Good morning. So this will be our last Sunday kind of going through this study, a little bit of the Spirit. So I’m going to jump right in.

Father, would you allow your Spirit to take authority over this place? Reign in our hearts and in our minds. Take every thought captive to the name of Jesus. That you’d cover us as your family in the blood of your Son. Lord, that our sins would be washed afresh, as you washed the disciples’ feet to just take away the sin of the day, Lord. That the weak would be cleansed from us. That we would enter into your presence as we did through worship. That you would inhabit our praises. That your Spirit would teach us through your Word. That we would come into a very real connection with you today, as we desire to know, to walk, and to grow in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

So, we’ve been talking about the idea of salvation and what that means. And the reason I think that’s important—we were upstairs in our kind of short one-hour discipleship time, kind of turning into our Sunday school, if you will—and we were talking about what to expect when we’re saved: a new relationship with God, divine empowerment that would become available to us to live the Christian life, a new purpose.

A new reason to be alive. A calling. My shift would be not about me anymore, but now about others.

And about Him, and about the Lord. So there would be a shift in my purpose for living, and a new plan about how to grow, how to be strengthened, how to mature, how to become more like Him.

There would be a legitimate understanding of the process that it takes to grow up in Jesus. And those are the basics, right? That we hope are growing in us as we come to Christ. After we come to Christ, and we talk about—there’s this situation.

Let’s jump into a text, and we’ll follow from there. We’ll be in Luke, chapter 24, starting in verse 45. We had covered this a little bit, but we didn’t get to where we were going.

So, Luke, chapter 24, starting in verse 45. It says, “Then He opened their minds.” Of course, Jesus was walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

They were discouraged. He was resurrected. And He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day,

and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” So He’s a little bit kind of speaking into their hearts about what He would declare in the Great Commission, right? Which was really the generalized purpose for all of us, for the church in general.

And we talked a little bit about this, but it’s just worth saying again: our need so often is the opening of my heart to understand the Scripture, right? I don’t know how young I was in the Lord—some guy that, you know, you would meet him and think nothing of this young man.

To me, I was the cool kid; he was geeky. And I came to Christ.

And it was all about computers. And I’m old enough that computers weren’t even popular. And he grabbed me, and he grabbed a study Bible, and he just started.

I didn’t know he was discipling me, but that’s what he was doing. He was teaching me and showing me and helping me grow in the Word of God. Not a pastor, not a leader, not even somebody I was impressed with.

But he took, for some reason, an interest in me. Bought me my first study Bible and started walking with me. Taught me most of the songs I know.

So much, right? And that’s what God’s trying to haul you into, right? That you would care enough about someone that you don’t have to be anybody super special. If you just love God and have a Bible, if you’re willing to grow in Christ and believe in power and walk in it,

God has a purpose for you in the Kingdom of God, right? And yet, I remember this young person teaching me. I was young then, too. He was teaching me.

He said, “At the time, I’m passionate about buying some commentaries. I’m reading commentaries, and they’re confusing me. The bad thing about a commentary is you read three commentaries, and they tell you three different answers. You’re like, ‘Okay, now I’m more confused than I was before, right?’ And so he said, ‘You do know that the guy who actually wrote what you’re reading in the Bible is right here with you, and you could ask Him—not knucklehead Joe, Jim, or Jane from the commentary.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, so I’m going to talk to God, and He’s going to answer the Bible questions? Is that what you’re saying?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘Have you ever tried that? Have you ever sat there and read and then stopped and said, “I don’t understand,” and I’m going to pray and wait and talk to God until He answers before I go on, because I’m not willing to go on not understanding?’ I thought he was crazy a little bit, but I was studying, and I was enjoying studying. I spent a lot of time reading crazy commentaries. I said, ‘Close all the commentaries.’ I said, ‘I’m going to take at least the same amount of time that I was reading what other people thought about what I’m reading, and I’m going to start to sit and pray and ask God what.’ And man, He started talking, and I got scared. The guy who wrote the Bible, the Spirit of the living God who caused men to write what you’re reading, is still alive. And He’s right there dwelling inside of you. And if you’re willing to slow down, and if you’ll believe enough to actually act as though it’s true and real, He’ll actually respond to you and speak to you.”

