26 go straight to hell." Drunk drunk was upset. You know, he
24:31 and he got woken up from his drunken sto said, "Hey, stop the bus. I'm in the wrong bus. The bus going to hell."
24:42 But that's the point, isn't it? We we are in a journey. You know, some of us think that when we become Christians, we
24:48 we just become Christians. a change of status. You go to the IC department and change from, you know, line line and to
24:54 Christian or something, you know. Uh but that's not it. It's actually a journey. We're in a bus and your bus is called a
25:01 salvation bus. You got off the other bus. The other bus is going to Panang and that bus is going to Penang where
25:07 there's a steep cliff. Everybody's going to fall off and they're going to die. And you got off that bus and now you're on a different bus. It's called the
25:12 Salvation Bus going to Singapore. All right. Going south. And whatever it is, you're either in a
25:18 bus going to Singapore or you're a bus going to Penang. You are not
25:24 walking on the street doing nothing. You're either in a bus going to Singapore or you're in a bus going to Panang. You know, in the kingdom of God,
25:31 there's no in between. And the problem with many of us think we're we're in between. We're neither going to Panang
25:38 or we're going going to Singapore. We're in KL. You see? But Paul tells us very
25:44 clearly when we turn from idols, we serve the true and living God. And in
25:52 order to have to serve the true and living God, we need God's power. And God's power transforms us in order that
25:59 we may transmit the message. You are a chos. Peter says you are a chosen
26:05 nation, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for
26:11 his own possession. Wow, isn't that great? If we stop there,
26:17 they'll be just finite. We're so privileged. Of all the people in the world, they chose us as an ethnic group.
26:24 He chose us as a royal priesthood. That means we are the people who can represent God to the world. Isn't that
26:31 great? God chooses us to be his royal priesthood. God chooses us to proclaim
26:37 salvation. A holy nation, a nation just set aside for God's own possession. If
26:43 that was it, it'll be fine, isn't it? Then we can just come and make ourselves happy every day and we shake each
26:49 other's hands. We bless each other in church. But that's not the point. Look very carefully what Peter says. We are a
26:56 people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who
27:02 called you out of darkness into his marvelous night. So, so you are a holy
27:07 nation. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood for a particular reason. So that you could go and tell people what a
27:15 marvelous, wonderful God you actually have. You're not to sit down here, fold
27:20 your arms and say very nice Sunday school. We have songs and all that and we're not going to bother be bothered the rest of the world. The reason why we
27:28 are a holy nation and a people of his own possession. It transforms because if you are God's people, you'll be like
27:35 God. And God's heart beats for the rest of the world. God's heart is so big that
27:40 he put his son on the cross so that the world may come to know him. And so therefore, if you are God's people, you
27:47 will have God's heart. It is built into your DNA. It is something that you have to do. And
27:54 why do you do it? You do it because you were once not a people, but now you have
28:01 received mercy because you were once had no mercy. And the motivation is because
28:06 of love. Because Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. He so loved us when we
28:12 were still his enemies. And that love transforms us. And because of that we too are so transformed in love we want
28:19 to share his love we share his DNA. You know many of us there was a story told
28:25 of a someone walking in the the mall and you know there was a bo little boy
28:32 crying and he's crying real loud screaming all the time and it and and he
28:37 was in one of the strollers. When you got a strollers they got strollers different shape. This one is shaped in a
28:42 car and the car is a steering wheel and all the time he's crying. He's crying. He's steering the wheel to the left, to
28:49 the left, to the left. The pram keep going to the right, to the right, to the right. And you suddenly realize that,
28:54 you know, the steering wheel is not connected to the wheel. All right? So, whatever it is, still ste
29:00 the pram still go to the right because it's not connected. The mom decides where you go, not him. He's steering to
29:07 the opposite direction. And I think a lot of that describes many of us. We want to live life a different way. We're
29:13 steering and steering steering and then somehow God's purposes still move on. And you need to not sit down and cry and
29:19 keep on steering the wrong direction. But to get with the program because whatever said and done, God's kingdom
29:24 will progress. It will grow. No matter what the devil throws at us in this country, he will have his purposes done.
