Good morning. What’s going on? We did a Vacation Bible School, and we have a video to share.

They send me stuff nonstop, and sometimes I just get busy and don’t share it. So, I wanted to take a quick look at this. This is in Compuertas.

It’s the second church we planted. The city lent us a place to celebrate, so we had some shade.

Around 80 or 90 kids showed up. What I’m really excited about is that, normally, we support this financially, right? But this time, there was no need. They raised funds by selling some stuff. Usually, we send crayons and other supplies, but the church is growing. This particular pastor went to the School of Ministry at our school in Boca del Río. He and his wife were the least likely to pastor a church. I remember him always being a problem. But little by little, he became the obvious choice, the one God was using to raise up as the pastor of the church. It’s been really good.

Yeah, I just wanted to show you—well, you can cut that. So, they did a Vacation Bible School. We have another one coming up this weekend.

Actually, not this weekend, but the last weekend of this month, is the School of Ministry graduation. We’ve definitely got some students graduating who have been there for two years. They’re either going to stay working with us or return to Guadalajara.

You can cut that if you want. Oh, I’ll let it go then. Dude, you do not understand the sacrifice that takes because it’s so hot right now, right? I’m talking, “you should die and go home” hot, that kind of hot.

Everywhere I traveled after working there—like when we went to Sudan and it was some crazy temperature—we were all sitting around, and they were like, “Aren’t you hot?” I’m like, “No, is this hot?” They were like, “Oh, it’s so hot.”

They also asked, “Are the mosquitoes bothering you?” I replied, “You mean the three mosquitoes? No, they’re not bothering me; I killed them all.” They said, “Oh, where I’m at, there’s a dark cloud of mosquitoes chasing you like in a cartoon.”

So, Boca del Río trained me for missions. We’re going down for the graduation. A few other people are going too.

If you have a crazy idea, like wanting to go fight mosquitoes and deal with the heat for a two or three-day trip, we’re going down, eating a lot of seafood, and having a celebration. We also have a trip planned for December if you’re smart and want to go when it’s nice and beautiful, not hot, and feels like a vacation—you can come on that trip too. We’re going to continue.

We’re going through Acts, but we keep hitting this thing where it talks about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and being born again. If you haven’t caught it, there’s a recording; you can see it on Facebook. But this is our second, or maybe third, time now looking at how the Holy Spirit’s working.

I’m struggling with whether I’m reading this or not. I think I’m not. So, we’re going to go back there, and we’re just going to start.

We did this already last week. We’re going to start in 1 John, and I know the person who’s writing the verses isn’t in 1 John—or not 1 John—John chapter 3, verse 3. So, we’re going to start in John chapter 3, verse 3 to 7. Let’s pray.

Father, we’re coming into this subject that’s so important, and we’re just trying to go slow and really understand it. We pray that Your Spirit would, as You said in Genesis, hover over Your people, that You would guide us, that You would open up our minds, that You’d take the truth of Your word and cause it to come to life in our hearts. And lead me, Lord. You know it’s easier for me to go through a chapter than do this. So, I pray that Your Spirit would lead us in a powerful way, in Jesus’ name.

One of the things that I’m going through as I watch what’s happening in Israel, in Iran, in Russia—and if you’ve done any studies on end times, you start going, well, maybe mid-trib is okay.

Because I keep looking and thinking the end of the world might be near or coming quickly. I definitely think pre-trib is the answer, but I’ve read about all of them, and I just look at the current setup, or circumstances, of what’s going on in the world stage, and I would say, man, it’s an important time to ask the question, what’s my life about? Why am I here? What’s the course or direction of my life? And what does God want for me in a time like this? Because I think we’re living in a special time. I’ve been in and out of the States most of my life, but this is different, right? Whatever we’re living through right now is different.

And to be prepared for opportunity—not waiting until you’re in the middle of it to ask, what should we do? But for you personally to be saying, is the Word of God, is discipleship, is the call to reach the world for Jesus the central core of your life? And then build everything else around that. And for a lot of us here, maybe that hasn’t been the way you’ve done it, but I’ll tell you, it’s worthwhile thinking through—how do I shift this call to make disciples, this call to affect the world? That’s what the verse I skipped says, which I’m going to just quote verbally. It says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” If you go back before that, it talks about, don’t worry about this, don’t worry about that, because that’s what all the worldly people are seeking.

You just be busy about your Father’s business, and He’s going to take care of the rest of that. And I’m going to tell you, living here—so if you’ve lived here all your life, when I sit down there and I think about living here, I think that’s the craziest verse in the history of the planet. You’re saying that if I would just seek God, He’d take care of the rest. If that’s true, show me where I sign. And I can tell you the weirdest thing is that I’ve lived that for 30 years, and it’s true. I didn’t get what I wanted all the time, but God’s been incredible.

And no matter where you’re at in life, shifting your life so that serving God and being a light—because here’s the problem, man. Pretty soon, it’s all going to go away. Either you’re going to get to 94 and die, and it goes away, or you’re going to have a heart attack at 52 and die, and it’s all going to go away, or there’s going to be a nuclear war, and it’s all going to go away.

