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HOLY GHOST’S STORIES PART 3
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
INTRODUCTION
Good Morning Southpointe, we have been in this series for the last two weeks on Holy Ghost’s stories. So this week we are going to continue on the Holy Ghost Stories.
We are studying the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came in power at Pentecost, enabling believers to do supernatural works.
Let’s look at some stuff this morning:
In the first chapter of Acts we are basically see the the disciples go from being disciples to be Apostles.
Disciple - means follower or learner.
Apostle— means messenger or missionary.
These men who were Jesus inner circle were get the assignment to spread the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
But they were need power to fulfill this assignment.
So Jesus tells them to wait for the promise and that promise was the Holy Ghost.
Understand they were 40 days into this:
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
After Jesus departed into Heaven, the disciples were obedient to Jesus’ words.
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
Jesus instructed His disciples to witness to the people of all nations about Him.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
But Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem.
And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
If God has important work for you to do for Him, then you must and will need to do it by the power of the Holy Ghost and waiting could be required.
And waiting could be required
We often like to get on with the job and even if it means running ahead of God.
Put you see waiting is sometimes part of God’s plan. My question to you this morning is: Are you waiting and listening for God’s complete instructions or Are you running ahead of His plans?
We need God’s timing and power to be truly effective.
10 days they had waited in the upper room.
So now that were sitting at 50 days after the Passover. And they were entering into the Feast of the Weeks or it was also called Pentecost.
This was one of the three major annual feasts.
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
16:16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
This Pentecost was considered a festival of thanksgiving for the harvested crops.
The Jews of many nations gathered in Jerusalem for this festival.
Now remember Jesus was crucified at Passover time and He ascended 40 days after His resurrection.
Now 10 days waiting.
It is the celebration of PENTECOST! It was a celebration of giving, bringing to God the very best of the grain for the whole harvest season.
A celebration where the people praised God for His giving to them by their giving back to Him their very best. There in They shall not appear before the Lord empty.
All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the LORD your God.
This is saying look at the way God has blessed you and give in according to that, for some it might be just their 10 % to other it might be more.
So this was that season of giving, and they were expected to give their very best.
This is a reflection of a real love relationship! God got the “firstfruits” … not leftovers and not what they could spare, God got the best and the first of the produce!
Our relationship with God should be characterized by joyous giving; this was the meaning in the celebration of Pentecost.
Giving also shows that what we have has come from the gracious hand of God and that He is the rightful owner of all that we have, so we give back out of love.
"From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks.
Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
It would be spiritually and practically unhealthy for us to expect from God without giving in return! (Yet, how many Christians do this today?)
God's desire was for a real relationship with mankind ... it’s a 2 way street.
God never gives less than His best to us ... and as in all loving relationships, He expects our best in return!
It was NOT the leftovers God asked for ... but the FIRSTFRUITS! The finest of the grain! Because people that are truly in love, this is NEVER an issue!
a. The first pickings of grain were the best ... they were superior seed!
b. This grain made the best bread, if pressed produced the finest oil.
When you're in love the object of that love is the FIRST in your heart, mind and spirit!
Pentecost was a time of joyful giving and celebration of abundance... of increase, this was also certainly true of Pentecost in the book of Acts ...
The entire focus of Pentecost was relationship giving, remember it’s a 2 way street, don't miss out on God's joy by making it a one way street!
b. The entire focus of Pentecost was relationship giving... a 2 way street, don't miss out on God's joy by making it a one way street!
The entire focus of Pentecost was relationship giving, remember it’s a 2 way street, don't miss out on God's joy by making it a one way street!
Giving is a joyful experience, whether we give our resources or ourselves! God's very nature is that of a giver ... of life, of provisions, of Himself!
He desires a loving relationship with us that allows us to also give; of our life, our provisions, of ourselves! Don't just "count your many blessings" contribute them also!
We know the characteristics of God is a giver,
"For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
God gave His disciples the abundant power of the Holy Spirit and a great increase in the Church resulted!
This outpouring was foretold by the Prophet Joel.
"Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
In those days I will pour out My Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.
On the day of Pentecost Peter quoted these verses. The outpouring of the Spirit predicted by Joel occurred on Pentecost.
While in the past, God’s Spirit seemed available to kings, prophets, and judges.
But Joel envisioned a time when the Spirit would be available to every believer.
Ezekiel spoke of an outpouring of the Spirit also:
And I will never again turn My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit upon the people of Israel. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!"
This was also a fulfillment of John the Baptist’s words about the Holy Spirit baptizing with fire.
John answered their questions by saying, "I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I'm not even worthy to be His slave and untie the straps of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
So let’s look at:
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Why tongues of fire?
Tongues symbolizes speech and the communication of the gospel.
Fire symbolizes God’s purifying presence which burns away the undesirable elements of our lives and sets our hearts aflame to ignite the lives of others.
Look what James said:
But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
The tongue can not be tame by man but God can. The Holy Spirit takes that which is evil and unruly and full of poison and God’s Holy Spirit turn the tongue into a instrument that praise and glorify God.
Now I want to listen closely to what I am about to say: On Mount Sinai fire come down on one place:
On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram's horn, and all the people trembled.
Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently.
But on the day of Pentecost, God confirmed the Holy Spirit ministry by sending fire just as He did the Old Testament Law.
That fire came down on many believers.
Know we are not talking about the Spirit of God living in you, but we are talking about the overflowing of God’s love in your life.
Now let’s establish our perspective here:
We the Pentecostal believe that the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit is an separate experience from Christian conversion.
We agree that the Holy Spirit is operating in every believer.
But every believer must must this question.
He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
But the problem so many people have is the craziness that has gone on for years.
We don’t understand the operation of the Holy Spirit and all we know is people shouting, speaking in tongues, running around like their in a trance or something.
