[Music] Well, Gidey folks, welcome to the Church of the City of New York podcast. Thanks for joining us. Here with an exciting opportunity to share with you what God has done over the last year. Has really just been remarkable. And we're at that point where we need to grow our staff team to help facilitate what it is that God is doing among us. We're looking in particular for a creative director. This is such an important position in the life of our church. This is giving oversight to our creative ministries. This is aligning a vision of the arts and storytelling and creativity with the mission of Jesus to help renew the Western Church. We're not just looking for people to put out church content. We're looking for someone to tell the story of Jesus in a visionary compelling and moving way and to build a community of artists and creatives around that vision. If you've got a heart for this, we'd love to hear from you. You can go to church.mwc under the staff page. There's a little link there of jobs we're hiring for. Or you can email hello at church.mwc for more information. We're looking for someone with strong leadership gifts, the ability to organize creative talent, work with volunteers, make them feel known, love, valued and seen, and yet utilize their gifts for the message of Jesus in our church and around the world. So if that's you, we'd love to be able to hear from you. Check out those links and we look forward to talking soon. This fall we're in a series called compelling mission or disciples. At the end of the day, a church is only as good as the disciples that it makes. And so we are focusing on our discipleship, distinctives, the tangible presence of God, counter formation in the way of Jesus and sacrificial mission. I hope this series builds your faith and strengthens your resolve to live with all your heart in the way of Jesus at this important moment of history. We can serve you with all. Feel free to reach out
[email protected]. Thanks for listening. Let's get back to the podcast. Our text for tonight comes from Acts 1-8. These are Jesus final words before ascending to heaven. And right before ascending to heaven, Jesus looked at his disciples and he says, "But you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses." And Jerusalem and all of Samaria and Judea and to the ends of the earth is a word of the Lord. Now I have the privilege of introducing our guest speaker today. He comes to us by way of California, but he's a good friend of Pastor John and a good friend of our churches. Pastor Darren rounds and he planted and he pastors garden church in Long Beach, California, where his vision is to help believers live naturally, super natural lives. Now you might remember Pastor Darren from when he came and spoke in our Jesus stuff series last fall. And he spoke on healing and when he did something broke open in our church. I've never seen more faith or more supernatural activity in the life of our church. Pastor Darren is a gift and he carries a gift for you tonight. Will you receive it? Yeah? Okay. Will you join me as we warmly welcome Pastor Darren? Hey, good evening. It's hard to be introduced that way. I am a petty, inappropriately angry, regularly resenting, broken, struggling saint. And sometimes the Lord wants to delight in the fullest things of the world. And I think the best way to introduce me is the way I've come to see it is the best thing I could ever be is a story found in the gospels where Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem. And I feel like Lord say you just get to be the ass I get to ride in on. So if that offended you, I apologize in advance. You're not going to like this teaching. But can I pray? Lord, I thank you for my brothers and sisters here. Those that are here because they are devoted to the way of Jesus in the city and have organized their life and resources around stewarding your grace. And I bless them tonight. I pray for my friends who are guests who don't go to church regularly but happen to be here tonight. I pray that wherever we find ourselves, passionate and on fire or waiting to get dinner, that we would be awakened to what you're doing in this moment. We would just be here in a world that's filled with distraction and hurry, absolute chaos. May we feast on your presence. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we all pray together. We are continuing a series called, oh, it's right here, "Compaling Machine on the Side of Us." And Pastor John talked about tangible presence. And I'm going to continue that theme. You heard it from the teaching text. And I was reading recently from a book Simon Pons to be wrote. And he says this, "Those early Christians had no degrees from the best universities. They had been on no MBA management courses. Gone through no psychological Myers-Briggs compatibility profiles or anyograms. They had no financial investment portfolios, no social media platforms or marketing design, but they had a revelation of God. A revelation of their inheritance in Christ and the Holy Spirit power from on high. With this, God took 120 people and shipped the world." And today I just want to expand your imagination for what's possible as followers of Jesus, as disciples of a king who currently reigns in the cosmos. Could we not today see another move of God? Why not now? Why not you? Why not right now? And why not you? And I want