What—are you storing up treasure in heaven? Are you living as though this world is temporary, and the world we study about on Sunday lasts forever? Are we taking the call of the Word? And see, now, if I taught this eight years ago, they’d have kicked me out, told me to go back to Mexico, but I think we’re getting to a weird time where—what I like is, the more difficult life becomes, the more powerfully true the Word is. And that’s what I love about being a missionary. When you’re living in a place with mud huts and animals, this thing rings so true. When I come here, it’s harder. It’s harder not to get blurry and not understand.

And so, the things we’re talking about today are really for you and me, but then there’s the question: How’s my mom, my cousin, my brother, my neighbor, the person sitting next to me? And what are we looking at? We’re looking at what it means to be saved, which is a pretty big deal, because here’s the problem: We know that there’s going to be a lot of people who said, “Hey, Lord, I did this for You, and I did that for You, and I did that for You. I prophesied for You.” And He’s going to say, “Get away from me, for I never knew you. Depart from me because I didn’t know you.” And that scares me as a pastor. I, early on, was reading C.H. Spurgeon’s book, Lectures to My Students—one of my favorite books—and he tells a story. It’s just a story, not real. I don’t think it’s even a prayer, but it’s just a story. He talks about the pastor who dies and goes to heaven. When he gets there, he walks up, and he’s with Peter—so it’s a story—and Peter’s looking through the book.

He’s like, “Yeah, Thomas Quirk, I pastored the big church there, Rancho Santa Margarita.” And Peter’s like, “I cannot find you.” He’s like, “How do you spell it? No, you’re not here. Oh, oh, it’s written real small. Yep, you get the hammock over there under the tree. That’s yours, that’s the mansion, buddy.” He’s like, “No, you must have the wrong Tom Quirk up in there. I’m a pastor, I ran a church, I gave my life.” He said, “What church again? Oh, Rancho Santa Margarita.” He’s like, “Oh, no, no, see? You see the big mansion over there? That’s Brother Johnson’s house. You probably don’t remember him. He was blind and deaf, but he sat at the staircase of your church, and he prayed for every person that walked in and out of your church for 20 years. That’s why your church grew. That’s why you got blessed. That’s why things happened. But you were doing everything for yourself, not for the people. So that’s your hammock, but if you want to see him, you might be able to get a room over there. Joe might give you a room.”

And I began to think about the motive of my heart. Why do I live the way I live? Why do I choose the things I choose? Why do I do the things that I do? Is it honestly to glorify God and to build you up, or is Tom in the middle of it? Are my needs and my wants the center of my life? And so I really want to look at some of this. We’re going to read this quote. I’m going to read it real quick, because the time’s going to go by fast. We’re in John chapter 3, verses 3 through 7. We covered this, so I’m going to go through it quickly.

Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” That word kingdom is so important to me. He’s talking about heaven, right? But it’s a contraction of “the dominion of the king.” So you take kingdom—that’s what it is. It’s like a contraction, right? And so you have to be born again to be submitted to the reign and the authority and the power of the king. And you don’t get into the kingdom because it’s a perfect, righteous, holy kingdom. One thing that will not be in the kingdom of God is rebellion. There will be no rebellion that stays inside the kingdom.

And He’s saying this: If you want to see the kingdom, if you want to walk with God, if you expect to live with God, you’ve got to surrender your life to the dominion or the authority or the reign of the king. And I like that because it lets me look at my life. And there’s—I don’t know about you—but there are some areas of my life that are 100% surrendered to the king. There are others where I’m struggling with surrendering to the king. And then I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of my life that isn’t surrendered at all. And that’s okay. That doesn’t make you unsaved. It just makes you in the process of growing in maturity and the process of surrendering your life. And my call is that Christianity is about continuous growth and continuous change. Are you more surrendered to the kingdom than you were last month, than you were last year? Are you growing in surrender to His will and His direction and His purpose for your life? And what is the purpose? That’s the problem I have as I talk with other believers. What’s the central purpose of Christ for you? And man, ask that question to people you know, and you’ll get a wild array of answers, most of which have nothing to do with the call of God.

But the call of God is that you and I have an impact on the people around us. That’s the call. It’s so funny. To be impacted, to be discipled, to mature in Christ, and to have an impact and to make disciples and to affect other people’s lives. And how am I doing? You’ve got to—I can’t answer that for you—but you’ve got to ask that question. How am I doing? Am I being effective? Is my life changing week by week, month by month? Am I having an effect? Do I have an effect on someone—anyone? Is their life changing because I meet with them, because I pray with them, because I read with them, because I encourage them, because I instruct them, because I say, “Hey, hold on, I don’t think that’s the right way”? Not because I think, but let’s go back to the Bible. Am I making a difference, right?

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of the water and of the Spirit”—we think that’s probably committing your life to Christ and then the Spirit of God coming into your life—“he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” That which has been born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again.