But here’s the cry: “Open my mind. Help me understand the scripture.”

Verse 46: “And He said to them, ‘Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed.'” And so we could talk about that a lot. We’re just going to go right by that, even though I think it’s so important: “would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Verse 48: “You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father.”

Now, if you don’t have that underlined, if you’ve never gotten a concordance or a Google search or a good Bible app and looked up “promise,” let’s get it right: “of My Father.” That’s a pretty important Bible study. What is the promise of Jesus’ Father for you, for the church, for me? And He said, “Listen, you need to hold on. Behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father.”

And then that word “upon” in Greek is “epi,” which I very much like Greek, and I read Greek, but I don’t try to teach in Greek because let’s just teach what’s in English. But in this case, the New American Standard is phenomenal because they change the word “epi” to “upon” every time. Other versions don’t do that.

So what you want to catch is if you’re using NASB and He said, “I’m going to send this ‘upon’ you,” He’s talking about—remember we said there were three experiences with the Holy Spirit that were important: The Spirit of God walks with unbelievers, convincing them or convicting them that they’re sinners, that He’s a righteous judge, and that there’s eternal judgment. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit in an unbeliever.

Then, if I believe in Christ, if I accept what He’s done for me on the cross, if I desire that He would be Lord of my life, if I surrender my life to Him and willingly repent, which means I’m no longer trying to live for myself, serve myself, love myself, but I’ve changed my heart, and my new desire is to try to live for Him, to try to love Him, and to try to serve Him. If I have faith and repentance and I say that to Him—I confess openly; I’m not ashamed of it—then the Spirit of God, by faith, comes into me, and I’m born again.

I become a new believer. I become a new creation. I become alive in the Spirit.

I died in the Spirit when Adam died, frankly. When Adam rejected God, he died a spiritual death, and all of his descendants stayed spiritually dead. And last week, I think we covered it—I hope, if we didn’t, it’s in John—where Jesus breathes on the disciples after He’s resurrected from the dead.

So after the real blood of the real Lamb really paid for the sins of the whole world, then you and all the Old Testament saints at that moment became holy because He lived a perfect, righteous, obedient life to the law. He completed every jot, every tittle. He crossed every “T” and dotted every “I” of the law.

He obeyed perfectly. And in His obedience, He remained holy. And so, when He died for you and me, that holiness, that blood that never needed to die because the wages of sin is death, He willingly lays down His life so that His blood could pay for your price and my price.

And here’s what’s important in that. This is really important. Have you ever said, “See, I’m an arguer; I’m a debater, and when I came to Christ, I was worse.”

But it was kind of good because I was arguing with God in the Bible. And I’m like, “I don’t understand how the death of one guy who was obedient, Christ in His humanity, dying on a cross for me, could pay for everybody’s sin.” And I heard it taught that it was because He was God.

So I don’t think God could die for you. I don’t think God could be your redeemer. God couldn’t do that.

I’m not saying that Jesus wasn’t God. I’m just saying He had to also be fully man. Because Ruth will teach me that I have to have a kinsman-redeemer.

I have to have a close relative that can pay my price, that can buy me back, that can get my value and my property taken back and returned to me. A stranger can’t do it. It has to be someone very, very close to me and my family.

And I still say, “Well, that doesn’t make any difference to me.” I’m like, “Jesus wasn’t close to me, right? I mean, I’m not even a Jew.”

But see, here’s the thing. Sin didn’t come through me or you. Sin came through one man, Romans says.

We don’t have time to go there, but that study on salvation—those are the two most important studies you can do: the study on salvation and the study on the Spirit. If you don’t get those figured out, it comes as more classes. But He died.