to expand your imagination for what's possible and invite you to pursue and hunger for God's presence. And I want to bear witness to the power of the Holy Spirit. So if you're expecting John Tyson's sermons, forgive me. If you're expecting John Mark Homer's slides, forgive me. But what I do carry tonight is a word for you, Church of the City, 6 p.m. I can tell you're going to be my favorite. So Acts chapter 1, if you have a Bible, would you just pull it out and show the people to your left and right how holy you are that you brought a physical copy. Otherwise turn to your idol and I'm being pulled out your phone. Man, my bad. Pull out your phone and go to Acts chapter 1. Before we get to Acts 1-8, I just want to give you some overview of assumptions that I carry for all disciples of Jesus. Before we talk about the presence of God and the tangible power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we need to talk about some other things. And I want to just frame this in a way that gives you a context. So Acts 1 begins, verse 1, in my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach. Until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. So Acts 1 begins with a season 1 recap. It's season 2 and it's a quick recap. Don't skip it. Theophilus, let me remind you of what I did in season 1. If you don't know the scriptures, Acts was written by the guy named Luke and he also wrote the Gospel of Luke. And the Gospel of Luke is an eyewitness account written by all these eyewitnesses but collected by this guy who was a doctor named Luke. It's the book of Acts as part 2. Part 1 is the life ministry message of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Really to summarize the Gospel of Luke, it's the life message and ministry of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Season 2 is the life message and ministry of Jesus through the church in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the continuation of the ministry of Jesus and you see he says theophilus I wrote about all he did and taught. And how when he resurrected from the dead he appeared to the disciples, gave many convincing proofs and he talked about the kingdom of God. Over and over again you'll hear this phrase, the kingdom of God, lean into that. Highlight that or hold it down and push paste and put it on a note. I see you. Acts gives us our aim as the church. Now let me just say something real quick. When you read Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus says to his followers, which is his church, those that believe that Jesus is Lord and race from the dead. He's not saying this to some institution. He's not saying it to a website that's cool and has a social media profile.
He's saying it to the people of God. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you for a purpose. Not to give you one fuzzies. Not for a cool vibe in a worship setting when there's a fog machine in a good set list. Not for you to make your life better. Jesus doesn't come to give you power to make you feel better about your life. He doesn't come to give you power so that you can get happy or that you can follow your dreams. He comes to transform your life and that comes through death. That comes through sacrifice. It comes through laying oneself down. And when you let go of all of it, then you discover the life that is truly life. He gives you power. He transforms you from the inside out to bear witness of the resurrection. Wherever you go, as you go, we don't get to choose our mission statement. This is our commissioning according to Luke in the book of Acts. How are we doing, church? (congregation cheering) We are called to continue the ministry of Jesus. This is what it means to be a disciple and as John Mark Comer, so eloquently written, to be a disciple is to be what Jesus become like Jesus and to do what Jesus did. It's not enough to do warm, fun little quiet time every day. You should do that by the way. It's not enough to practice a rule of life and figure out, get your life in order and be generous. That's part of it. We also are called to do the things of Jesus, to continue the Jesus stuff, the ministry of Jesus. So what is the ministry of Jesus? Have you thought about that? All my years going up in the church, they didn't really talk about the thing that Jesus talked about the most. Matthew chapter four in your physical Bibles or any Bible actually, I'm not gonna bash on you anymore. I forgive you. So does Jesus, he doesn't really care. Just read it. Some of you brought it and you're like, "I bring it every week as a prop." Told you you're gonna be offended by me. When you start with donkey, it doesn't get much better than that. Let's go. Matthew chapter four, verse 23, this is a summary according to the gospel of Matthew of the ministry of Jesus. It says Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Mark says, "The kingdom of God has come near repentant "believed the good news." Luke would add, and Matthew adds this as well, that he came to proclaim the kingdom to heal the sick and to cast out demons. To summarize the ministry of Jesus, it's he proclaimed the kingdom of God and then he demonstrated it. - Yeah, I was afraid. You're like, "I thought the primary message of Jesus "was to love." No, it's not. That's part of it. That's the greatest commandment. But his message, the thing he talks more about than anything