Jumping to our next verse in 1 Peter 1:23. He says, “For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but seed that is imperishable.” What’s he talking about? So Jesus is the seed. If we go back to the parable of the sower, which is the outline that controls how we interpret other parables, we know that the sower went out to sow, and he sowed seed. And what was the seed? The seed was the word of God, or the living word of God, or Jesus Himself, right? And so what he’s saying is that you’ve been born again. If you’re alive in Christ, it’s because somebody sowed the seed of the word, which is Jesus, into your life. And you responded. It takes a couple of things going on there. You’ve got to have the word, you’ve got to sow the word, you’ve got to—you know, the parable of the sower says that the field is the world, but the soils are the hearts of men. So your job is to take the truth of Jesus and throw it at—or throw it to—or seed it into, plant it in—the hearts of other people. And then how they reject it, or don’t reject it, or obey, or don’t obey, or fall in love with it, or don’t fall in love, that’s up to them, right?

But it’s not—we have this crazy thing in America, that somebody said it, and then it became popular because it’s easy. They said, “Man, preach the gospel always, and when it’s absolutely necessary, use words.” That’s craziness, right? Because you’ve got to use words. Because it’s the word that is the seed, right? What they were trying to say is, live what you’re teaching. Amen to that. As best I can, I need to live what I’m teaching. As best I can, I need to have an impact and a change in my life before I try to help you have an impact and change in your life. But the job is to sow the seed, right? The job is to spread the word, right? He said, “For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living, enduring word of God.” That’s how you got born again. The seed comes into your heart, your mind, your intellect, your free will, your soul. You thought about it, you meditated on it, and you made a decision. And as you decided, the Spirit of God came in, connected with the word of God, and it sprang to life. It germinated. The person of Jesus was born inside of you. Because the word is Christ, right? So someone shares Jesus with you, Jesus falls inside your heart, He speaks to you, He says something to you, you think about it, you either accept it or reject it. If you accept it, the Spirit of God comes in you, and boom, you become alive in Christ. You become born again. The Spirit of God and the word of God come together, and a new creature is created in you—Jesus now living in your soul. I love this word: “through the living and enduring word of God.” As long as you keep believing, as long as you keep desiring, that word endures in you, that word grows and multiplies and strengthens. And little by little, if you’re willing to continue to surrender, it comes to your life. You start to live for Jesus until, in maturity, you can say, along with Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God.” That’s the goal.

There would be less and less of Tom and more and more of Jesus. That my mind would be transformed until I had the mind of Jesus, the mind of Christ. My body and my life would be sacrificially given over. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your whole body a living sacrifice acceptable unto God, which is your everyday reasonable service of worship unto God.” God is calling us to give everything to Him. God is calling us to live completely for Him in every area and aspect of our life—in your marriage, as a parent, in your workplace, in your entertainment, at home—where everything that you do, God is saying, “Come unto me. Live unto me. Let me live through you. Let me guide you. Let me prosper you. Let me cause you to come to the river of living water. Let me help you flow and become a fountain.” Jesus said, “If I would be born again, a fountain of living water would burst out of my innermost parts, and it would give life to those around me.”

The beautiful thing is, all you’ve got to do is surrender and say, “Yes, that’s what I want,” and God will walk you through. The next verse is Romans 8:9. It’s important because Romans is really a difficult book for the Western world. It’s a long book. It’s a legal concept or a legal document. And so, Paul goes on. So it’s good to at least have it pictured, right? We would say the title of Romans would be “Salvation Explained.” And then that would be broken up into four small sections.

Chapters 1 through 5—they’re not that small, but chapters 1 through 5—is “All Men Are Guilty.” Really, in chapters 4 and 5, it starts to shift, but the whole point of chapters 1 through 3, and the beginning and end of chapter 4, is “all men are guilty.” The Jews are guilty, the Gentiles are guilty, the men are guilty, the women are guilty, the rich are guilty, the poor are guilty. Everybody’s guilty. He just spends chapter after chapter after chapter making sure that you know you’re guilty, you’re a sinner, God’s righteous, and without a Savior, condemnation is sure. That’s the beginning of the gospel. If you don’t know that, you can’t even go on to the next step of the gospel. Once you recognize that you’re not in a great spot and you need a Savior, then the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5—but really in chapter 6—it starts to see, so chapters 6 through 8 is really the grace of God, the powerhouse of salvation, how grace works. Grace works in chapter 6, where you have to die with Christ in water baptism. That’s how grace works. If you don’t die, the act of living salvation grace—because there are different types of grace, because obviously, there’s grace because the rain falls on the evil and the just—but the salvation part of grace doesn’t happen until you die with Christ, until you surrender to God, until you say, “I don’t want to live anymore; I want you to live in me, and I want you to live through me. I’m done with me, and I want you, chapter 6.” And it builds all the way through. And in chapters 7 and 8, we see this call that you’ve got to keep growing, you’ve got to keep going. It’s about sanctification, it’s about becoming more holy, it’s about pushing into the holiness of Christ and walking with Him until the day you die, becoming more and more and more grown up in Jesus. And in that, we’re going to jump into chapter 8, verse 9, right about the middle of the end of the grace section of Romans.