I don’t personal believe that all that is God or has anything to do with the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in tongues is in the experience of the baptism in or infilling of the Holy Spirit.
this is what I believe that we can receive the Holy Ghost by doing these things.
a. Let your mind be active worshipping Jesus Christ.
And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
If I just focus on Him and worship Him, then I believe I will receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
b. As your emotion are warmed then the Love of God poured forth into your heart.
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
C. As our physical body participates in worship thru an upraised voice in prayer, () or upraised hands of adoration. (Ps. 63:1-5)
And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
This is my deal, the speaking in tongues has became a big deal for many, so many debate back and forth is speaking in tongues the first initial.
Or some will say I got all at salvation. And some are just seeking the tongues and the More of God.
This is my deal, if you just tell God, you want more of Him and all that He has for you. And you live for live that way, then see what God does.
I was raised freewill baptist and what I knew was very little about the Holy Spirit, and this is what I did God is this thing real then I want everything you have for me.
THE GHOST; WEEK 3Craig GroeschelWe are studying the power of the Holy Spirit. Among other things, the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to followers of Christ. Spiritual gifts are mentioned the first time in Scripture in Romans Chapter 1, verse 11, when Paul said; “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Spiritual gifts are not something weird or freaky; in fact, Paul said in ; “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts.” In the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came in power at Pentecost, enabling believers to do supernatural works. Acts, Chapter 19, verse 11 says that God did extraordinary miracles, a spiritual gift, through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. When Paul arrived in Ephesus, he found some believers that were not filled with the Spirit. says, “When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied;” both spiritual gifts. You may remember Peter, the guy who couldn’t get anything right, and even denied Jesus 3 times; the Holy Spirit gave him the gift of evangelism so that he could share the message of Christ boldly. says; “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day;” the gift of evangelism. When Peter encountered a dead woman one time, the Bible says, turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabatha get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He took her by the hand and he helped her to her feet. Then, he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, the Bible says, “And many people believed in the Lord.” If you are a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit will equip you with spiritual gifts to minister to believers and to make a difference all over this world; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Well, welcome to all of you today, we are so glad to have you with us for the series called, ‘The Ghost’ as we are looking about teaching from God’s Word about the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost. If you have your Bibles with you, let’s open them up to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. Today, we want talk about how the Holy Spirit enables and empowers believers with spiritual gifts. I will tell you a story to open this up. A few years back, I was out greeting people in between church services in the lobby, and I came across a couple that they were visibly upset. The wife came up and she was crying and her husband was standing by her trying to be strong for her. She just unloaded on me and she said, “Craig, I’m devastated,” she said, “We’ve been trying for 7 years to conceive a child. We have done everything, we have been to the doctors and we simply can’t conceive.” Through her tears she said, “Because you have 6 kids, I am going to ask you to pray for me.” Now, I don’t know what happens, what 6 kids’ means with my prayer life; but, she wanted to know would I pray for her. So, obviously I agreed to do so, but I will just be real honest with you; in my mind I was thinking to myself, if you’ve been trying for 7 years, you’ve had all the doctors do this, my prayers probably won’t make much of a difference. But, because I am a pastor and I don’t want to devastate you, of course, I will pray for you. That’s kind of honestly, what was going on in my mind. But, I put my hands on them and I started to pray. As I was praying, this supernatural faith and belief came upon me and I started to really, really believe and all of a sudden I thought, it doesn’t matter what hasn’t happened, it doesn’t matter what doctors have tried, God is the author of life and I believe that God can give you life and I prayed and asked God to bless them with a child. As I was doing so, inside there was like this message that was born. It was so overwhelming, that I had to speak it. The message, I felt like, was a message was from God, that intellectually, I had a very difficult time believing; but, by faith, I just believed it was from God. So, I spoke the message out just as I got through praying for them. I said, “I believe God wants me to tell you that 10 months from now, you are going to give birth to a son.” They just looked at me and then right after the words came out, I was like; “Oh, what did I just say! Put them back in there!” And, I kind of came back to my natural state of mind and I thought, “That was stupid! What in the world were you thinking?” Pastorally, my mind took over, like going, you could devastate this poor couple, and I can’t believe you just did that! They looked at me like, “Really, really?” I’m like, “Really, really, I don’t know, I just felt like I was supposed to tell you that!” I drove home and I was praying, “God, you’ve got to give them a baby!” I told my wife, I said; “You are not going to believe what I did!” I told her and she was like, “You did what? I can’t believe you did that! You better pray everyday on that!” I’m like, “Pray with me!” So sure enough, it was several weeks later, I was back out in the lobby talking to people and this couple came up crying again. This time, there were tears of joy! They ran toward me and they jumped, hugging me! I’m like, “Your pregnant right?” They were like, “Yeah!” And we were high fiving, and we were chest-butting, and we were patting each other on the bottom, only guy to guy, flat hand, never cupped on the bottom; that is a sin straight from the pit of hell! We were hugging! I was driving home going, “Yes! Yes!” I looked over to Amy, “They are pregnant!” She’s like, “Do you think it’s a boy?” I was like, “Oh, no! What if it’s a girl?” I’m going back into this whole devastated thing and so I’m praying everyday, “Oh God! May there be a stem on that apple!” And, sure enough, they went to the ultra sound, and they said, “You are having a boy!” About 10 months from the time of that prayer, they gave birth to a son. I just sit back and I look at that. My natural mind doesn’t understand anything about that at all. That is a spiritual gift that is given by God to certain people for the building up of the body of Christ; a spiritual gift that naturally we could never do, nor understand. What I want to do today is talk to you very specifically about spiritual gifts and how they will apply in your life and make a difference in this world. So, let’s go ahead and start off with a working definition of spiritual gifts, and then we will look at Scripture. What is a spiritual gift? If you are taking notes, a spiritual gift is simply a supernatural ability given to all Christians to do God’s work on earth. It’s an ability given by God, to all of God’s people, to make a difference first, if you read Scripture, first in the church and then overflowing into the world. 