Do you know who Adam died for? Or forgive me, do you know who Jesus died for? He died for Adam. Well, you say, “How was Jesus a kinsman or a close family member to Adam, the first man?” And the answer is, God breathed in Adam, and he became a living soul. And the Spirit of the living God hovered over Mary, and Jesus became a living soul.

They’re brothers—same dad, first brother, not second brother, not stepbrother. And when Jesus—we call Him the second Adam—dies for the sin of the first Adam, His death by federal headship covers the whole world. What is federal headship? The Bible in Romans says that because Adam sinned, he died, and death, the consequence of sin, passed to all men.

Even though they didn’t necessarily sin in the exact same way that Adam did, the consequence of being dead spiritually was passed to all the descendants of Adam. And no one lived with the Spirit of God in them since Adam until Jesus. And when Jesus died in your place, He paid for the sin of Adam.

Therefore, He paid for the sin that flowed from Adam to all men, including you and me. And now you, if you would repent and believe, became holy. And then Jesus, in John 20, towards the end, after He’s resurrected from the dead, sees the apostles and breathes on them. Oh, remember that.

What’s the big breathing thing? Well, God breathed on Adam, and the Spirit of God indwelt him, and he became a living soul. And no one had that experience until Jesus had paid the full price by His death on the cross. And then He went to His believers, His apostles, and He breathed on them.

And for the first time since Adam, the Spirit of God indwelt man again. That was new birth. That was the living Spirit of God in me, born again, a son or a daughter of the living God because you had been made holy by the blood shed by Jesus on the cross.

And yet you’ll say, “But hold on, hold on. In the Old Testament, there was this power, there was this Spirit that came upon Moses, and he prophesied, and the Spirit came on David, and the Spirit came on Samson.” Those are all that, and now we’re moving from Greek to Hebrew.

But it’s that “upon” experience. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be a witness and a servant and a minister for God was happening in the Old Testament. But new birth—the Spirit of the living God dwelling in someone—that didn’t happen in the Old Testament since Adam.

Joel prophesied in Joel chapter 2, and I know they don’t get the words because I didn’t tell them. Joel chapter 2, starting in verse 28, says, “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit upon”—or it’s the word that’s similar because we’re looking at Hebrew and not Greek—”pour out My Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions, and even on the male and female servants, the slaves, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” What did he say? In the Old Testament, it was limited.

Saints, prophets, priests, judges—just leadership, just Israel. But he said there was coming a time where that was going to change. And because you were born again, because the life and the power of the living Spirit of God was in you, you were called into service.

A purpose for your life opened up before you. And the strength to be supernaturally empowered by the Spirit of God, just like Samson, just like Moses, just like John the Baptist. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, but anyone who was born again or in the Kingdom of God was greater than John the Baptist.

I want you to think that through because He’s talking about you. If you’re born again, from God’s understanding and estimation, see, John the Baptist was never born again. John the Baptist was never holy.

John the Baptist was never indwelt by the Spirit of the living God. He was empowered. The Spirit came upon him.

He was moving in the outward authority and power of the gifts of the Spirit, but he wasn’t a child of the living God. He wasn’t born again. And what the Bible is saying is that you, as a believer, the Spirit of God has come into you, and you’ve become a new creature in Christ, and you’re born again, and you have something that no Old Testament saint had.

Verse 49, still in Acts 24: “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father.” That’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The promise of My Father upon you. But you are to stay in the city until you’re clothed with power from on high. He said, “Listen, you’ve been born again.

I breathed on you. You’ve been called. I’ve trained you for three years.

I’ve commissioned you. I’ve told you what you need to do. I told you what’s going to happen.

You need to step up and boldly be obedient. But don’t go anywhere yet. You’re not ready.”

I remember sitting through the School of Ministry under Chuck Smith, and he taught on just Friday afternoons. He taught through Acts for the whole two years I was there. And the sermon was the same sermon every Friday.

It was shocking how he could teach the same idea over and over and over and over from a different place in Acts. And the end of the sermon was always the same: “Don’t go into ministry.