29:33 Good idea if you get with the program and steer to the left or to the right. Follow where God is going. So at least
29:38 you can participate in it. Why don't we go out and share the gospel? Why don't we get involved?
29:45 Number one is fear. Fear factor is is the biggest thing. You ask people,
29:50 they're all freaked out. We have about three or four interns, praise God, who actually got hired by the church and
29:57 they're starting a two-mon stint with us. They'll be actually prep uh paid to work in the youth and we're training
30:04 them with evangelism explosion. I was having a chat with them and they're all freaked out. Oh, Saturday you take hold
30:10 is going to take us and we're going to go on the job training. We're going to meet strangers. We're going to share the gospel with them. The first thing that
30:16 freaks them out is fear. And you see, God knows we have the fear. We are
30:22 fearful when we have to share the gospel of how marvelous God is with our friends. Uh and so basically, how do we
30:30 actually utilize God's power so that we could grow in our lives, in our church?
30:36 Three things. Number one, we need to take the leap of faith. Everything that
30:41 God does, God's power is transmitted to us translated only through faith. If you
30:50 remember how Jesus used to heal folk, the guy is paralyzed and he says take up
30:56 the pallet and walk. He didn't heal him first then take up the pallet. You know, guy's got to try to get up and as he
31:01 gets up the power is appropriated. It's all the time. I remember watching this
31:06 movie called a uh ah Indiana Jones. Have you ever seen Indiana Jones? In the
31:12 other Jones tries to save his father and there were three tests he has to go
31:17 through. And the last test is called the path of God. And this is very difficult because he goes up in the cave and in
31:25 the cave and there's a ledge and there's a 1,000 ft drop into the bottom. And to
31:31 get across 100 foot across there's no bridge and he's wondering how do I get
31:36 across? Remember the movie? and it reads this ancient uh scroll and it describes
31:43 only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth. So what do you mean by leap from the lion's head? He
31:49 looks around there's no lion's head. All right. And he suddenly realizes from the drawings that he should actually step
31:55 out from the ledge invisible doesn't matter. Believe in what the word says
32:00 what the drawings say. If you look at the drawings see that what you know sometimes you fall down sometimes you can walk across. And what that's what he
32:07 did in the show. He he just stepped out into nothing and it supported him. And I
32:13 think that's how we appropriate God's power. You actually have to take a leap of faith. God's not going to tell you,
32:19 hey, you know, hey, brother Michael, I'm going to energize you today, then you can go. No, Michael's going to have to
32:26 get out today feeling very, very fearful, very, very scared, very intimidated, and then he's going to open
32:33 his mouth. But when he opens his mouth, that's when the power kicks in. And then sometimes when you jump out,
32:40 you start falling. I remember watching a mo a a program called Fear Factor. I've
32:45 shared this before. How many of you seen Fear Factor? Yeah. Love the show. Um and
32:51 what we have in Fear Factor one day was a a strong man. He was so strong that he
32:57 could stand up in a 100 meter tower, very very tall tower. And you know how
33:03 people do bungee jumping? Yes. Where would you like to have your bungee cord tied to? Something quite strong, right?
33:10 Preferably a steel bar this big. So, this guy had his wife jump over. But the
33:18 difference was the bungee cord is tied to his legs. Whoa.
33:23 Wow. Anna, would you like your Yahan to do that for you? I think your legs are a bit skinny.
33:30 I don't think she'd want to do that. Maybe you should get somebody else like Melvin or somebody something big and strong.
33:35 And he actually did. So the wife had so much trust in the husband that I don't know my wife was another pretty girl. It
33:41 doesn't matter. Uh she stepped to the ledge and she jumped and then when you jump out onto the ledge you'll find it
33:48 start falling down and nothing is there. Only in the last few seconds before you hit the ground suddenly you feel it
33:54 tighten and oh my god you're not going to hit the ground. It it pulls you up. The man was strong enough to do it.
34:00 That's wonderful. I can never forget that. And sometimes that's how God does. We jump out and you freef fall. You free
34:08 fall. You plummet and the ground rushes to you. And right at the last moment when life gets really really tough and
34:14 you feel God, I cannot do anymore. Where's your power? Then it kicks in.