Just to wrap up Romans, chapters 9 through 11, God’s plan for the Jews. You can read chapter 9, verse 1, and it sets it up that He shifts His whole direction and starts talking about Israel. Chapter 11, He wraps it up, and chapters 12 through the end of the book, 16, is how to live a life of worship, and chapter 12, verse 1, is the hinge of the whole book where it says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you live your whole—excuse me—I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your whole body, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service of worship.” That’s the response we’re supposed to have based on the grace that we’ve found in chapters 5 through 8—excuse me—chapters 6 through 8.

So now we’re back looking quickly at Romans 8:9-11. “However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” So he’s talking about a believer, someone who’s saved. You’re not supposed to be walking in the flesh. You’re not supposed to be living in the flesh. You’re not supposed to be just flesh. You’re supposed to now have the Spirit of God in you that came to life because the word of God and the Spirit of God met, and Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, is in you—the life of Jesus is in you. That’s the new person, the new man, that’s in you, right? “However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” So he’s saying, if the Spirit of God’s not living in you, you’re not born again. If the Spirit of God’s not living in you, you’re not saved. If the Spirit of God’s not living in you and you die, you’re condemned. But if you’ve got the Spirit of God in you, my goodness, what a glory, what a blessing, what an amazing truth that the Spirit of God would dwell in me. That didn’t happen anywhere in the Old Testament. That’s why the Bible says that John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, but every one of you—any one of you—that’s born again is greater than John the Baptist because the Spirit of the living God is in you. It’s leading you, it’s encouraging you, it’s strengthening you, it’s empowering you. Now here’s the problem—you have to surrender to it. You have to want it, you have to give it space to grow. It won’t force its way into your life, but it’s there, ready. God in you, the hope of glory, is ready. God in you, the power to overcome the world, is ready, but you have to believe and step into it and say, “Yes.” “However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Here’s what he’s saying: If the Spirit of God is in you, your flesh is dead because Adam sinned, and that sin passed to all men, and therefore you’re going to die. But the Spirit of God’s in you because of His obedience, because of His righteousness, because of His holiness, and that’s going to live forever. And He’s even going to resurrect your body, and it will live forever because by His blood you’ve been saved. “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal body through His Spirit who dwells in you.” He’s talking about your resurrection. He’s talking about the fact that even though your body’s dead because of sin, if the Spirit of God is in you, you’re alive in Christ. And if you’re alive in Christ, the Spirit of God is going to resurrect your body from the dead, and you’re going to live in a new body. As you get older, you start to realize why that’s important. I want a new body, right?

Jumping now to 1 Corinthians 3. We’re looking at salvation, being born again, what that is. 1 Corinthians 3. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” So there’s this crazy thing—I mean, we say that so lightly, so easily. But there’s this crazy thing that no longer do I have to go look into Jerusalem, or go look into Mecca, or go look into some other city where there’s a temple, where God is there, and if I go there, I can talk to God, and I can hear from God, and I can walk with God, and I can work with God. You know where I’m supposed to go to hear from God? I’m supposed to go to you. Just like people used to travel across the nations to get to Israel, to find Jerusalem, to find the temple, to seek the presence of God, they’re supposed to find that presence in you. They’re supposed to travel to find wisdom from you, the truth from you, the power to save from you, the power to be healed through you because you have become the temple of the living God.

So, man, are we responding to that? Do you want that? That’s the greatest calling in your life. That’s the purpose of being alive—that others could come and find Christ in and through you. That others could come and hear the truth of the gospel through you. That others could receive the touch of the Spirit, the healing, the empowerment through you. The same things that used to happen because you traveled across the world to Israel, and then found Jerusalem, and then found the temple, and then got access in—that’s what they’re supposed to find in you.

Jump with me to Ephesians 1, starting in verse 13. “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed.” I really like that because he’s saying I need to hear the truth. I need to hear the gospel, but I also have to respond to the gospel. I have to believe. That root word of believe is so important. It means to love something—a truth—so much that I’m willing to live what I love. There’s that kind of belief that we call academic belief or head knowledge or mental assent. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s about saying something is true enough, I believe it enough, that I love it enough that it’s part of what I want to live and do, and I respond in action.

He says, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed—you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” So it’s important. There’s this idea that when the Spirit of God comes into you, there’s a word there that means “earnest money,” but it’s the kind of earnest money where you put a deposit on a home, but now if you don’t go forward and buy the home, you lose the deposit. But God puts His own Spirit in you as a deposit. He can’t give that up. He’s got to pay the rest of the price, right? He’s coming back to finish the payment and take you away, right? “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed—you were sealed in Him, in Christ, with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance.” There’s something in you—the Spirit of God in you—that should give you a new light, a new ideology, a new way of thinking, wisdom beyond your norm, understanding, a tug towards truth and towards calling and towards purpose. And soon, we’re going to find ourselves in Heaven with the rest of the payments and the fullness of the inheritance and the fullness of our purpose. But you have a purpose here. The down payment—the earnest money—was paid. It’s in you. It’s Christ in you. Alive in you. A new creature in Christ. And that purpose—the purpose of that new life in you, Jesus in me—that’s what you have to figure out. That’s what you have to see. As we walk through Acts, I just wanted to stop and say, man, if you’re born again, you have the Spirit of God in you. And you need to figure out what He wants to do. You need to surrender your life and let His life live through you. You need to figure out His purpose to change you. His purpose to change those around you. His purpose to prepare you for the things that are coming.