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, we will start in verse 1 and then look at verses 4-6 to build a foundational understanding. Verse 1, the Bible says this; “Now about spiritual gifts,” Paul says, “Brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Yet, according to 1 study, 87% of Christians don’t know anything about their spiritual gifts. He says, “First off, I don’t want you to be ignorant.” And yet, almost 9 in 10 Christians, don’t know anything about their gifts. They are ignorant. Give you an example; my father knows that I hate poisonous snakes. There are all sorts of poisonous snakes around our house, and so, my father bought me a shot gun to blow the brains off of these satanic copperheads that torment our family. Because I don’t know a lot about guns; I can work my hand gun, and shot gun, I don’t know much about it. I put it in a very same place in my house, hid the bullets and have not yet touched this gun or used it. It was a gift from my father, with a purpose, to serve my family. Yet, this gift is hidden and unused; which is exactly what many of you are doing with the gifts that God has given you. Many of you, you don’t even know what they are, where they are, how they are supposed to function. Your Father has given you a gift that continues to be hidden and unused. “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant...” Verse 4, Paul continues and says; “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.” The same Holy Spirit gives these different kinds of gifts to believers. Verse 5 says, “There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” In verse 7, in the New Living Translation, it says this; “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” Notice that all Christians receive spiritual gifts. All spiritual gifts are useful. All of hell wants you to keep your gift hidden and unused, so that the gift your Father has given you is not useful to build up the body of Christ and minister to people in the world.What I want to do today is I want to expose you to a couple of lists of gifts in Scripture. But first, let’s talk about what Spiritual gifts are not, so we can better understand what they are. Now, 5 things that spiritual gifts are not, if you are taking notes: 1. Spiritual gifts are not natural talents. Natural talents are different from spiritual gifts. When you are born naturally, God gives you natural talents. You may be naturally gifted to sing, or to dance, or naturally good with numbers; these are natural talents. When you are spiritually born, you are given spiritual gifts. These are different than your natural talents. You not only can receive spiritual gifts when you are spiritually born, but God can continue to give you more spiritual gifts throughout your Christian walk. Your spiritual gifts can compliment your natural gifts; God can use all of them. But, there is a difference between natural talents and spiritual gifts.2. Spiritual gifts are not given to the ‘elite few’. God doesn’t say; “Okay, I am going to take this group of Christians that I really like, and give them powerful gifts, and you are going to be the more powerful Christians, and the rest of you, I don’t like you as much, so you go sit in the corner and you don’t get any gifts at all!” They are not given to the elite few; they are given to all Christians.3. Spiritual gifts are not signs of spiritual maturity. If you have a certain gift, it doesn’t mean you are more mature than someone who has a different gift. Sadly, in a lot of Christian cultures today, some people elevate certain gifts to say; “If you have this gift, you are spiritually mature, and if you don’t, you are kind of a lesser Christian.” Oddly enough, the gift of speaking in tongues in many church cultures, and among many Christians, is elevated to be the most important. “Are you Spirit-filled, with the evidence of speaking in tongues?” People in some church cultures who don’t speak in tongues, they feel like second-class Christians, when, in reality, the gift of speaking in tongues is called the least of the gifts of all. Yet, interestingly enough, this can be the most divisive in so many places. Spiritual gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity. 4. Spiritual gifts are also not the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are different from gifts of the Spirit. If you want to study fruits of the Spirit, go to , there are 9 of them; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. Sometimes, Christians will say, “Well, I just don’t have the gift of love; I don’t have the spiritual gift of patience.” No, those are not gifts, those are fruits. All believers should exhibit all the fruits of the Spirit, but all believers do not have all of the gifts of the Spirit; those are two different things. 5. Finally, if you are taking notes; spiritual gifts are not something to fear. They are not something that is odd and creepy; although, admittedly, sometimes Christians who believe in the spiritual gifts can be a little bit odd and creepy! I don’t want to be insulting; but, just because you see someone who does something you don’t understand, doesn’t mean the spiritual gifts are weird. The Bible says that we should desire the spiritual gifts. Just because you see someone, maybe with unusual preacher hair, or some church like where they are like, everybody is now going to be knocked out! Boom, boom, boom; they fall down! You say, “That seems weird!” Well you know, honestly, from my perspective, that is a bit different. I am not saying God couldn’t knock you down, I’m all into if God wants to knock you down, he can knock you down! But, just to say that everybody’s got to fall down, because that is the way we do it at this church, could be emotionalism, could be the power of suggestion and expectations and such, and doesn’t make it not real. But, sometimes you might go, “That seems a bit strange!” Yes, that is strange to me too! But, it doesn’t mean that the spiritual gifts are strange. These are gifts given by God, for the believer, to make a difference in this world. So, what I want to do is look at the 2 dominant portions in Scripture that talk about spiritual gifts. There are 4 different lists. We will look at the 2 dominant ones, and I will tell you what the others are later for your own purpose. What are some of the spiritual gifts? Romans, Chapter 12, verses 6-8, give us the first list of spiritual gifts. Here is what the Bible says, “In his grace, God has given us (believers) different gifts for doing