34:20 Then only it kicks in. And I really for many years why I hate God for that. Say God why can't you give give me the power
34:26 from the beginning like Indiana Jones. You step there and you don't even drop at all. more often God makes you fall
34:32 all the way when the ground rushes to you almost last minute just like a movie and then you get saved. Sometimes you
34:38 don't get as safe as though and then God has to give you the strength to build up all the pieces again. But that's what if
34:44 you want to have God's power, you have to jump out from the ledge. And God does
34:50 all the work anyway. If you look very carefully in in John, it says, "And then when he comes, he will convict the world
34:56 concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin because they don't believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the
35:02 father. Concern and you will not see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler world is judged." You go and
35:07 bring the gospel as I told the interns yesterday. It's it is not your message. They'll laugh at you. What a stupid
35:14 message. Not my message. It's God's message. And what right do you have to share the gospel? I have the right because I serve the risen Lord. He is
35:21 the king. He is the creator. That's the right. And you go and you share the gospel. He's got to do the conviction.
35:27 But but but he wasn't impressed. But that's the job of the Holy Spirit.
35:33 When you go and share the gospel, the job of the Holy Spirit is to convict. If he's not going to be convicted, that's
35:38 God's problem. So those and here we actually have Peter and I'm going to steal into a bit of Arnold's message
35:45 next week. And in your you can find Peter. Now, how many years of theological training you
35:51 think Peter had? I don't think he went to fisherman school also. He's an uneducated buffoon who has three
35:60 times, you know, betrayed Jesus Christ known for foot and mouth disease. Foot in mouth disease. All right? He usually
36:08 puts it in and he has to stand up and he preaches to crowds of thousands. We're
36:13 talking about 3,000 accepted Christ. He must have preached to many more and without a loudspeaker he comes up and
36:20 most of you I ask you to stand out and speak to 10 people you'll be shaking and here you actually have a supernatural is
36:27 implied power of the Holy Spirit upon this lone fisherman who could stand up
36:33 and share the gospel of Jesus Christ and 3,000 came to know Christ. Does it mean that every time you stand up and share
36:40 Christ 3,000 will come to know God? Why is it today when we share we don't get the same 3,000? It's like the wind. You
36:47 can't catch the wind. The Holy Spirit and God's power is not a magician's power where you could control the power.
36:54 You're the one who transmits the power. That's why I don't believe and you've got this, you know, many miracle
36:60 services and all that because God is not a trained monkey, you know, and you want him to heal someone, he'll come and
37:05 perform to your specifications. The Holy Spirit is like wind. It's like going on
37:10 the ocean and you find a big wave. Many lousy waves, but you find the right
37:16 one and you get on it and you surf the power there. God moves in his time and
37:22 that time to his kingdom started an explosion. One lone fisherman, he gets
37:27 up there and he shares and 3,000 people come to know Jesus Christ on that day.
37:34 Isn't that magnificent power? If you think that's cool, look at the next one.
37:39 He got more practiced. Two chapters later on, you find and many of those who have heard the word believe and the number men came about 5,000
37:47 2,000 more. He's on the roll. He's better than Billy Graham. Why? The power
37:52 of the Holy Spirit. Not all uh and this is uh chief priests
37:59 and ruling elites. Now they grabbed Peter and his gang and they shared the
38:05 gospel with him. But look at look what what it said. In order that they may spread no further among the people, let
38:11 us warn them to speak no more to anyone in his name. See, he shared the same gospel. 3,000 became Christian. Next day
38:19 it was two chapters later on 5,000. But you share with the chief priests and the ruling elites, the ruling party,
38:27 nothing. Nothing. nothing at all. Maybe it's a
38:33 trend. All ruling party deaf anywhere in the world. You see ruling party means deaf. They're not open to
38:40 the spirit of God. Does it mean that the Holy Spirit is useless? Doesn't quite work on ruling party? Doesn't mean so.
38:49 God allows freedom. Uh and look at this. Acts 13. This is in
38:57 the city of Antioch. And the Jews incited devout women of high standing. And the leading men of the city, stirred
39:03 up persecution against Paul and Barnavas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook the dust from
39:09 their feet against them and went to Iconium. And look at verse 52. The disciples were filled with joy and with
39:16 the Holy Spirit. Ah, people inside a crowd. Have you ever had a crowd come and say to you, "We don't want you.