else the thing he's obsessed with is announcing the arrival of God's kingdom. So what does it mean for the good news to be here? What does it mean for Jesus to proclaim the good news? If we're talking about as disciples and being the kind of people that continues the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus is about the kingdom, how can we don't talk about the kingdom that much? Kingdom of God to summarize theology. It's simply the reign and rule of God. Jesus came onto the scene and he said, "Hey, good news, God's in charge." Now this is electrifying in the first century 'cause what is referring to is the reversal of what took place in Genesis chapter three. So what God intended life to be in the first place, Jesus is saying, "You have access to that shalom again." The way God created him, Adam and Eve, and all humanity to flourish was to live in cooperative, loving relationship with him. And from this cooperative, loving relationship with God, we can live in cooperative, loving relationship with each other, with our true self and with all of creation. Does that not sound like good news? In a world filled with brokenness and pain, in sin and war and chaos and depression and suicide and human trafficking, good news is that life that God intended in the first place is at your fingertips. That's the kingdom of God. That's the message of Jesus. Good news, God's in charge. Hold on. Some of you are like, "I don't want God to be in charge of my life." I get it, you have the wrong view of God. In your head, you're thinking God is a cosmic traffic cop waiting to write up a ticket. He's an absentee landlord that wants you to just live your life in one day. You're going to have to pay for all the damages that you did to his property and stuff. You believe in a judgmental father waiting to punish you when you make a mistake. I get it. We all carry distorted images of the father in our head, which we project onto the God, who is nothing like our earthly father. He's far greater than that. He calls us the beloved. He says, "We're more than conquerors. We are saints." He has done everything out of a loving pursuit since Genesis, chapter three, to the end of Revelation 22. He has been pursuing us with a passion that is uncompromised, unconditional, and without performance, he says, "You are mine." When John writes about his understanding of his relationship with God, he says, "I am the disciple whom Jesus loved." Think about that. John says, "I'm the beloved." He had this dynamic relationship with Jesus that stirs us and it offends us. That's like me putting on a shirt saying, "I know God loves you, but I'm his favorite." What does it mean for God to be in charge? When I had my second son, Amos, well, my wife had our second son, Amos, and I did very little for that. And he was about four months older so. And at that point in our life, we had our older son, Ezra, who was about three, and Amos, who was four months, it was a lot of work. Having a second kid is just absolutely chaos. You're drowning and then they hand you a baby while you're drowning. That's kind of what's going on with parenting process. At least my experience. Look, I love my kids. I love my kids being a father's, my favorite thing, but in this particular moment, it was a very challenging moment. What does it like for God to be in charge? Let me tell you a story. So I remember my wife in that season, she was exhausted. She was doing all the heavy lifting and parenting, 'cause Amos wouldn't take a bottle so she had to do all the feeding. And so at night, you're waking up lots of times where she's waking up lots of times. So she wasn't getting a lot of rest, a lot of sleep. And so one time I could see the exhaustion on her face and her whole body. And I just said, "Hey, babe, why don't you just go out with some friends, go to happy hour, and go get a dinner, and I'll put both kids down tonight to sleep by myself." Before I could finish saying that, she just, drove off, and then she texted, here's 26 points on how to put Amos to bed. It was like a long text, all right? And it was very detailed, 'cause she knew her boy, and she's a great mom, and she's like, "Hey, you gotta get the bottle ready. "I don't think he's gonna take a bottle, "but you gotta look for a cue." Like, there's like a clue he's gonna give you. He's gonna tilt his head and make this sound, 'cause I know when he's showing me that he's tired, you don't wanna get him too tired, so you gotta pay attention, but you're also gotta put Ezra down. So pay attention while you're putting Ezra down. So there we were, 26 points, it wasn't 26, that's exaggerated. It was like 22, but anyways. I'm reading the storybook Bible to Ezra, right? This is me, right? So picture us in Ezra's room, hold an Amos in my arm, hold in the Bible, read into my three-year-old, all about Jesus saying, "Let the little children come to me." That's the true story I was reading. Remember that, that's a foreshadow for what's about to happen. I look at the cue, I think it's a cue. Is this it? I'm like, "Hey Ezra, "want to eat place some legos in here quietly?" I'm gonna go, you know, put Amos down, I'm gonna see what God does. Pray for a miracle. Here we go, so we're walking, walking to the other room. Sound machine goes on, lights, there's, you know, blackout curtains, lights are dimmed. I get the bottle, it's already warmed. Put him