certain things well.” And then he lists these 7 different gifts. He says this first of all, “If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.” What is the gift of prophecy? This is the ability to speak on the behalf of God. God has given me the spiritual gift of prophecy. In fact, some people would say that what I am doing right now is prophecy, it’s declaring on behalf of God. Others would say it would be more direct. Like the story about the young couple that gave birth to the son. Either way, it’s speaking boldly what God has put on your heart. Those unusual examples, like the couple; I can tell you in my 20 years of ministry, only about 10 examples that were that dramatic. But, I can also tell you that in all 10 cases, when I have spoken boldly, against the odds, every single time, God has proven himself to be true. Just another random story, with the gift of prophecy; I was talking to a guy that I have never met before, and he was unloading on me about how bad his wife was. “She’s just not sexually responsive, and she is controlling, and she’s this...” He was going on and on, and all of a sudden, I again had that burden inside. I just interrupted him, a guy I had never met and I said, “Actually, the problem is, you are addicted to pornography, and you are having an affair on your wife and you need to repent!” He just looked at me; he’s like “Ha?” And again, as soon as those words came out, I was having this oh crap moment! Like, what did I just say? What if I’m wrong? Where did that come from? He just looked at me, and he said, what did you say? I’m like; don’t make me say it again! Because I don’t want to! He just went as white as a ghost and all of a sudden he said, “I don’t know how you knew; oh my gosh!” He just fell to his knees right there and we prayed that he would repent before God and make things right with his wife. I don’t know how I knew that. That does not happen to me very often, but when it does it is a gift from God. It is the gift of prophecy. Let’s look at a second one. What I want you to understand is that this second gift is just as spiritual as the gift of prophecy. The Bible goes on to say in verse 7, “If your gift is serving others, serve them well.” Some of you, you have the spiritual gift of serving. The idea of doing something for someone else, especially when they don’t know about it, that is like the thrill of your life? Why is that? Because God has given you the gift of serving. There are some couples that will make dinners for me and other pastors. Almost every week, pastors come in from around the country, and occasionally, after preaching on Saturday, I will stay and have dinner. I have got to tell you, they blow it out! I mean, they bring the fanciest food I have ever seen! So, one time I just said, “You don’t have to get all into that! I’m not that fancy, you know, you can be simple!” One of the ladies looked back and she just looked devastated! She was like, “Oh no, this is my gift, I love this, I live for this!” I’m like, “Baby, bring it! Bring the cream, bring the potatoes!” Because this is a gift that God has given to these people and they live to serve. This is a spiritual gift. Some of you have the gift of serving.The Bible goes on to say, “If you are a teacher, teach well.” Some of you, you have the gift of teaching God’s Word. You can’t read anything, you know, you read something your like, “I’ve got to tell somebody!” Your like, “Oh my gosh, here’s the Greek word!” You know, you are getting all into this stuff, and you are to use that gift to teach God’s Word in the church. If you read on, the Bible says, “If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.” God has given some of you the spiritual gift of encouraging. Unleash that thing, man, let it fly! Any time you see anything that someone is doing well, be a blessing to them. Write the email, text, send a note, compliment them, encourage. I am doing what I am doing today, because of 2 people who encouraged me to follow the gift and dream that God had put in my heart. This is an important spiritual gift, the gift of encouragement.The next gift; says, “If your gift is giving, give generously.” My wife, Amy, she has the spiritual gift of giving. Every year, for her birthday, she has got this budget, this big honken giving budget; she can give anywhere she wants. Every year for her birthday I say, “What do you want for your birthday?” She says, “Raise my giving budget!” I’m “No, what do you want for you?” “That’s what I want for me! Give me more money to give!” So, her gift is giving. My job is to fund her expensive gift, okay? The Bible goes on to say, “If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. Many of you, you have the gift to lead and you are not leading anything in the church. Your gun is hidden, and continues to go unused.
You may remember Peter, the guy who couldn’t get anything right, and even denied Jesus 3 times; the Holy Spirit gave him the gift of evangelism so that he could share the message of Christ boldly. says; “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day;” the gift of evangelism. When Peter encountered a dead woman one time, the Bible says, turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabatha get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He took her by the hand and he helped her to her feet. Then, he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, the Bible says, “And many people believed in the Lord.” If you are a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit will equip you with spiritual gifts to minister to believers and to make a difference all over this world; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Well, welcome to all of you today, we are so glad to have you with us for the series called, ‘The Ghost’ as we are looking about teaching from God’s Word about the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost. If you have your Bibles with you, let’s open them up to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. Today, we want talk about how the Holy Spirit enables and empowers believers with spiritual gifts. I will tell you a story to open this up. A few years back, I was out greeting people in between church services in the lobby, and I came across a couple that they were visibly upset. The wife came up and she was crying and her husband was standing by her trying to be strong for her. She just unloaded on me and she said, “Craig, I’m devastated,” she said, “We’ve been trying for 7 years to conceive a child. We have done everything, we have been to the doctors and we simply can’t conceive.” Through her tears she said, “Because you have 6 kids, I am going to ask you to pray for me.” Now, I don’t know what happens, what 6 kids’ means with my prayer life; but, she wanted to know would I pray for her. So, obviously I agreed to do so, but I will just be real honest with you; in my mind I was thinking to myself, if you’ve been trying for 7 years, you’ve had all the doctors do this, my prayers probably won’t make much of a difference. But, because I am a pastor and I don’t want to devastate you, of course, I will pray for you. That’s kind of honestly, what was going on in my mind. But, I put my hands on them and I started to pray. As I was praying, this supernatural faith and belief came upon me