39:21 We're going to tear you from limb to limb." It is a harrowing experience if you ever go through it. And yet when
39:27 they're cast out like that, the Holy Spirit fills them with joy. It's it's
39:32 amazing. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. So I show up this graph because
39:38 uh it's very interesting. This uh uh you know when we share the gospel, it's easy
39:44 to share with your How many of you will have the guts to share this with your brother? When you put your hands up? Oh,
39:50 brothers. Okay. Put right up. Right up with your brother. One, two, three,
39:55 four. Okay. What about your sister? Yeah. Okay. What about your very close
40:02 friends? Are you able to do that? Yes. Put your hands up. How many of you are able to share this with your boss?
40:11 Only one and two. Oh, the fearless ones. How many of you are willing to share this with your neighbor?
40:20 Only two, three hands. Right. The way I parked my car, I wouldn't dare.
40:26 How many of you willing to share with a stranger? Yeah. Good. Now, the the point is that
40:34 we all have a spiritual comfort zone. It's an area where we're comfortable
40:39 sharing the gospel because we don't feel threatened. If the person rejects us, it still loves us. It's okay. And all we're
40:44 saying is that in life to have the leap of faith, you have small leaps. you actually jump to the next circle when
40:51 you say if I'm cool sharing with my brother and my sister tomorrow I try some sharing with my uncle. Don't go and
40:57 jump and share with the guy at the supermarket or your boss. Take it one step at a time. And what we're saying is
41:03 that you could have small leaps of faith and see God's power come in and
41:09 strengthen you and then you go on to share with your boss and then you share with your friends and you share with your neighbors and you share with your
41:15 people whom you do not know. That's how the spirit of God does it. Very rarely like in the book of Acts chapter 2,
41:22 Peter from zero palm all the way out to 5,000 people. I mean, that's very rare. It happens. It happens. But for all of
41:29 us, usually good advice is to have a small leaps of faith. And this is what God did to this gentleman called Moses.
41:36 You know, Moses was a very timid man like most of us. And what he had was a staff. And God said to him, you take the
41:42 staff, throw on the floor, and threw it in the floor. It became what? A snake. And then he says, "Moses, pick up that
41:49 snake. Are you what? Are you crazy? It's poisonous." What's the number one snake in Egypt? Anybody know? Number one snake
41:56 in Egypt? What? Rattlesnake? No. Cobra.
42:02 Cleopatra. What was she bitten by? A cobra. It's a cobra snake. All right.
42:08 And the cobra is the national snake. It represents the power of Pharaoh. And somebody did to him. Say, "Pick up the
42:14 snake from the tail." I thought you supposed to pick out the head so you won't bite. You pick out a tail.
42:19 Not a good idea. I've been trying to look up how to pick up snakes uh on the internet. It didn't get very far. Some
42:24 say you can pick the head. Some say take a tail. I I got confused. Um but I don't
42:30 think it's a good idea for you to pick up a snake, especially a cobra from the tail. And here God asked him to pick it
42:37 up from the tail. And then go Moses was to look at God and say, "Are you kidding?"
42:43 But he did. He reached out and he grabbed the tail. And you know what happened the moment he touched the tail?
42:48 The cobra became a stick. And you know why God did that to him? You know why?
42:54 Look at the next picture. What does the pharaoh wear on top of his
42:60 head? A cobra. If you can pick up a small little bitty
43:06 cobra's tail, who are you going to fight tomorrow? The pharaoh. You don't go
43:12 straight up to the pharaoh tomorrow. I'm going to get you. You pick up the snake first and then you take care of the
43:18 pharaoh tomorrow. And that's the illustration of zone of comfort. Taking
43:23 small leaps of faith and having the power of God come into your life and so that you can basically take that leap
43:30 and make that transition and be used by God. Second of all, you need to
43:36 appropriate God's power. This is easy one. Rely on prayer. And you find that
43:41 they were threatened by chief priests and of politicians. What did the disciples do when they prayed? The place
43:48 in which they were gathered together was shaken. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to speak in the word
43:54 of God with boldness. See when they prayed they appropriated God's power and
43:60 they were filled with boldness and they carried on sharing the gospel.