Please don’t go into ministry unless you’re filled with His Spirit. Unless the baptism of the Spirit is upon you.”

I started calling him the “American Express Pastor,” because at that time the commercial “Don’t Leave Home Without It” was popular. And that’s basically what it’s saying. Don’t leave home.

Don’t leave Jerusalem. Don’t step into the fullness of ministry without the empowerment—the supernatural empowerment, the same empowerment that had been poured out on priests and judges and kings. That empowerment is now available for you.

And He’s telling you, “Don’t jump into ministry unless you have it.” Right? He says, “Wait. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you, but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Jumping to Acts chapter 1. The first account I composed, Luke writing. He’s talking about the first account being Luke, the gospel of. “The first account I composed, O Theophilus,” which means “friend of God,” but most people think he was the owner of Luke.

Luke was a slave. The doctors of that time were slaves to rich families. We have a different idea of slaves now, but often in slavery, the slaves became more beloved than a child.

You know, they became more faithful. There was the idea of even a free will slave that, after he served under bondage, the relationship between him and the master became so strong that he would tell the master, “I know I’m free, but I don’t want to be free. I just want to serve you forever.”

Is that okay? And he would take him to the doorpost, and they’d drive an awl through his ear and put an earring on him that let everybody know that, although he was living and acting as a servant to the master, he was there by free will choice. Paul and most of the people in the New Testament picked up that whole idea of, “I serve him, I’m his slave, I’m his servant, but it’s a free will choice.” So, Luke is speaking. He says, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” I’ve got lots to talk about here, but I love that Jesus was a doer and then a teacher.

I was working on some books, and I was watching YouTube, and the person that was talking, the author that was talking, took about 10 minutes to explain that they had authored 40 books, and seven were on the best-seller list. And they said, “The reason I say that is not because I want to boast; it’s because I’m looking at all these YouTube channels, and they’re talking about how to be a great author, and they’ve never published anything.” I love listening to people who have accomplished something.

I like reading dead guys. What I mean by that is I like reading books that are over 100 years old because I know how they finished. I remember being excited about the book on dating, I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

It came out in Spanish, so it was really exciting. So we were handing it out, and it was a good book. It was the idea that dating wasn’t the thing; it was a long-term commitment toward marriage.

They used the word “courtship,” and it developed into some really good teaching. I think it was about 10 years ago, maybe 15 years ago now, 12 years ago, the guy came out and decided his book was wrong. He didn’t believe in Jesus, and he was really sorry that he hurt everybody by telling them those lies. And I’m like, “Can I get all those books back really quick?” I love that I can look back at the people who changed the world for Christ and whose lives made a difference.

And I know how they finished. Whether that’s C.H. Spurgeon, A.W. Pink, Gordon, or any number of incredible classic writers—saints that changed the world, that lived it out, that finished well—I’m drawn to those conversations. But I’m more so drawn to Jesus because here’s the history of His life.

Whether you want to look at the biblical history of His life, or you want to look at Josephus, who was a Jewish historian that wasn’t a Christian and wrote about Jesus’ life, or you want to look at Philo, the Greek historian who wrote about Jesus’ life and wasn’t a Christian, or Pliny, who was a Roman, who basically was a guy who wrote about how the Christians were crazy, and all they did was sit around and pray, and they were fanatics. And I’m thinking, “Hey, even the enemies are testifying about who we are. Even the guys who don’t like us are testifying.”

And I look at Jesus’ life, and there’s no witness, no testimony, no writing that says He was a murderer, a liar, a thief, a manipulator, a charade, or a fraud. He finished well. He lived out the calling and taught about it along the way.

And He’s calling you to follow Him. He’s calling you to live it out. He’s calling you to respond and say yes to the new purpose of your life.

He’s calling you to live in such a way that you can teach about how and why you live the way you live, respond the way you respond, speak the way you speak, witness the way you witness—because you’re living a thing that was transforming your life before you began to teach it. Jesus, it says, Theophilus, did all that Jesus began to do and teach, verse 2, until the day when He was taken up to heaven after He had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. That’s an important thought because the shift now was, as Jesus ascended, there was this shift, right? He said, “It’s better for you that I leave because when I go up, I’m going to send the Holy Spirit.”