and I started to really, really believe and all of a sudden I thought, it doesn’t matter what hasn’t happened, it doesn’t matter what doctors have tried, God is the author of life and I believe that God can give you life and I prayed and asked God to bless them with a child. As I was doing so, inside there was like this message that was born. It was so overwhelming, that I had to speak it. The message, I felt like, was a message was from God, that intellectually, I had a very difficult time believing; but, by faith, I just believed it was from God. So, I spoke the message out just as I got through praying for them. I said, “I believe God wants me to tell you that 10 months from now, you are going to give birth to a son.” They just looked at me and then right after the words came out, I was like; “Oh, what did I just say! Put them back in there!” And, I kind of came back to my natural state of mind and I thought, “That was stupid! What in the world were you thinking?” Pastorally, my mind took over, like going, you could devastate this poor couple, and I can’t believe you just did that! They looked at me like, “Really, really?” I’m like, “Really, really, I don’t know, I just felt like I was supposed to tell you that!” I drove home and I was praying, “God, you’ve got to give them a baby!” I told my wife, I said; “You are not going to believe what I did!” I told her and she was like, “You did what? I can’t believe you did that! You better pray everyday on that!” I’m like, “Pray with me!” So sure enough, it was several weeks later, I was back out in the lobby talking to people and this couple came up crying again. This time, there were tears of joy! They ran toward me and they jumped, hugging me! I’m like, “Your pregnant right?” They were like, “Yeah!” And we were high fiving, and we were chest-butting, and we were patting each other on the bottom, only guy to guy, flat hand, never cupped on the bottom; that is a sin straight from the pit of hell! We were hugging! I was driving home going, “Yes! Yes!” I looked over to Amy, “They are pregnant!” She’s like, “Do you think it’s a boy?” I was like, “Oh, no! What if it’s a girl?” I’m going back into this whole devastated thing and so I’m praying everyday, “Oh God! May there be a stem on that apple!” And, sure enough, they went to the ultra sound, and they said, “You are having a boy!” About 10 months from the time of that prayer, they gave birth to a son. I just sit back and I look at that. My natural mind doesn’t understand anything about that at all. That is a spiritual gift that is given by God to certain people for the building up of the body of Christ; a spiritual gift that naturally we could never do, nor understand. What I want to do today is talk to you very specifically about spiritual gifts and how they will apply in your life and make a difference in this world. So, let’s go ahead and start off with a working definition of spiritual gifts, and then we will look at Scripture. What is a spiritual gift? If you are taking notes, a spiritual gift is simply a supernatural ability given to all Christians to do God’s work on earth. It’s an ability given by God, to all of God’s people, to make a difference first, if you read Scripture, first in the church and then overflowing into the world. 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, we will start in verse 1 and then look at verses 4-6 to build a foundational understanding. Verse 1, the Bible says this; “Now about spiritual gifts,” Paul says, “Brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Yet, according to 1 study, 87% of Christians don’t know anything about their spiritual gifts. He says, “First off, I don’t want you to be ignorant.” And yet, almost 9 in 10 Christians, don’t know anything about their gifts. They are ignorant. Give you an example; my father knows that I hate poisonous snakes. There are all sorts of poisonous snakes around our house, and so, my father bought me a shot gun to blow the brains off of these satanic copperheads that torment our family. Because I don’t know a lot about guns; I can work my hand gun, and shot gun, I don’t know much about it. I put it in a very same place in my house, hid the bullets and have not yet touched this gun or used it. It was a gift from my father, with a purpose, to serve my family. Yet, this gift is hidden and unused; which is exactly what many of you are doing with the gifts that God has given you. Many of you, you don’t even know what they are, where they are, how they are supposed to function. Your Father has given you a gift that continues to be hidden and unused. “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant...” Verse 4, Paul continues and says; “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.” The same Holy Spirit gives these different kinds of gifts to believers. Verse 5 says, “There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” In verse 7, in the New Living Translation, it says this; “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” Notice that all Christians receive spiritual gifts. All spiritual gifts are useful. All of hell wants you to keep your gift hidden and unused, so that the gift your Father has given you is not useful to build up the body of Christ and minister to people in the world.What I want to do today is I want to expose you to a couple of lists of gifts in Scripture. But first, let’s talk about what Spiritual gifts are not, so we can better understand what they are. Now, 5 things that spiritual gifts are not, if you are taking notes: 1. Spiritual gifts are not natural talents. Natural talents are different from spiritual gifts. When you are born naturally, God gives you natural talents. You may be naturally gifted to sing, or to dance, or naturally good with numbers; these are natural talents. When you are spiritually born, you are given spiritual gifts. These are different than your natural talents. You not only can receive spiritual gifts when you are spiritually born, but God can continue to give you more spiritual gifts throughout your Christian walk. Your spiritual gifts can compliment your natural gifts; God can use all of them. But, there is a difference between natural talents and spiritual gifts.2. Spiritual gifts are not given to the ‘elite few’. God doesn’t say; “Okay, I am going to take this group of Christians that I really like, and give them powerful gifts, and you are going to be the more powerful Christians, and the rest of you, I don’t like you as much, so you go sit in the corner and you don’t get any gifts at all!” They are not given to the elite few; they are given to all Christians.3. Spiritual gifts are not signs of spiritual maturity. If you have a certain gift, it doesn’t mean you are more mature than someone who has a different gift. Sadly, in a lot of Christian cultures today, some people elevate certain gifts to say; “If you have this gift, you are spiritually mature, and if you don’t, you are kind of a lesser Christian.” Oddly enough, the gift of speaking in tongues in many church cultures, and among many Christians, is elevated to be the most important. “Are you Spirit-filled, with the evidence of speaking in tongues?” People in some church cultures who don’t speak in tongues, they feel like second-class Christians, when, in reality, the gift of speaking in tongues is called the least of the gifts of all. Yet, interestingly enough, this can be the most divisive in so many places. Spiritual gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity. 4. Spiritual gifts are also not the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are different from gifts of the Spirit. If you want to study fruits of the Spirit, go to , there are 9 of them; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. Sometimes, Christians will say, “Well, I just don’t have the gift of love; I don’t have the spiritual gift of patience.” No, those are not gifts, those are fruits. All believers should exhibit all the fruits of the Spirit, but all believers do not have all of the gifts of the Spirit; those are two different things. 