44:06 Art Wis is a missionary in Italy, the contemporary of a gentleman called Jim
44:12 Elliot who went and was martyed by the Orca Indians. He was in Weaton College
44:17 in the 1947 and there were about,500 students at Weaton College in the US and
44:24 what he did was he had such a great part for missions. Both of them, him and Jim Elliott, met regularly together to pray.
44:31 And they would and they said to God this, "Look, Lord, there are,500 students here. Would you mind bringing
44:38 1,000 of them to become missionaries? We don't want them to be pastors in the United States. We want them to be missionaries." And they took out the
44:45 student directory and they prayed through every single student's name bit
44:50 by bit every single time they met. And did you know at the end of a certain period of time when you look back at the
44:56 yearbook 537 actually became career missionaries all over the world.
45:04 So the ground doesn't necessarily have to shake but you need to pray. That's
45:10 how you appropriate God's power. Lastly is a very simple one. By being spiritfilled living living by the
45:17 spirit. How do we actually appropriate God's power? By by by spiritfilled living. How do I get filled with the
45:22 Holy Spirit? You know, people get, you know, all sorts of ideas about being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's like going to the petrol station
45:30 and you say, "God, fill me up." Isn't that nice? If filling the Holy
45:36 Spirit could be like going to the petrol station and says, "God, here's my credit card, Mastercard. Fill me up." Zoom. And
45:44 some people go to church and they think it's the same thing. You know, go and fill me up and someone lay hands on me
45:49 and then you shed a couple of tears and then it all work out fine. It's like the Highlander. If you watch this movie at
45:54 the Highlander, Christopher Lamber, he fights other Highlanders and what happens that way if he wins the battle,
45:60 chops the guy's head off, then suddenly he gets all this power and you're you're zapped. This is the kind of idea of the
46:06 filling the Holy Spirit. Well, let's look at scripture to to show whether scripture has such an idea. How to be
46:11 filled with the Holy Spirit? Ephesians 5:18, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with
46:18 the spirit." Debauchery means a wasteful uh uh life which is reckless. A life
46:24 lived without any limits, without any controls. Sort of life that uh modern
46:29 peoples tend to live. Party all the time, no limits. Um and do not get drunk
46:34 with wine. Now, what's wrong with wine? Proverbs 2 has something to say about wine. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who
46:41 has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine.
46:48 Those who try to get mixed wine. Don't look at wine when it's red. It sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In
46:54 the end, it bites like a serpent. Stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter
46:60 perverse things. The story of a drunk who was, you know, amling down the road carrying a box. His friend saw him. You
47:06 know, why are you carrying this box? Oh, I've got this box. Very important. It's got a mongoose inside. Why got mongoose?
47:14 You know, whenever I drink, I always see strange things and I see snakes. So, I thought if I got a mongoose, it'll
47:20 frighten the snakes. So, I won't get the snakes anymore. The friend scolded him. You stupid fell. You know, you go. The
47:26 snakes are imaginary snakes. Yeah, it's okay. These are imaginary mongoose, too.
47:34 Do not get drunk with wine. That is debauchery. You need to be filled with
47:39 the Holy Spirit. The filled is very very important. Some of the grammatical issues I want to bring out. There is a
47:45 choice. That means if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, there is a choice. You can make that
47:51 choice today. You can actually decide right here and now that you wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay?
47:59 There's a choice. Number two, it is in the is a present tense imperative. Imperative means it's a command. So,
48:06 we're not going to sit down here says uh when when when David passes the white piece of paper around, do I want to
48:11 fill? Yeah, it's only David. Forget about him. Pop, I'll throw this away. It's a command. When God says be filled
48:17 with the spirit, it's not an optional extra. It is a command to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And it's a present
48:22 tense which is continuous, which means it has to be done not today or tomorrow,
48:29 but every single day of our lives continually. And not only that, it is a
48:34 passive tense. Passive tense means can you go and get it filled? No, it's
48:40 Godfilling you. That means you have to open yourself every single day and want
48:46 to and make plans to be filled by God's spirit. To be filled is to be controlled
48:52 and motivated by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. You know brothers
48:57 and sisters, we are not made to be independent. Some of you are very very successful architects, lawyers, doctors,
49:05 and you want to be self-sufficient. You don't want anybody control your life. But in real life, we're not independent.