And now the Holy Spirit was the person all the way through the rest of Acts. It’s the Holy Spirit talking to Paul. It’s the Holy Spirit talking to Peter.

It’s the Holy Spirit speaking to the jailer. It’s the Holy Spirit who is now the communicator for the church. Are you walking with the Spirit of Jesus? Do you know the voice of His Spirit? By the way, it was His Spirit that wrote the words that are the living Word, Christ Himself.

They’re one thing, and yet, the person of Christ has ascended to heaven, and the person of the Spirit has been sent to the earth to work in and through you and us, the church. To tell you, the day He was taken up to heaven after He had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles—do you notice they were orders and not recommendations? Are you under orders? I remember I had just gotten involved before I was a Christian, right? I had just gotten married, and I got orders in the U.S. Army to go overseas. Unaccompanied.

Semi-combat tour. Called everybody I knew. Checked in with my first guard.

Called a couple of officers I knew. I was working at headquarters, so I had some relationships. I was just looking for a way out of the order.

That’s all I wanted. And to the man, they said, “Well, son, you signed up in the United States Army, right?” I’m like, “Yep.” He goes, “So that means you came to follow orders, right?” But I don’t, and I think, and he said, “Yeah, you can think all you want, but define the word ‘order’ for me, son.”

And I’m like, “I don’t know what it means exactly.” “Oh, here,” he said, “it’s simple. It’s a commandment that you need to obey and then think about.

It’s a commandment that you need to do, and then we can talk. It’s a commandment that you need to execute, and then we can discuss. But it’s an order, son.”

And that solved it for me. Packed my bags, got on a plane. And that helped me because when I came to the text and I saw “orders,” I was like, “Oh, so this is just something I don’t have to really understand fully; I just have to do, and then we can talk about it later.”

That’s how I took it. Everything that I read, I was like, “Yep, we got to do that. We can talk about it later.

We can understand it later. I can get the nuances of why later.” But here’s what it is:

This is God’s Word, and I need to obey the truth if I believe it’s the truth. I at least have to try to obey. I learned in the Army that there were a lot of orders I couldn’t obey.

“Go take the hill”—that was a bigger order than it sounded like. But I had to respond intending to obey. The Holy Spirit had given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.

To these, He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for what the Father had promised, which,” He said, “you heard from Me.”

For John baptized—now we’re going to find out what the promise is—for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. What’s the promise they were supposed to wait for in Jerusalem? What was the promise of the Father? That they would be baptized, empowered, filled, and supernaturally strengthened to serve in ministry.

Now, if you’re the devil, and you’re a schemer and a liar, and you’re trying to stop the progress of the church—right? I grew up military. Loved Sun Tzu’s book The Art of War, probably the most popular military book in the world.

And the root truth of that book is: assume your enemy is going to be very, very intelligent and make very, very good decisions. Because the biggest failure in combat is thinking your enemy is not intelligent and he’s going to make dumb decisions—and then you get killed. So assume your enemy is very, very intelligent and is going to make very wise decisions. And what that tells me about the enemy, when I brought it to this text, is that if I’m the enemy, and I’m very, very intelligent and I’m going to make very, very good decisions, I’m going to divide the church right where the most important ideas are.

I’m going to cause the body of Christ to be separate and fight amongst themselves right on the most important issues of the Word of God. Because I don’t care which side they take on it—as long as they don’t have it as a whole, I’ve won. I’ve weakened.

I’ve divided. I’ve hindered their progress. And that sent me into a spiral of looking at where God—or where really the enemy—had divided the body of Christ.

Where have the churches fought about things? It was water baptism, spiritual baptism, marriage, rebuke, correction, instruction, discipline, discipleship, evangelism—the gifts and the power of His Spirit moving through you.