5. Finally, if you are taking notes; spiritual gifts are not something to fear. They are not something that is odd and creepy; although, admittedly, sometimes Christians who believe in the spiritual gifts can be a little bit odd and creepy! I don’t want to be insulting; but, just because you see someone who does something you don’t understand, doesn’t mean the spiritual gifts are weird. The Bible says that we should desire the spiritual gifts. Just because you see someone, maybe with unusual preacher hair, or some church like where they are like, everybody is now going to be knocked out! Boom, boom, boom; they fall down! You say, “That seems weird!” Well you know, honestly, from my perspective, that is a bit different. I am not saying God couldn’t knock you down, I’m all into if God wants to knock you down, he can knock you down! But, just to say that everybody’s got to fall down, because that is the way we do it at this church, could be emotionalism, could be the power of suggestion and expectations and such, and doesn’t make it not real. But, sometimes you might go, “That seems a bit strange!” Yes, that is strange to me too! But, it doesn’t mean that the spiritual gifts are strange. These are gifts given by God, for the believer, to make a difference in this world. So, what I want to do is look at the 2 dominant portions in Scripture that talk about spiritual gifts. There are 4 different lists. We will look at the 2 dominant ones, and I will tell you what the others are later for your own purpose. What are some of the spiritual gifts? Romans, Chapter 12, verses 6-8, give us the first list of spiritual gifts. Here is what the Bible says, “In his grace, God has given us (believers) different gifts for doing certain things well.” And then he lists these 7 different gifts. He says this first of all, “If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.” What is the gift of prophecy? This is the ability to speak on the behalf of God. God has given me the spiritual gift of prophecy. In fact, some people would say that what I am doing right now is prophecy, it’s declaring on behalf of God. Others would say it would be more direct. Like the story about the young couple that gave birth to the son. Either way, it’s speaking boldly what God has put on your heart. Those unusual examples, like the couple; I can tell you in my 20 years of ministry, only about 10 examples that were that dramatic. But, I can also tell you that in all 10 cases, when I have spoken boldly, against the odds, every single time, God has proven himself to be true. Just another random story, with the gift of prophecy; I was talking to a guy that I have never met before, and he was unloading on me about how bad his wife was. “She’s just not sexually responsive, and she is controlling, and she’s this...” He was going on and on, and all of a sudden, I again had that burden inside. I just interrupted him, a guy I had never met and I said, “Actually, the problem is, you are addicted to pornography, and you are having an affair on your wife and you need to repent!” He just looked at me; he’s like “Ha?” And again, as soon as those words came out, I was having this oh crap moment! Like, what did I just say? What if I’m wrong? Where did that come from? He just looked at me, and he said, what did you say? I’m like; don’t make me say it again! Because I don’t want to! He just went as white as a ghost and all of a sudden he said, “I don’t know how you knew; oh my gosh!” He just fell to his knees right there and we prayed that he would repent before God and make things right with his wife. I don’t know how I knew that. That does not happen to me very often, but when it does it is a gift from God. It is the gift of prophecy. Let’s look at a second one. What I want you to understand is that this second gift is just as spiritual as the gift of prophecy. The Bible goes on to say in verse 7, “If your gift is serving others, serve them well.” Some of you, you have the spiritual gift of serving. The idea of doing something for someone else, especially when they don’t know about it, that is like the thrill of your life? Why is that? Because God has given you the gift of serving. There are some couples that will make dinners for me and other pastors. Almost every week, pastors come in from around the country, and occasionally, after preaching on Saturday, I will stay and have dinner. I have got to tell you, they blow it out! I mean, they bring the fanciest food I have ever seen! So, one time I just said, “You don’t have to get all into that! I’m not that fancy, you know, you can be simple!” One of the ladies looked back and she just looked devastated! She was like, “Oh no, this is my gift, I love this, I live for this!” I’m like, “Baby, bring it! Bring the cream, bring the potatoes!” Because this is a gift that God has given to these people and they live to serve. This is a spiritual gift. Some of you have the gift of serving.The Bible goes on to say, “If you are a teacher, teach well.” Some of you, you have the gift of teaching God’s Word. You can’t read anything, you know, you read something your like, “I’ve got to tell somebody!” Your like, “Oh my gosh, here’s the Greek word!” You know, you are getting all into this stuff, and you are to use that gift to teach God’s Word in the church. If you read on, the Bible says, “If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.” God has given some of you the spiritual gift of encouraging. Unleash that thing, man, let it fly! Any time you see anything that someone is doing well, be a blessing to them. Write the email, text, send a note, compliment them, encourage. I am doing what I am doing today, because of 2 people who encouraged me to follow the gift and dream that God had put in my heart. This is an important spiritual gift, the gift of encouragement.The next gift; says, “If your gift is giving, give generously.” My wife, Amy, she has the spiritual gift of giving. Every year, for her birthday, she has got this budget, this big honken giving budget; she can give anywhere she wants. Every year for her birthday I say, “What do you want for your birthday?” She says, “Raise my giving budget!” I’m “No, what do you want for you?” “That’s what I want for me! Give me more money to give!” So, her gift is giving. My job is to fund her expensive gift, okay? The Bible goes on to say, “If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. Many of you, you have the gift to lead and you are not leading anything in the church. Your gun is hidden, and continues to go unused.