49:11 We are made to be dependent. And the person we're supposed to be made to be dependent on is basically the Holy
49:17 Spirit. You're either dependent on money, lust, materialism, the joys of
49:22 the world, or you're made to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. You don't have in between where you're either
49:29 going to the bus going to Panang or going to Singapore. There's no in between. And right now the Bible Paul
49:35 tells us we need to be filled with the most important thing which is the power of the Holy Spirit. Do not be drunk with
49:43 wine for that's debotion. But filled the Holy Spirit and addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
49:48 singing and making melodies to the Lord with your heart giving thanks always for everything to God the Father, name of
49:54 our Lord Jesus Christ. submitting to one another out of reverence. This is important. If you look at the grammar
50:01 here, you'll find that the main uh verb is being filled with the Holy Spirit. That's an imperative. The results are
50:09 four participles. Addressing, singing, giving thanks, submitting. These are the
50:14 results. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be singing to each
50:20 other in psalms and you know talking to each other about things based on God's
50:26 word. If you have good fellowship at the globe cafe and you're talking about the stock market, that's not being filled with the Holy Spirit.
50:33 But you're there talking about how God is changing your life in conformity to his word and talking about, oh, what
50:39 does this passage mean? Then you're being filled with the Holy Spirit, singing and making melody to God, giving
50:45 thanks, being very thankful uh and then submitting to each other in relationships where husbands uh uh uh
50:52 wives submit to husbands, husbands love their wives, parents and children. This is how Ephesians passage is being
50:58 described. The effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit, joyful fellowship, heartfelt praise, a browing gratitude,
51:04 reverent submission. This is what's going to happen if you open up your life to God in your heart this day. If you
51:11 don't, the opposite applies. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom
51:16 you were sealed. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice.
51:23 You see, you got like a jackal and hide kind of thing. You can either grieve the Holy Spirit, allow your old self to take
51:29 over, and all this stuff comes out. or if you allow the Holy Spirit to come take over, all the other stuff comes
51:36 out. So if you look at a person's life and you see a lot of anger, you see a lot of criticism, you see a lot of
51:42 backbiting, a lot of unhappiness, you know you're probably there. You're grieving the spirit. If you want to be
51:48 filled with the Holy Spirit, it is a process where you allow God's spirit to move in your life.
51:55 Now, how does one become allow God to fill their lives? I will take this from
52:01 a parallel passage Colossians 3 1 uh uh 15-17.
52:07 It says let the word of God of Christ dwell richly uh in you richly teaching
52:13 admonishing one another all spiritual all wisdom singing psalms hymn spiritual songs with thankfulness to the Lord etc.
52:19 This is this epistle is both written by Paul and there's a parallel. The
52:24 parallel is well they all sing psalms and spiritual songs etc whether uh in
52:30 Colossians or in Ephesians but the difference is uh in Ephesians Paul writes that they are filled with the
52:36 spirit in Colossians he writes power filled with the spirit by letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly and
52:43 the result is the same teaching admonishing each other in all s all
52:48 wisdom singing psalms hymns and spiritual exact same Greek sentence that is used So basically we can conclude
52:55 that to be filled with God's spirit is to be filled with and obedient to his word. You see the spirit isn't such a
53:02 thing that you could be zapped and then suddenly you go out and do whatever you want. Being filled with the Holy Spirit
53:08 is allowing God's word to so saturate your life that his spirit will be able
53:14 to move and change you. Because you can't sit and meditate
53:21 with your legs crossed and put um and then God spirit zap and you're like
53:26 the highlander. You got to sit quietly with God's word and you read the word it
53:33 transforms your life and the spirit comes in and enables you to be obedient to that life and that is a process where
53:40 we are being filled with the holy spirit. Romans 8:5-7 says, "For those who live according to the flesh set
53:46 their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For the mind is that is set
53:53 on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's laws." So if you you don't submit to God's laws, you
53:59 don't submit to the word of God, you run away from God's word, that's not being filled. The opposite is true. If you sit
54:05 and you submit to God's law, that's being filled by the Holy Spirit. And remember Ezekiel, he says,"I will pour
54:12 my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to
54:18 obey my rules." The purpose of the spirit is so that the internalized law
54:23 of God so translates our behavior to change our lives and the community and
54:29 produce growth. That's what it's about. That's what filling the Holy Spirit is about. So to be filled with the Holy
54:35 Spirit is to allow yourself to be filled with and obedient to God's word. So this morning I want to end by saying that
54:42 being filled with the spirit is a daily choice. We have been baptized in the holy spirit when we became Christians.