“Who is the first installment of our inheritance in regard to the redemption,” which is that taking back of the people of God, taking back the earth, redeeming it, making it valuable again. Isn’t that interesting that—for me, that wasn’t hard—but I find people struggle with it—that prior to Christ, prior to new birth, prior to being born again, your life was not useful or valuable to God. It was valuable enough that He would pay a price to try to rescue you. But without the rescue, you were an alien to the things of the truth. Without knowledge of God. Not useful to good and kingdom things. And as He saves you, as you say yes to the gospel, and His Spirit comes into you, then you become God’s own possession. And He redeems you. The root word is deem, which is to value. He revalues you. It’s like you were pawned by selling your life into the things of Satan through Adam. You were in slavery and bondage. Not useful as a son. Not useful as a daughter. Not useful to the king. But He paid the price of the blood of Jesus to pull you out of slavery. And bondage. And set you back up as a son or a daughter. Privileged and honored and loved. Washed away the dirt and the filth. Cleansed you of all your sin and transgression. He said, “Listen, now you’re back. Now you’re valuable. Now you’re the beloved of Christ. Now you’re the family of God. Now there’s a purpose for your life. Now there’s a mission to accomplish.”

How will we respond? “In regard to the redemption,” we’ve become God’s own possession. In the life that we live now, we should live to the praise and the glory of the One who died for me. I should be worried about pleasing the God who died for me. I should be worried about accomplishing the business—being about my Father’s business. I should be worried about the gospel. I should be worried about making disciples. Now, I have to have a life. That’s where we live. But the question is, do I have a life, and I add Jesus to the life? Or do I have Jesus, and I add life to Jesus? That’s the question. What’s your purpose? What’s central in your life? What is the main core reason to be alive?

Now we’re going to jump to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In 15 minutes, we probably won’t get through it yet. Luke 24:44. So what were we trying to talk about so far? The Spirit of God walks with people and convinces them, or convicts them, of the fact that they’re sinners. That He’s a righteous judge, and that there’s eternal judgment. And that should bring me to the place where I say, “Wow, that means I’m going to hell. I’m condemned.” Then I should come to the truth, and I should hear the gospel message, the good news, right? And when I hear the truth, if I believe the truth, the Spirit of God, the Word of God goes in my heart. If I believe that word, the Spirit of God goes in my heart and joins with the Word of God, and it comes alive in Christ in me—a new creature, born again, a son or daughter of the living God. But yet, so when did that happen, right? So that was a confusing thing for me because there are other different ways of looking at this, right? So—and I’m one of those weird guys that, just because Calvary told me this is the way it is, if they told me for sure that they were right, that means I studied all the other choices for myself. Because I’ve been through too many religions in my life following people. I was a Catholic, then I was a Muslim, then I was a drug dealer. In all those cases, I was just following crazy people. And so I did not want that. So when they told me it’s absolutely this way, I said, “No, I don’t believe that. Let me go look at the Bible.” And I looked at all the other ways. And if they were right at the end of the day, I was like, “Oh, I guess you’re right.” But I wanted to come to the conclusion that I had studied it and I knew why I believe what I believe.

And so this whole conversation about the gifts of the Spirit and the baptism—so one of the big questions that brought to me is when were the disciples saved? When were they saved? When were they born again? That was confusing to me. No one could be born again until Jesus died and rose from the dead. That was key. John 20, right around verse 16 and on to verse 20, there Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” That’s when the apostles were first born again. The Spirit of God went into them. They were born again. Some days later, they hit the Pentecost thing. And the third different way that the Holy Spirit wants to work with the body of Christ—and it’s locked in by the word in NASB, “upon,” or in Greek, the word is epi. It means to come over someone in like a flood. It’s to be baptized, right? The idea of putting somebody underneath the water, and the water’s completely epi, or completely over them or upon them, and then they come out. So when we see in NASB, “upon,” it’s translating that word epi in Greek, and it’s used over and over and over for that same purpose, right? And so we’re looking—we’re moving into that, and he says in Luke 24, verse 44—God said to go slow. I don’t feel like I’m going slow. I’m going to go slower. “Now He said to them, ‘These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Of course, this is the road to Emmaus, right? Jesus walking with people who walked with Him for three years, that served with Him for three years, that did miracles with Him for three years, but when the difficult things came, they couldn’t understand and didn’t fully believe. I love that, because when things go bad and I don’t believe, I don’t feel so bad. If these crazy guys could walk with Jesus for three years and still struggle, God’s not mad at me when I struggle.