The Bible goes on to say, “If you have the gift to show kindness, do it gladly.” This is the gift of mercy, or showing kindness. This is a gift that God has given you to minister to other people. How do you know which gift you have? Well, there are a lot of ways; we will talk about more in a moment. But, first I want to give you my favorite, kind of fun way of knowing which of these gifts you have. Some people call it the ‘apple-pie demonstration’. Imagine you are at a table, with a bunch of people, and there is someone about to eat an apple pie, and their apple pie is on the edge of the table, about to fall off. You see they are vulnerable, and yet, they put their fork in their apple pie, and it flops into their lap! What do you do? What you do next helps to determine possibly what your gift is. How many of you would say, “I have almost told you that was about to happen, you idiot, you shouldn’t of done that, I saw it coming!” How many of you do that? Point at those who do that, that’s even better! You have the gift of prophecy. How many of you, on the other hand, would say, “Oh man, let me help you clean that up, here is a napkin, let me wipe you up! Here, let’s get you taken care of!” How many of you are like that? You have the gift of serving and this is a spiritual gift. Some of you might say, “Oh, I’ve researched this, and really, there is a better way to eat an apple pie! Step 1 is; you do this!” Point to those people who have the gift of teaching right now! Some of you would go, “Oh that’s so oh, I feel for you! You know that happened to me 1 time, don’t worry about it; its okay! Watch this!” You throw it on yourself to make them feel better! If that’s you, you have the gift of encouragement. If you would say, “Oh here, take mine; in fact, bring apple pies for everybody and put whip cream on it!” How many of you would be doing that? You have the gift of giving. Those of you who would say, “We can get this thing cleaned up in no time; you go get this, and you go get this, and I’ve got a vision to make this better!” You have the gift of leadership.Those of you who would say, “My heart sinks, when it was falling in your lap, I was hurting for you and with you, and I am just so devastated you are going through this right now!” I can barely even do this, because I have no mercy at all! I’m like, “You idiot, I saw it coming!” If you are like that, you have the spiritual gift of mercy, or showing kindness. These are gifts that God has given you to be used in the church to minister to other believers and to be used in the world. Quite honestly, many of you don’t even know for sure what your gift is; or you do and your gift is hidden and going unused, spiritual gifts. Let’s look at another list of spiritual gifts. These are found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, starting in verse 7. Here is what the Bible says, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.” Some of you, people come to you often, because you give great advice. It’s like, you are tapped into this different level of knowledge or wisdom and this is a gift that God has given you and you should use it often. You should be leading Life Groups, you should be mentoring, you should be available, you should be using this at work to help people whose marriages are falling apart; this is a gift that God has given you.The Bible goes on to say in verse 9: “The same Spirit gives great faith to another, not to everybody, but to some, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing; the gift of faith and the gift of healing. I don’t have either one of these; I honestly don’t have great faith. My wife, though, she does. Whenever we hit an obstacle, I’m like, “Well, there’s an obstacle, we have got to figure something else out!” She’s like, “No, we will pray and God will remove it! We will talk to that mountain, and cast it into the sea!” I’m like, “That’s too much work, I will just figure out another way!” But, she has great faith and God will often do stuff. Also, some of have the gift of healing; again, I don’t. If you are very sick and I come and pray for you, there is a 9 in 10 chance you are going to die very, very soon! I mean, you don’t want me praying for you when you are sick; I have the worst track record ever! But, there are some who have faith for healing, that, when people are sick, they really pray. My mom had a stroke and I called this guy, who, when he prays, God answers him. My mom’s eye sight was bad and the doctor said it will never get better, no way, Jose! I called this guy, he prayed. Now, the doctors gave her release to drive. I’m like, thank you for praying, because I could have caused her to go blind with the faith that I have! You know, it is a gift. When you look around the world, especially outside of our country, you see the gift of healing working so much more. My guess, is because, in many parts of the world, they don’t have doctors to go to and they have to depend on God. Also, because there is not so much unbelief, and I believe there is even more faith. You see supernatural healing going on all over the world today; it is a gift from God.Verse 10 says that the Holy Spirit, he gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God, or from another Spirit. Some of you can just go, “I know there is something not right here, how will I know it’s a gift?” It’s a gift of discernment. He goes on to say, “Still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, (this is speaking in tongues) while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said”; tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Are these gifts for today? Are these real gifts, speaking in tongues? Is this what it means to be filled with the Spirit? Next week, we will tackle all of these subjects, and talk about what it means to live a Spirit-filled life.Verse 11, the Bible says, “It is the one and only Spirit, (the Holy Spirit; the ruwach, the pneuma, the paraklete); the Holy Spirit, who distributes all of these gifts. He alone decides what gift each person should have.” How do you discover your gifts? Le me just give you 5 quick thoughts.1. Study what the Bible says about the gifts. Look at it, study it. , , (talks about the 5-fold gifts of the ministry), and ; read those chapters and study them. 2. Ask God to show you your gifts. “God, what gifts have you given me?” Watch as he does, and when he starts to do it, ask him; “Where do you want me to use these gifts? How do you want me to use these to make a difference?”3. Examine what you enjoy and do well. If you’re gifted, you are going to enjoy using your gifts; you are going to do them well. If you say, “I never want to help anybody; I hate being called upon to help!” You probably don’t have the gift of serving. Okay? You don’t enjoy it, you don’t do it well. Ask yourself, what do you enjoy and what do you do well.4. You can take a spiritual gifts test. This isn’t going to be full-proof, but there are tests on-line; in fact, we have listed one in your Talk Notes. Also, if you are on YouVersion, there is one you can click on, and you can go on-line and take a test and that could be helpful. 