there. All right, here you go buddy, try to give him the bottle. He's knocking it away, knock him, have it. He realizes it's a fake, right? It's imitation, it's not real. What is this thing that you're putting in my face? And then he realizes mom is not here, so he begins to cry, right? He begins to cry and I'm like, okay, I got this and that's when I do what every dad would do in that moment, text, mama, hey baby, it's not working right now. He's not taking the bottle. Green. A green text message. Hey babe, he's crying pretty hard. Now his cry is getting really loud. You know, I shut the door, I'm like, okay, he's gonna go and he's crying louder. His beautiful older brother who wants to save him from doom comes running in and lets all the light into the darkness as I'm trying to calm him down. Now Amos is all going crazy. I stop, Ezra at the door, slam the door, get his foot stuck in the door. He begins to cry. I get convicted by the scripture, let the little children come to me. He's crying out there. Amos is crying in here. I'm texting Alex, it's all green. I'm like, Lord Jesus, come back quick, man, this second coming happened right now. I put Amos down, he's crying. I go pick up Ezra, I walk him into his room. He's crying, I put him down his bed, I wipe his tears and he says to me, my three year old, life's hard without mommy. (audience laughing) Yes Ezra, yes. No, you see when Jesus comes onto the scene and he says,
God's in charge. He knows that life is hard without God. Now look, I know some of you aren't convinced. You know, you got your career, you've got your great apartment, you got your, you got all this stuff going through you. At the end of the day, deep inside of your soul, there's an ache, and that human ache is a longing to be known by the Creator. And Jesus has good news, the thing that's been inside of you, that your destiny, your destiny for, right relationship with God, right relationship with yourself and right relationship with everyone else is available here and out through relationship with me. And Jesus doesn't just say this, he doesn't just announce the good news, he demonstrates the good news. So he'll go around and he'll be setting captives free, he'll go and heal the sick, he'll give sight to the blind, he'll let the outsider be included, the religious will have a spiritual awakening, the sinner will experience forgiveness, the broken will experience wholeness, the tired will find rest, the oppressed will be set free and the anxious will find peace because the kingdom of God is not just an announcement, it's not just a proclamation, it's not something we study, it's something we have to experience because it is a reality to be experienced. It's available here and now and the ministry of Jesus is an invitation to experience life the way it was supposed to be in the first place. Are you a way church? That's our ministry. So Jesus says that he demonstrates it, he does all this stuff, and then he says, now you go do it. In John chapter 14, Jesus has high expectations for all those who believe in him. He says, very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing and they will do even greater things than these because I'm going to the Father. Now you can debate this greater things, oh, there's more of us, we'll do more miracles. But at the very minimum, the lowest common denominator is to do at least what Jesus was doing up until that point, would you agree? And what was he doing up until that point? Raising the dead. That's a good miracle, would you agree? Psyched to the blind cast and out demons healing the paralyzed. He says, you will do these things. He expects those who believe to continue his ministry. And that's where we get in Acts chapter 1. He says, you will receive power from the Holy Spirit. So the question I ask, if we haven't heard about the ministry of Jesus, it's because we haven't been discipled into the Gospels. We've been discipled into a church culture, a culture of consumerism, a culture that's satiated on goods and our spiritual good. So we love the podcasts, we love the programs, we love the live streams, we love the worship albums drop. We're good with that. But call me into a life of giving, call me into a life of discipleship where I make disciples call me into a life of deliverance and setting people free. No, that's not me. That's for the spiritual folks. No, it's for believers. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. How do we do what Jesus did? The same way Jesus did what he did according to the Gospels through the power of the Holy Spirit. Read the Gospels, read Luke in particular, and look at how many times the Holy Spirit is empowering the ministry of Jesus and then go to Acts and look at how many times the Holy Spirit empowers the church to do the things that Jesus did. It is a theme. So we do what Jesus did through the power of the Holy Spirit. And that word power is interesting. I love what Simon Pondzabi wrote. He wrote, "The Greek word for power is dunamis from which we derive words like dynamite, dynamo and dynamic. Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit will be explosive. They will make noise and have an impact. Their words, lives and presence will change things." It is the fullness of that power that Paul wants us to enter into. Paul declared that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. Sadly, however, we often seem all talk and no power. Impetent, academic, and anemic. We have placed God in a box. We have domesticated God and rarely want him to disturb us. But the Scriptures reveal a God who is all power, who breaks our boxes, shatters our bonds, and shakes whole rooms, turns the world upside down and writes that up. The Holy Spirit power was always the mark of the men and women of God in Scripture power. The Holy Spirit comes to give us power to bear witness of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit comes to transform our lives so that we can transform the world that's around us. Do you know the Spirit? The Spirit of God comes to transform us. I love the story of Peter, because it's an archetype of the imperfect disciple. He is not someone to like in the gospel of Mark in particular, which by the way, it was his oversight and his stories that were spoken to John Mark who wrote the book of Mark. He's saying, "I was a fool." He put his foot in his mouth. He said the wrong thing at the wrong time. He regularly got it wrong over and over again to the point where he finally gets it right. He says, "You are the Messiah and Jesus goes, that's revelation from the Father." And he's like, "Oh, bless, you know, bless, are you Peter? You got it right." And then the very next moment, literally, he can't even stay in the glory of getting it right. He said, "Jesus, I'm going to go to the cross." He's like, "No, you ain't." He's like, "Get behind me Satan." So Jesus calls him Satan. From glory to Satan, that fast. The gospel of Mark ends with Peter warming himself up by the fire. As Jesus is being questioned, the image is this. He's warming himself up by the fire in the courtyard and a woman comes, a servant comes, says, "You're with Jesus." He's like, "No, I wasn't. I never knew him." Three times. He denies Jesus. This is the very end. After three and a half years, this is your bro denies even knowing him. Curse his God to say, "No way." Goes away weeping bitterly. Talk about failure, yeah? 50 days after the resurrection, day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit falls. It says, and check this out in book of Acts. It says, "Peter standing up with the eleven, proclaims, we're not drunk on wine. It's not it's not a clock in the morning. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. You killed the author of life. Repent and be saved. Three thousand people are baptized that day. Peter goes from denying Jesus to one person to proclaiming the gospel to thousands and baptizing people and he will never deny ever knowing Jesus Christ ever again. What happened in that 50 days? I can tell you, he didn't do a juice fast. He didn't do soul cycle or listen to some meditative app. He didn't do practice the way information. He was baptized in the presence of God and it changed him. And yet we're satisfied reading stories as Christians of God coming in power and we love, we will live powerless lives. We will read about or follow a rabbi who raises the dead and we're satisfied with rules. And we as Christians somehow can witness in the scriptures God coming in fire and wind and glory in power and we just want liturgy. What's wrong with us? You're made for more. You gotta let go of some of the areas in your lives. The pretense, the strongholds, your mind that's blocking you from receiving more of God. Moses was someone who met face to face with God. And then he says, I want to see your glory. There's more. There's so much more. I love the story of Billy Graham. I came across this story years ago and I want to share it with you. Billy Graham said that the most influential person to his ministry was a man named Stephen Ulfert. You know who Billy Graham is? I think mostly like 50% of you guys know Billy Graham? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So Billy Graham famous evangelist preached billions of people. Okay. Really impactful in the kingdom of God. Stephen Ulfert was the most influential person in his life. And Stephen Ulfert tells the story of how they met in his journal that was published. So pay attention to this. It says this. After the first day, the two of them, Billy and Stephen Ulfert, spent together in the Bible, Billy preached to a small crowd. And according to Ulfert, Billy's preaching was ordinary and not the Welsh kind of preaching. At the end of the sermon, Billy gave an invitation, but the response was not particularly great. I love it. The next day, they spent time together praying and talking about the Bible and they came together in the presence of Lord and Billy began to fully express his deep desire to serve God with his full heart and be completely given over to him. And Ulfert said that at that point, all heaven broke loose in that dreary little room. It was like Jacob laying hold on of God and crying out, "Lord, I will not let the go accept that bless me." And when they paused from praying for a while, Billy said to Ulfert, "My heart is so flooded with the Holy Spirit, they were so overcome with joy that they laughed together and then they wept." Billy began walking back and forth saying, "I have it. I'm filled. I'm filled. This is the turning point of my life. This will revolutionize my ministry." That night, Graham was due to speak at the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel. Ulfert wrote, "When he rose to preach, he was a man absolutely anointed."