I see how Jesus interacted with these guys who had given up and went home. They’re like, “I guess it’s over. He died.” And Jesus showed up and ministered to them, and at the end, He did something spiritual for them. It says, “And He opened their minds to understand the scriptures.” That should be your prayer today. “God, would you open my mind to understand the scriptures? Would you make me hungry for Your Word, Your truth? Because I can’t do it all on my own. I need You to draw me to You. I need You to help me. I need You to forgive me. I’m weak. I don’t have it all figured out. I’m scared. I can’t do what You’re calling me to do. I’m trembling.” Sounds like You’re saying, “Abandon everything and serve Me.” And every pastor in Orange County wants to dumb that statement down so that you don’t get scared and run. Yet, let me tell you something. All He’s saying is, “Give up everything and serve Me. Put Me first over everything, and I’ll take care of you. Give Me everything. Give Me your whole heart, your whole mind.” Here’s what’s funny: I preached to a very rich friend. We grew up together. We went into business together. I preached to him my whole life. He was a Christian—let me change that—he went to church when I wasn’t a Christian. His mom prayed the first sinner’s prayer with me, which didn’t take, but God said He believed me even though I didn’t believe Him. And I remember years and years and years of preaching and discipleship and Bible studying. He said, “Tom, God said I have to give up everything—all the houses, all the properties, the business, all the money—and I’m scared to death.” I’ve been telling you that for 20 years, I said. He said, “Pray for me because I’m scared to death. I can’t do what you’ve done. I’m scared to death.” So we stayed and prayed. He talked to God. A few days passed, and he came down with a big cup of coffee from upstairs, smiling and bouncing around. He goes, “You know what He said? You know what He said?” I said, “What’d He say, bro?” “I got on my face, Tom, and I cried, and I said, ‘I’ll give it all to You. I just want You to take the company, take the businesses, take the houses, take the property, take the money. Take my life if You want to, but I want You.’” He said, “And He let me sit there for about one minute, and He said, ‘Good, now that it’s all Mine, would you steward and manage it all for Me, for My kingdom?’” That’s real life. That’s all God wants from you. Surrender it all, and then get about His business. That’s the call to be a Christian—not to be a leader, not to be an apostle, not to be incredible—it’s just the call to be a believer.

Read it again. “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” Verse 45: “Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. He said to them, ‘Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.’” Two things super important—Jesus Himself teaching. He’s saying that repentance is required for the forgiveness of sin. Repentance is not a 180-degree turn from your sin, although I’ve heard that taught a hundred times. I almost left Christianity over that because I was talking to a pastor. I said, “So what is repentance?” He said, “You’re going this way, you’re chasing sin, you’re chasing sin, and now you’re going to make a 180-degree turn, and now you’re chasing God, you’re chasing God.” I went home and thought a lot about that. I said, “Okay, you know what I figured out? I wasn’t doing that. There was still sin in my life. I imagine there’s still sin in your life.” And I thought, “Well, if that’s repentance, and repentance is required for salvation, I’m going to hell.” So I decided to man up and try as hard as I could not to sin. I did that for like three weeks, and I’m like, “Yep, that’s hopeless.”

So then I went and asked again—and me, I’m a little bit of a mouthy kind of kid—so in the middle of the conversation, I just asked the pastor, “I’ve got a couple more questions.” I said, “You’re absolutely sure repentance is a 180-degree turn from your sin?” He said, “Absolutely.” “And you’re sure that repentance is required for salvation?” He said, “Absolutely.” I said, “Can I ask you one more question?” He said, “Sure.” I said, “Have you repented?” He said, “Absolutely.” I said, “So you don’t sin anymore?” He said, “No, I still sin.” “Then how is that a 180-degree turn from your sin? Or is it like a 360-degree turn? Like you sin, then you get dizzy—is that what you’re doing?” And he didn’t want to talk to me anymore.