Tongues, healing, and miraculous types of things happening in ministry. And whether you know it or not, the church is divided over all those things. Some say yes. Some say no.

Some say maybe. Some say before, but not now. And then if you get the other side, it just goes hyper-focused on the power and the baptism and the authority that they forget the doctrine and the Word and the relationship with Christ.

See, it doesn’t make any difference which side I can get them to take as long as they don’t stand in a balanced teaching of the love of the Father, the truth of the Word of the living God that calls you to purpose and action, and the power of the Spirit that comes upon you and equips you to actually walk out the calling of Christ unto the love of your Father, which is the beautiful picture of what the Trinity is in the Bible. As long as you don’t have the fullness of God, the enemy is winning. And what we’re talking about is understanding evangelism and the need for the Spirit to work with the unbeliever—to convince them that they’re guilty of sin, to convince them that He’s a righteous judge, and if they die in their sin, He has to judge their sin, and to convince them that there’s an eternal condemnation and punishment—that if they die in their sin and are judged guilty, they will find themselves in condemnation forever.

And if you can have that in balance with believing in Christ and understanding that He lived as a man and obeyed as a man—yes, He was God at the same time—but He set the right to utilize His deity, His power, to one side and walked out everything as the second Adam, a kinsman to Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. And if you repent and change your desire and seek after Him with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, you would find Him, and His Spirit would come into you, and there would be new life, and you would have the mind of Christ. There would be power, and there would be privilege, and you would have access to the throne of God, and you could talk to Him and cry out for wisdom and understanding, and He would fill you and speak to you and love you like a father.

But then you gotta go the extra mile and wait in Jerusalem or wait wherever God has you, because there’s one more promise. The love of the Father gave one more promise—because now you’re a son or daughter—and the promise was the empowerment, the anointing, the overflowing infilling of His Spirit upon you.

We’ll start again in verse four. It says, “Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised, which He said, ‘You heard from Me. For John baptized—excuse me—for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'”

So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You’re restoring the kingdom of Israel?” He had talked about the kingdom of God, but they were still stuck in politics, still stuck in nationalism, still stuck in, “Are you going to raise up our country now?” He’s like, “You know, for Israel, that’s coming; actually, He is going to raise up Israel again, but it wasn’t the time.”

Verse four: “Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised, which you heard from Me. John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

And they didn’t ask, “When do we get that? How do we get that? How does it work? How soon can I have it? What do I do after?” So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You’re going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” He said to them, “It’s not for you to know the times or the epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” But He’s like, “I know that’s what you’re worried about. Let me bring you back to what we’re talking about.”

Have you ever had that? You’re having a conversation, you’re trying to explain something super important, and the young man goes off-topic. I’m like, “Okay, yeah, I get that, but can we come back to what we’re talking about?” This is what we’re talking about. Jesus lets him float off for a second, but then He comes back and says, “But listen, now you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”

Now, why am I getting power? Why would I need power? What’s the power for? “And you shall be My martyrs”—that’s the word there, meaning to be a witness unto death, to stand confessing the truth in front of every possible enemy, to stand as Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego said, “My God can deliver me, but even if He doesn’t, I’ll never bow my knee to you.” Death is preferable, and I embrace it compared to walking away from my King.

Listen, we’re coming into a time where that choice needs to be made. We always taught soldiers, “You need to decide you’re willing to die before you have to make the decision whether you’re willing to die.” I tell that to people who are engaged, thinking about marriage. It’s the best counsel I can give you. If you’re thinking about getting married, sit down and decide you’re willing to die for that person, no matter what they’re saying or doing to you. And if you’re not willing to die, don’t get married.

Am I willing to die for the King? Am I willing to die for the calling? Am I willing to die for the purpose? Am I willing to die as a witness? We think maybe that’s a radical conversation today. Maybe Tom’s trying to overemphasize it. Maybe our pastor is just too radical. Just go grab Fox’s Book of Martyrs and just read half of it. I mean, if you get depressed halfway through, come see me. I’ll try to encourage you so you can finish it. But one after another, every one of the apostles died, except John, for the gospel. The men who translated the words you read were burned at the stake and sang worship songs as the flames lapped up over their bodies, martyred. And people came to Christ, shocked at how you could stand in faith in the midst of such things—a witness unto death.