And his impact on the Welsh congregation was startling. The people came to the front even before Billy had given an invitation. Later when the invitation was given, Alfred wrote, "The Welsh listeners jammed the aisles. There was chaos, practically the entire audience came rushing forward." And according to Alfred, Graham preached the same sermon at both gatherings. There was an undeniable power that comes from the presence of God. Call it "unction," call it "unointing," but the Holy Spirit is available for you. And I know that the American church has become connoisseurs of content rather than thirsting for living water. We are satiated by programs and podcasts rather than feasting on the bread of life. But the command I bring to you is from Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18. It says, "Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the Spirit." This is in Ephesians command for the church. Those who say, "Yes to Jesus," Paul writes to the church and he says, "Look, don't get drunk off wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the Spirit." Now, stay with me for a second. I want to give you some context. The first thing he addresses is something that we relate that we have to see in relation to being filled with the Holy Spirit. He says, "Don't get drunk off wine." This is a challenge to the way of living in culture. First century Roman culture, they did things called symposiums. They were these drinking parties that would cause someone to be under the influence of alcohol. They would drink to get drunk and they would eat food and throw up and do it all again. And they would lead to all sorts of bad things in debauchery. And the mindset of the Roman empires to be under the influence of the wine because it was connected to other deities and gods. There's a way of offering yourself to other gods. And the challenge was to not believe under the influence of these other deities and substances and alternative narratives. At this church, and at my church, I believe that we have to live a counter-formation lifestyle. What's counter-formation? Well, there is a cultural-formational default that we all live in. Our default, when we wake up every day, is to be formed by the world. We are being formed, pressed, made in the image of the culture around us. Are you with me? And this culture is not neutral. There's a narrative. There's propaganda. There's ideologies. There's ways of experiencing and believing about your identity, about what's right, what's wrong, what's true, what's false. There's this world that's pushing us. And it's not neutral territory. According to the scriptures, if you have a biblical worldview, it's either part of the kingdom of God or part of the kingdom of darkness. And Paul is trying to help the church live in the world. He's trying to give them lifestyle instructions as you live as a disciple devoted to Jesus. Don't live under the influence of culture. He might say, "Hey, don't be under the substances. Don't be under alcohol." Under the influence of alcohol. Don't be under the influence of consumerism or materialism or the influence of social media. It will lead to your comparison. It will lead to a false identity. Don't be under the influence of political spirits. Don't be under the influence of religious spirits. Don't be under the influence of your careerism and your longings for your career. Yes, you can have a job. Yes, it can be a passion of yours. But don't serve it as a master. Are you with me? Yes. Instead, you see, we're so influenced by culture. We don't even realize. Wake up every day. Our default is swimming in the river of culture. And it changes our mood, our behaviors, our ideas in the way we see the world and the way we think God works. We're so shaped by it. I want to give you an example real quick. If you were, let's say you're exhausted, you worked all week long, but you got to hit the gym Friday night. Feel it in your body. You're just physically exhausted. You don't have it in you. But you know for your health, you're going to go hit the gym. It's leg day. You with me? What's required of you to accomplish that task? I'll tell you right now. A good playlist. You know how easy it is to be motivated by a good playlist. Now imagine you go in for leg day, you're doing back squats, you're getting ready, and then you hit that note, and this is what comes on. It's like, I got this right. How quickly would you fail at trying to PR on leg day? You're moved by that. But if this came on, you're about to PR. You got it? This is not what I, oh, right? You're like, I got this. You don't even know what happened the last week. You have this thing to take you to an 11, are you with me? Now if music has that ability, I get it. It works. So it works. What else has the ability to shape your mood, your ideas, your behaviors as you're exhausted at night? Which way you swipe in tonight? Deal with that loneliness, knowing God's call you to purity, but now you're on the influence of defining yourself by relationships outside of the sexual morality God has for you. Don't be under that influence. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Instead, be baptized in the trinitarian reality of God's good and beautiful world working through the presence of God that is now indwelling inside of you. Be under the influence of the presence of God. Not the alternative narratives from social media. Be under the influence of the loving father. Not trying to prove yourself by performance and working to make a dollar and make a name for yourself. Receive the name that comes from God who created the stars. Are you with me? Be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. John Piper says, "If you don't feel a strong desire for the manifestation of the glory of God, it's not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It's because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things and there is no room for the great." Before I talk about being filled, let me just say this. Right now, I