See, that’s the struggle when you don’t have answers. I went to three other pastors and got even wilder answers. And finally, I hit one. And he’s like, “Do you have a Greek dictionary?” I’m like, “A Greek dictionary? No, I’ve got an English dictionary.” He’s like, “Here, let’s go to the store.” He bought me a Greek lexicon. I still have it in Mexico. He said, “Read that. Figure out what it means. Figure out what the word means—repentance.” So I started to dig. You know what it is? It’s a change of mind. It’s not a change of action. It’s a 180-degree change of mind. I used to want to serve myself, live for myself, love myself, do what I wanted. And repentance is to decide, “I don’t want that. I want to live for God, love God, serve God, and do what He wants.” That’s what I want. I don’t always walk it out. But even when I’m not walking it out, I’m frustrated with my flesh because my flesh is dragging me in this direction. But I still want to serve God. And when I get through this dumbness that I’m stuck in, I wake up in my head and I go, “What an idiot. Let me get back on track and try to go after pleasing Him.” And that seems to be a battle that’s daily in my life. The question is, are you even in the battle? Or is it—see, because the other pastors said crazier things like, “It’s okay to sin.” And I thought, “Man, tell me that again. I mean, if you tell me that 20 more times, I’m about to go back and have a party.” Because I liked to party back then. I was new in Jesus. I was like, “Dude, if it’s okay to sin, I know a club.” And to struggle through that struggle of the fact that God doesn’t want me to sin because He’s my Father, and He wants me to be like Him. But He’s paid the price so that there’s no legal consequence when I fail in my sin and I mess it all up and I’m stuck there. His blood covers all that, and it leaves me free to stand back up 20 times a day, look back at my Father and say, “I’m sorry. I want to press in. I want to touch You. I want to walk. Help me. I’m weak. I’m a mess. Love me. Cause me to come. I need You.” And yet, we’ve got to preach this gospel because I’m telling you, there are so many people that I talk to that don’t got it all like that. They just don’t got it. They’re either on the side that they’re scared to death, that if they fail God, they’re going to hell because they’re still under the law. Or they’re over here so far under grace that they’ve done what Paul said should never happen, that they’ve decided that grace is a license to sin. And God wants you to grow. That’s all. No legal consequence. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The blood of Jesus has set me absolutely free. I’m never in trouble with God on a legal deal, but I’ve been born again into the family of God, and I’m in love with my Father, and He’s in love with me, and I’m trying to please Him. When I fail, He spanks the daylights out of me, but never sends me to prison. When I fail, He corrects me and rebukes me and instructs me, but He never condemns me. And little by little, I learn that His correction and His rebuke and His instruction and His spankings and His discipline—they’re because He loves me and He wants the best for me. How are you doing? How are we doing? How’s the church in America doing?

Let me tell you, we live in a mission here. The people around you are in desperate need of the truth. We don’t even have to go far. You know, there’s a book called Around the Wicked, not wicked, but the Wicket Gate by Shakespeare. So it’s the idea that standing in the foyer of the wicket gate is enough people for all of you to be busy discipling, winning people to Christ for a long time. We don’t even have to go out to the highways and the byways—right here in the house, there are people that aren’t walking with you. There are people that need a prayer partner. There are people that can’t unpack the gospel and don’t even know the definition of the basic ideas of Jesus. And heaven help if you step out the door. Wednesday nights, I have more interaction with people. It’s so interesting that I sit here on Wednesday nights and there’s a lot of dialogue—it’s almost all dialogue. What I hear is, “Man, I went to church somewhere else, Tom, for 10 years, 15 years, and I didn’t learn any of this.” There are a lot of people like that. I was in and out of churches before I became a Christian, I didn’t. We’ve just got to grow. You’ve got to grow. I’m begging you, you’ve got to want to grow in knowledge of the truth. You don’t have to be a theologian; you just have to know basics. But you’ve got to know enough to share. Because otherwise, why are we here? What’s the purpose of it all?

I love you guys. I want to get back into the Holy Spirit next week. I don’t mean to take so long. If you’re new, we’re working our way through a book of the Bible, chapter by chapter. That’s what we always do. I never—you can ask around—unless it’s a Mother’s Day or something, I don’t bounce around verses like we’re doing today. But I just feel like this particular topic is so important, and we’ve been talking about it in Acts, and we’ve read about it over and over, but I just want to make sure that we’ve got a solid foundation of what it means to be convicted by the Holy Spirit, to be born in the Holy Spirit, to be sealed with the Holy Spirit, and next week, to be empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit.

Are you afraid? Sad to say, and it’s rebuking, and it hits me hard—fear is the opposite of faith. If I’m afraid, it’s because I don’t believe. Because if I believed, why would I be afraid? I keep thinking of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, and they throw them into the fire. And I’m thinking, I would’ve been brave until they got me close to the fire. Then I’d be like, “Hold on, I might be able to bend one knee.” But they had real faith. It caused them to have no fear. And it shocks me what these three young men said. They said, “Listen, whether God saves us or not—but He’s able to save—but whether He saves us or not, and He’s able to save—but whether He saves us or not, we will not bend a knee to your idol. We won’t do it.” Really? “Bind them up, throw them in.” I’m thinking, “Man, now comes the test, right?” I’m thinking, “I’m good.” They tie me up, they pick me up, they carry me toward the oven. I’m waiting for God to strike them dead or take the ropes off me or something. But it doesn’t come. And I imagine it’s a big fire. They go, “One.” And I’m like, “Hold on, hold on, hold on.” “Two.” “Hold on, hup, hup.” I don’t know if they screamed or yelled or not. All I know is they tossed them in the fire. Jesus appeared with them. One like unto the Son of Man, walking with them through the fire.

Do you know that’s what God wants to do with you right now? Walk with you through the trial. Walk with you through the fire. Walk with you in your difficult marriage environment. Walk with you as you fear for your child who’s not saved. Walk with you as you go through difficult economic situations. Walk with you as you’re not sure how to share the gospel, but you know you’ve got to share the gospel. He wants to walk with you through the fire. Strengthen you in the walk. He’s already living in you. He doesn’t have to show up. He’s already there. It’s just that you’ve got to say to Him and invite Him into the battle. “Lord, I can’t do it without You. Won’t You do it with me? I invite You into the process. You lead; I’ll follow. But unless You go before me, I’m not going.” But you can’t—see, we’re not like the Old Testament saints. He’s already going before you because He’s already in you. So now we just have to believe that He’s in you. Believe that He’s going with you. Step out by that faith.