That’s the call of Christ for you—to be so in love with Him, so sure of the truth, that nothing could make you recant, nothing could turn you back from Him. And let me tell you, when I think of that, I’m really glad there’s something called the baptism of the Holy Spirit because I think I need a little extra help for that. I need an empowerment that comes outside of me for that and for so much more.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” And you shall be My martyrs, My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth.

Jump with me to Matthew chapter 6. Oh, you know, I love and hate the Bible. I know nobody can relate to that but me. See, I love the Bible because when I like what it says, it’s so encouraging. But sometimes I don’t like what it says because I think, “Wow, I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t know if I want to do that. I don’t know if I could ever do that.”

In my younger days, I just said, “But it’s an order,” and jumped—with no preparation, no thought, no logical reasoning process. Because every time I let that happen, I said no. So I started just saying yes, and it took me to crazy places. We did crazy things. I got used to it. Then I came here, and I got comfortable. And I read this text again for me, but I hope it speaks to you.

Matthew 6, starting in verse 25, says, “For this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life.” Does that connect to what we were just talking about? Being a witness, being a martyr, dying for Him? Are you worried about your life? “Do not be worried about your life.” What’s He talking about? “Don’t be worried about what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink. Don’t worry about your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus speaking: “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

It’s really hard to believe that I might be strong enough and believe enough to die as a martyr witness for Christ if I can’t live enough and believe enough to trust that He meets my daily needs. Yet, I challenge you to trust Him on a daily basis. Verse 27 says, “And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil, they do not spin,” He says. Basically, they don’t make cloth. “Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these little flowers.”

Verse 30, transitional words: “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith?” I don’t know if He’s talking to you there; I’m just saying He’s talking to me. They say, “Oh man, did we just talk about love? Where’s the grace in that?” The grace is He loves you enough to call you His son or daughter and invite you into the battle of the ages—to stand in the purpose of the Kingdom. And He’s telling you that if you’re called as a soldier, the good King always provides uniform, food, and weapons. And the problem isn’t that there’s no available weapons, and the problem isn’t that there’s no available finances, and the problem isn’t that there’s no available clothing, and the problem isn’t that there is no available food, and the problem isn’t that you can’t do anything because you got to work, work, work, work, work, work, work.

Those aren’t the problems. The problem is, do I believe enough to live what I’m reading? To shift my purpose? To answer the call? To make disciples? To unplug my plugs of the worry-world issues that I have? I started to ask myself, you know, I’ve been struggling, digging deeper into the Word. I prepare, I read, but I’m talking about just that old passion where I would sit for three, four hours and just eat and fall in love with Jesus. And I’m like, “Lord, I’m too busy for that.”

Yesterday, while I was being too busy for that, I was reading, you know, news for three hours. It meant nothing, did nothing, and changed nothing. As a matter of fact, it was the same news I had read yesterday for three hours. That meant nothing, did nothing, and changed nothing. And he’s like, “What about that six hours there, Tom?”

See, the real question becomes, do I have faith? Do I believe? Do I love the truth of the Bible enough to live it? The Bible says I need this as daily bread, that I need this to be strong and victorious, that I should meditate on this day and night, that I should love the Word, that it should be sweeter to me than honeycomb. It should be my everything. Do I believe that enough to live it? Or have I dried up, become weak while it appears that I’m strong?

“But if God clothes the grass of the field,” verse 30, “which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Do not worry then,” the conclusion saying, “What will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing?” For all the unbelieving Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things. For your heavenly Father, if you believe in Him, knows that you need all these things. But here’s your right response: Seek first His kingdom. Seek first His righteousness. And here’s the promise: all these things will be added to you.