know what God is doing for some of you. Like, no, you don't. No, I know what happens when the Word of God has preached, there's conviction. I just talk about these playful things and you, inside, some of you are hearing from the Holy Spirit and he's bubbling up the areas of your life that are misaligned with the way of God. The phrase for sin is an archery term for missing the mark. And some of you have been missing the mark and you're justifying it. But right now, he's saying, "Hey, this thing has to go." So what do you do with that conviction? Well, you can do this. You can push it down and quench the Spirit in your life. Or you let him say what he wants and you say, "What do you want me to do?" And if you're there, can I tell you what he wants you to do? Repent. Repentance is not some religious word that makes you feel guilty and shame. Repentance is liberating. Repentance is the presence of God, pressuring you with grace and love and affection to move towards wholeness because sin is dehumanizing you. Sin is you operating outside of your true self. And the more you become like Jesus, the more free you become to be the person God created you to be in the first place. So what do we do with sin? We repent, which means to change our minds. We were thinking about, "We're going to go this way." Now he's like, "No, no, no. Go this way." All right, Lord, I see it. I'm going this way. I believe in this. The Hebrew word means to return. So repentance means you're going this direction and now you're going to turn and change directions. Some rabbis say the word to Shiva for return as far as repentance and Hebrew means to return home. Which I love because I think when you repent, you're just going back to the way you were intended to be in the first place. Genesis chapter 1 and 2 are true home. Are you guys good with this? Let me give you one more thing on repentance. I love the amons up here. This is, we're good. I want to give you a story of repentance with five chapters. Where are you today? Chapter 1. I was walking down the street. I fell into a hole. I don't know how I got in there. It takes me a while to get out. I eventually get out and I continue down the street. Chapter 2. I fall into a hole. I know how I got in there. I get out and I continue down the street. Chapter 3. I fell into a hole. I know why I was in there. I know how to get out. Chapter 4. I walk around the hole and I continue down the street. Chapter 5. I walk down a different street.
You're like, who is this, Dr. Seas? (audience laughs) Yes. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Simon Ponzibe says, when the Bible speaks of being filled with the Holy Spirit, it is saying that one is consumed, taken over, impregnated, saturated, complete and replete with God's presence and power. To be filled with the Holy Spirit leaves no room to be filled with anything else. And when Paul says, be filled, the choice of verbs translates to going on being filled with the Spirit. And it suggests that the endwelling of the Spirit or the baptism in the Spirit is a continual experience or experiences. Meaning it doesn't happen once, it happens all the time. So every time we gather, we say, come Holy Spirit. 'Cause there are things that we have filled ourselves with, and we need to make room for God. Whenever I pray for different people in contexts like this, and I invite people forward to come and be filled with the Holy Spirit, can I tell you what tends to happen? It's not always sin that they repent from. What tends to happen when they meet God? Do you wanna know what the number one thing is? Their deepest pain is released. 'Cause that's the thing that is holding you back. I see it every time where God begins to minister to, this happened all day today and yesterday. People come forward for something they have pain in their foot. We start praying, there's a revelation about their identity, a revelation, a word of knowledge about their past. That doesn't make sense in that moment, but it's the thing that unlocks them to receive the fullness of God in that moment. I have a friend named John. He's now on staff, but before he was on staff, he was the emergency manager for Cal State Long Beach. He wrote papers like what to do during pandemics and how to manage an entire campus of 30,000 students in case there was a crisis. He's probably the safest person to know. It's amazing, but there was a time where we, as a church, were pushing into the things of the Spirit and we brought a guest speaker out and a worship pastor and they were gonna do a Holy Spirit conference for us, the first time ever. We were terrified. We were conservative Christians that really believed in the Holy Spirit, but never seen it practice. We were hungry for more, and these, the people that came out had a church in London that was on fire with God. People were getting saved, people were being set free. Atheists were coming to faith on the subways. It was insane because the power of God was present in the central London at this church. So we wanted to learn, and it was a big risk, but that night before the conference, we had dinner at my house and this worship pastor and the speaker were there and my friend John and his wife were there and my wife were there and we were in our little one bedroom apartment finishing dinner and then the leader that was there said we should pray for John and his wife. So I'm like, yeah, a great idea. We should do that. And so they have them stand up, close their eyes in our little tiny bedroom and pray for them. And as we're praying, not much is happening. It's cool. I'm just like, yeah, cool God, come Holy Spirit, you know. And the worship pastor comes up and he says to John, this is a strange image, but I have an image in my head. It's very American. It's from the movie Hook. Have you seen the movie Hook? But I see you playing baseball as a kid. You're on the team, the pirates, and you're up to bat and you're looking in the stands for your dad and he's nowhere to be found. Cool, cool