Why don’t you stand as we close?

Lord, as we look at communion this morning and we think about what we’re studying—the craziness that You sat with Your apostles and You took some unleavened bread and You broke it up and You handed it out, just like You had done many times—and You said, “This is My body broken for you.” I don’t think they had a clue what that meant. I don’t think they caught it. I don’t think sometimes I get it. We take communion over and over, and sometimes I don’t get it. He gave up His body to be broken for me. He paid the crazy price to set you free. He said, “Listen, in your dead, in your sin state, I love you so much, I’m going to take your place and die for you. And you’re going to come to life. I’m going to open a door where healing can flow. I’m going to open a door where ministry can flow. I’m going to make you holy so My Spirit can dwell in you. I’m going to use you as the temple of the living God. You’re going to be the actual hands and feet, the body of Jesus Christ.”

It’s funny how we do it because—I don’t know, COVID or something, we’re weird. We’ve got our little bottle, everybody’s separate. But in Mexico, we still do it. We take one big piece of flatbread, and we all put our grubby hands on it, and we rip it up, and we all share. And you know how you feel? You feel like we’re one with you. And then we’ve got a cup, right? They don’t do it anymore down there either, but we used to. They’ve got the cup, right, with the juice in it, and everybody’s slobber on it, you know, right? And we just keep handing it around. And when you get done, you’re like, “Man, I am really one with them people because I wouldn’t do that with nobody else,” you know what I’m saying? And that’s the idea of what we’re doing. Is that when the Jew said, if we eat of the same bread—that’s why you wouldn’t eat with a Gentile, an unbeliever—because it made you one with them. And the same thing that’s in you is now in them, right? But that’s what we’re saying, is that we’re one with each other because we’re all one in Him.

Is that true for you? Do you want to be more one with each other? God wants you to be one body, one family. He’s calling you to that. The Spanish family that comes before you—do you know them? Have you ever showed up at 8:30—just—I know I’m preaching, forgive me. If you ever—and just mingled with the Hispanics, or stayed late and mingled with the people from the Farsi ministry and hung out in a language that you don’t understand, and just went, “Wow, these people are popping’. Don’t know what they’re saying, though.” Every once in a while, you hear a tune that you know because they copied it and just translated it, right? You’d be like, “Oh, I know that song. Don’t know these words, but I know that song.” Are we one in Him? God wants to make you one with each other.

Lord, we lift up this bread to You, and we’re so encouraged that You would die for us, and we’re so encouraged that You would choose us to live in us, that You would make us holy before Your throne by Your blood. God, we’re overwhelmed by Your goodness and Your grace. We’re overwhelmed by the love that You put in us for each other. Make it grow. We’re overwhelmed by the power and the truth of Your Word. As we take the symbol of this bread, that’s the image that we’re taking You, the real Word, the living Word, into us, and it’s bearing more fruit. It’s bearing more life. We recommit our lives to You. We want to repent from our sin. We want to please You. We want to honor You. We want to follow You. We want You to open our minds and give us understanding of the Word so that we could be useful for the kingdom, a blessing to the house of God. Help us, God. Bless this bread, Lord, a symbol of You in us. In Jesus’ name.

You took that cup. It’s so funny because You said not to drink the blood of an animal because in the blood was the life of the animal. What a thought. Don’t eat anything strangled because the blood would stay in the meat, and you shouldn’t eat blood because in the blood is the life of the animal. You said that Your blood poured out in the murder of Cain and Abel—and Cain kills Abel—and his blood cried out from the ground to You because the life is in the blood. Then You said, “Take this. This is My blood. Drink it.” And they’re like, “Hold on.” Every Jew in the room went, “What? Can’t drink the blood.” But You said, “This is My blood poured out for you in a new promise, a new commitment, a new pact. This is the life of Jesus.” And as we drink it, we symbolize receiving the newness of life from Him in us. And we drink it—we should be drinking it from the same cup, right? But we drink it all together to say we all have the same life in us from God. And that’s why you’re my brother and you’re my sister because we have the same life in us from our Father. New life—not the old life, not the life condemned to sin, not the life condemned to hell—but life set free, life made holy by His sacrifice. We become holy, and we celebrate that holiness as we receive a cup that’s just an image, but it’s the picture of the oneness of the body of Christ, for the power and the truth of His life.

I pour it out for you.

Father, would You bless this cup? Would You bless Your truth? Lord, we’re thankful that we’re one with You, flesh of Your flesh, bone of Your bone by the bread. But, Lord, more overwhelming is that all my rebellion, all my transgression, all my iniquity, all my weakness, all my failure is made pure and holy and white as snow because You died and made me clean. We’re overwhelmed at Your goodness. We ask that You’d wash us afresh today, that You’d bind us together in Your truth and in Your love and in Your Spirit and under Your blood, that You would be glorified in this place. In Jesus’ mighty name.

God bless you guys. Have a wonderful Sunday. Amen.