54:49 We are all baptized in the hol same spirit. But we have a choice every day whether we want to fulfill our calling
54:56 as god's people. We need to by faith take a leap, small leaps of faith and
55:02 take God as his word to live according to his way, not to compromise and to share the gospel. We need to pray. And
55:08 lastly, we need to be filled with God's spirit. This is a mount Sodom and
55:16 there's a little bit of uh statue there. There's a piece of rock which people
55:21 have called Lot's wife. If you go to Australia and you go to Katumba, you see
55:27 the three sisters. No use on three sisters. Nothing there. This one has a better lesson. Lot's wife. You know what
55:34 happened to Lot's wife? Well, a couple of them were being saved in it from Sodom as it was being bombarded by fire
55:43 and and Lot was leaving with his children and his wife. But the wife, although she was leaving, walking away
55:52 from the city, her mind, her thoughts, her anxieties, her gaze was back in the
55:59 city of sin which she loved. And as a result, she was turned to the pillar of
56:04 salt, frozen forever. I'm not saying that that's real Lord's wife, but this is a legend. But that could be us, isn't
56:10 it? Neither on a bus to Pinang or a bus to Singapore. frozen with our own
56:17 fleshly desires, not wanting to feel, not wanting to experience, not wanting to have the kind of adventure that comes
56:24 with having God's spirit transforming our lives, transforming our society, our community. We live in a nation that has
56:30 got problems. You go and look at the 13th election coming up. You read all this blog, I think you can pen already.
56:37 all the corruption that comes out all the time and you and you're worried. Hey, look, if there weren't these
56:43 things, people won't come to know Christ. The whole idea is the kingdom of God is the one that's that's that's
56:48 important. It gives us a wonderful opportunity. Do not be afraid.
56:53 Fulfill our calling as God's people. We are required to stay in this nation because we are the ones who has his love
57:01 and has his message. This nation needs that love. of this nation needs that message and we need to have the power of
57:08 God to do that task. So this morning let me challenge all of us. Whoever you are,
57:14 wherever you are in whatever part you may want to play, it could be just at audiovisisual, it could be just uh
57:20 helping some of the evangelists as they go out preparing a meal. Whatever it is, we as a church of Jesus Christ are to
57:27 fulfill the great commission together. And we can only do this when we're open
57:32 to the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let's pray.
57:37 Father Lord, we just thank you for your word. And this morning, we're going to ask
57:43 that you speak to us. Some of us this morning
57:48 have long, long been far away from your purposes. We're
57:55 not exactly going on a bus to Singapore. We're not exactly fulfilling our calling and we're
58:04 like that little boy steering to the left while you are steering to the right. And this morning we want to
58:09 confess our sin and repent of that. This morning we want to get with the program.
58:15 We want to say, Lord, we are not worthy. We are sinners. We are empty of any
58:23 ability. And so Lord, this morning we ask that you break us down and you fill
58:29 us up with your Holy Spirit day by day, not just one time or two times, but day
58:35 by day so that our lives will be transformed, that our lives will be filled with confidence and power to
58:43 witness and to live in a manner that pleases you and you alone. That this
58:48 walk with you shall be the most exciting thing in our lives. So some of us who
58:53 have lost that excitement, some of us who feel dry, some of us who seems to be
58:59 filled with so many other things in life, I'm going to pray, oh Lord, that the Holy Spirit will so touch our lives, touch our hearts this morning. Fill us
59:06 with a sense of desire for you. Fill us with a sense again of of closeness, of
59:11 intimacy, of joy, which is the hallmark of the Holy Spirit. We ask this for
59:16 Jesus' sake. Amen.