story. John falls to the floor, weeping hysterically. The safest person in the room, not showing a lot of emotion ever is hysterically crying, not like a little bit. He's like wailing, like guttural wailing. His wife is terrified and I'm trying to normalize the experience, which is absolutely crazy to me. Oh, it's totally normal. Yep, keep going more, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Yes. I bless what you're doing, God. Inside I'm like, what is going on? Next thing he knows, never in a context before this. He came to Christ later, has never been in a church that spoke in tongues. He's screaming in an unknown language. Rolling around, rearranging the furniture, neighbors come up and concern for our safety. I don't know, everything's fine. God's moving in our house, more, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. His wife's terrified. This goes on for a long time to the point where I have to take the speaker and the worship pastor home while he's having this crazy encounter on the floor. Now what the worship pastor didn't finish saying was that as you look in the stands for your father, you need to know that the heavenly father was always with you. And what he couldn't know because they had just met is that John's dad was the coach of his baseball team. And when he was young and little league, one day dropped John off and said, I can no longer be your father and abandoned his family. And he was estranged. It was as deep as pain. And his team was the parish. My wife's reminded me. His team that he played on was the pirates. It's called the Word of Knowledge, where God moves in power, heals the deepest wound in John's life and unlocks the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't know why God does this, but he does it because he loves us. And what I've seen tonight and this morning is people have come forward hungry for the presence of God and they are met by loving father, who heals their wounds, who reminds them of their identity, who encourages them to keep going, who fills them with power for the purposes that he has for them in the world. Why not now? Why not you? Why not today? I know without a doubt, the Lord is drawing you here, longing for you. At some point, you have to let go. At some point, you have to humble yourself and say, "Come, Holy Spirit, I want more of you." Can we stand? Would you close your eyes and open your hands and stand awkwardly, physically available for the presence of God in this mysterious posture that has no mystery, it's just a physical sign of openness. And we close our eyes so we're not distracted. The Lord is releasing hunger in this room. So come, respond to the hunger. I want to invite you forward. I'm going to pray for more things in a second, but I know you know who you are. So get up to the front where you've built an altar for you to seek the presence of God. If you're in the middle, say, "Excuse me and knock them over and come right to the front." And if you get here first, come all the way up 'cause we're going to have a lot of people come before. Come on. The hungry come forward. Those who are experiencing the presence of God, drawing them into repentance, drawing them into more longings of your heart being open right now. You don't know why, but you feel drawn. The Holy Spirit is drawing you here. So come forward. And this is how you grow in the Spirit, by the way, by obeying His whispers and promptings, His little nudges. When you say yes to those little things, He will increase His presence in your life. And so we're just holding this space for a moment. Just open up your hands. Holy Spirit, would you release us this evening? We ask for more of you, God. Come, Holy Spirit. And in your own head, everyone here tonight, we just keep your eyes closed, open your hands. And in your own head, I want you to pray that prayer, Holy Spirit, I welcome you in my life, in your own head. And as you say that prayer, I want you to imagine, in your mind, allow the Holy Spirit to direct what He wants and let Him lead you in a prayer where He fills you. So Lord, would you just release your presence on us, release your Spirit, may we welcome you tonight? And let's just wait for a few moments together in silence. More. How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? More, Lord, we pray for more of you right now. Just release, Lord. I just want to release all those who are held in bondage, be free tonight. Just the shackles of your addiction are coming off tonight. The day of sobriety is today. This is the year of Jubilee. He's releasing, he's cancelling the debts. He's setting you free right now. He's purifying your heart, he's cleansing your hands. He's calling you his son and daughter, and you are set free by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by might, not by works, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Release my brothers, release my sisters, release the saints in Jesus' name. Hey church, Emily Linquist, worship pastor here at Church of the City. I just wanted to share with you that we've got a new song out called "Near the Lord." We've been singing it in our services and the chorus says, "How good it is to be near the Lord," which is ASAP's conclusion, the writer of Psalm 73, after he looks around and doubts God, begins to doubt God's goodness. And my hope is that we as the church would be encouraged as we sing this to say, as for me, the best thing for me, what I will choose is God's presence, despite what's happening around us or to us. What we do get, what we don't.
get the best thing we could ever have is the presence of God. You can catch it on any platform where you stream music and we look forward to worshiping with you. Just do me a word, just do me near you Lord, all I ever say is oh my goodness, turn to man. When I'm where you are, oh so put my heart into your planet. In my heart, oh my goodness, how great, how great, how great, just do me near you, just do me near you.
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