5. Most importantly; do what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. Whenever you feel like God is calling to do something, have the faith to do it. Just like whenever I feel like God has given me a burden to speak on his behalf; the more I do that, and the more he proves himself faithful, the more confidence I have that this is a gift from God. I don’t own it, it doesn’t make me any better, but it is a gift he has given me, and as I acknowledge the gift, it gives me more confidence to step out in these gifts, and to use them to make a difference in this world. Imagine this for a moment. I have 6 kids, okay? Imagine, I love my kids so much, and I am going to select very specific gifts to give each child; Katie, Mandy, Anna, Sam, Steven, and Joy. And I think, okay, Katie is my oldest and I believe if I give her this gift, it can make the most difference in our family and the world. Mandy, here is my specially chosen gift just for her. Anna, this is what I want to give to her, because God is going to use this to make a difference. Imagine as a father, if I give these gifts to my children, and they simply put them aside and ignore them. They don’t think about it, they don’t use them and they ignore the gift that either I, their father have given them to make a difference in this world. That is exactly what Christians around the world are doing. God has given you gifts, and there are many of you, you haven’t used your gifts in the church ever, ever! The church is incomplete without your gift. The Christian church, God has given you a gift to use in the church and to use in the world. So many of you, you’ve got the gun on the shelf, and it continues to be unloaded. Here’s what Scripture says, we will close out with this. First Peter, Chapter 4:10-11; “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.” I could go on to say, whatever your other gift, if it’s serving, if it’s prophecy, if it’s giving, if it’s encouraging, if it’s mercy; whatever it is, do everything you do, whatever you do, use it passionately. The Bible says, “Then everything that you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.” Do not insult the giver of the gift, by leaving the gift undiscovered and unused. God has given all of you who are believers, spiritual gifts, to make a difference in his church, and throughout the world.God, I ask and I pray that you would reveal to us the gifts you have given us. God, that you would give us the courage to use those gifts to make a difference, first in the church God, and then in the world.Praying today, in all of our locations. Those of you who are Christians, I just want to ask a couple of quick questions. First of all, how many of you are Christians and you would say, “I really probably don’t know what my gifts are.” Would you raise your hands right now, be bold; raise them up; okay, just a ton of you! How many of you would say, “I have some idea what my gifts are, but I am not using those gifts in the church.” Would you raise your hands up? A bunch of you! Father, I pray, right now, God I pray for those that don’t know their gifts. I ask God, that you, through Scripture, and by your Spirit, and even through experience, that you would show us all the gifts you have given us. God, I pray that we would talk it over this week in our Life Group, and in our families. That you would give us a burden to know, what are the gifts that you have given us, God? I pray that you would give us eyes to see, and a heart to understand the gifts that you have given us. Then, God I pray, that as we start to discover these gifts, you would give us a burden to use them, first, in the church. You have given us, God, these gifts to be used in the body of Christ. They are important, God, we acknowledge that and we acknowledge that our spiritual enemy wants to talk us out of using the gifts that you have given us. God I pray that you would give us a burden to use what you have given us, to minister to other believers in the church, and make a difference in the world. God, open up doors, give us eyes to see where our gifts are needed. God, I pray that all believers would be engaged. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would continue just to pursue people who neglect their gifts and continue not to use their gifts in the church for which your Son gave his life. God, use us to make a difference in this world. As you keep praying today, some of you right now are going to go man, I love that; but, man I don’t know where I stand with God. I am going to talk to you for just a moment about the first and the most important gift that God gives. I will just quote Scripture to you; it’s in your notes. I call it the ultimate gift. tells us this; the Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death....” What does that mean? That means, because we have sinned against a Holy God, our pay day is death, spiritual death; we deserve death. We deserve, because of our sinfulness, eternal separation from a Holy God. That is what we deserve. The next part of the verse, though; it’s one of the most amazing verses in all of Scripture, it says this, “Though we deserve death,” the Bible says, “But the gift of God...” (The gift from God) “...is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The most important gift that God wants to give you above any spiritual gift is the gift of eternal life. It is the gift that you could ever, ever earn; nor ever deserve. Scripture says in Ephesians that we cannot work for it, we are never good enough, that we can not be made right with God by our works, but only by grace. says, “It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There are those of you today, you may say, “Well I desire all of these different gifts;” but, you recognize that “I’m really not sure where I stand with God.” Today, you call out on the name of Jesus. Today, you call on him and when you do, he will forgive you of your sins and he will make you brand new. You may say, “But, I don’t feel ready, I am not worthy.” Exactly, you can never work your way on being ready, and you can never be worthy, that is why it is a gift. That is why it’s the most unbelievable gift that God sent his Son, Jesus, to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves; to die on a cross, and to be raised again, so that we can know God personally.At all of our campuses, there are those of you, you recognize, this is you. The reason you do is because the Holy Spirit is drawing you today. Today, step across the line of faith and say, “Yes, Jesus, I surrender my life to you, I want to know God through you, I want to be filled with the Spirit and I want to make a difference in this world. Give me the gift that I do not deserve, the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus, the Lord. If that is you today, would you lift your hands high right now, at all of the campuses, just lift your hands and say, “That’s me, I want to surrender to him.” Lift up your hands and say, “Yes!” Right back over here and others of you back here. Church on-line, if you would, just click right below me right now. Right back over here, God bless you guys. Church on-line, just right below me, just click right below me, click. Right there, right back over here, in this middle section; others of you today who would say, “Yes, I want to receive that free gift! I want to surrender my life fully unto him!” At all of our campuses, there are those of you lifting up your hands right now. Right back over here, in this section as well; God bless you guys! Would you all pray? Together, just join your hearts in prayer, pray this together aloud; “Heavenly Father, I am a sinner and I need a Savior. Jesus, save me, forgive me, make me brand new. I believe you died for me and you rose again so I could live for you. Holy Spirit fill me; give me gifts that can be used in the church and in the world. My life is not my own, I give it to you. Thank you for new life, now you have mine; in Jesus name I pray. All of our campuses just take a moment and just celebrate who God is and what God has done!