He didn’t say you wouldn’t have clothes, or you didn’t need clothes. He didn’t say you shouldn’t eat, or didn’t need food. He just said your problem is prioritizing your life, your time, your finances, your thoughts, and your conversation. And you need to get His kingdom, His truth, His righteousness, your relationship with Him first. He says, “And you know what you’re going to find out? If you get that right, the rest is going to come, and you’re going to be like, ‘Wow, that was easy. How did that happen? Who opened that door?’ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.”

And then I love how Jesus ends with, like, “Hey, and don’t get too excited. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” He said, “I told you all that, but don’t think that means there aren’t going to be problems, okay?” And then I’m just going to end with one thing. It’s Luke chapter 11, starting in verse 9.

It’s funny. I quoted this verse to my wife recently, and she said, “You got it wrong. You forgot the bread.” I quoted it from memory, so I said, “Today, I’m in the back, and I’m going to reread it.” So I read it before I came up, and I’m like, “Dude, there’s no bread in this text.” The other one in Matthew has bread, egg, and fish, right? As the positive. But in Luke, he leaves the bread out. It was shocking to me. It was revelational as I sat in the back room, and the other texts don’t say anything about the Holy Spirit. He left the bread out but brings the promise of the Spirit. I’m not even going to tell you what I think about it, because I’m not sure I know, but it’s interesting.

I’ll finish with this verse, chapter 11, verse 9, the book of Luke. Jesus, speaking, says, “So I say to you,” he’s teaching from the prayer—they asked how to pray. He teaches through the Our Father. He teaches through the idea of persistence and pressing into what you need. In other words, don’t ask once. He’s like, “You know, I’m telling you, the best prayer people are kids.” Or, as we say in my business world, the best salesmen are kids.

I’m working at the fair, and the kid comes to the swings we’re working on. And he says, “Can I get on?” Mom says, “No.” “Can I get on?” Mom says, “No.” “Can I get on?” Mom says, “No.” “Can I get on now?” Mom says, “No.” “Can I get on now?” Mom says, “No.” Dad and mom are trying to talk. “Mom, Mom, what?” “Can I get on?” “Yes.”

That’s how prayer works. See, to pray, you have to believe that the person you’re praying to actually has what you’re asking for. And if you bug them enough, you’ll get it. That ain’t me, that’s Jesus teaching. Because bugging Him is just a manifestation of the fact that you believe that He has the answer, and He wants to give it to you sooner or later.

And then He jumps into verse 9, and He says, “So I say to you,” Jesus said, “So I say to you, ask.” Now, in Greek, it’s a little different against a couple of things. In Greek, you would say, “Ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and stop asking.” For I say to you, ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you. Seek and seek and seek, keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock and knock and knock, and keep on knocking.

That was the story He just told. He said, “You go to your neighbor and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got somebody who came in from vacation. They’re staying at my house. I need some food.'” He said, “Dude, I’m in bed. Stop knocking on my door. I ain’t got nothing to give you.” He said, “Even though he won’t give you anything because he’s your friend, if you just keep knocking, he will get up and give you whatever you need.” And He’s telling you how to get your prayers answered. If you keep knocking, keep on knocking, keep on knocking, it will be opened.

Verse 11: “Now, suppose one of you fathers,” us, “is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?” And I’m thinking, “Where is he going now? Why is that even a question?” It’s a rhetorical question, but the answer is obviously not, right? As a matter of fact, you go a little further, and I’ll think about it this way: If me and my son or my grandson were talking, and he wanted a hot dog at the fair, and I bought him a $27 hot dog, because that’s ridiculous, right? And I was handing him a $27 hot dog at the fair, would I let you steal the hot dog out of my hands and put a firecracker in his? Boy, I’d swat you so hard you probably wouldn’t get up off the ground. And I’m not that much stronger, but if God wants to give you something good, would He let the devil sneak in something bad?

That’s what the question is. He’s saying this because He’s smarter than the devil, and He knows the enemy is going to try to buy the church and tell you, “What if those gifts of the Holy Spirit are from the devil?” Hold on.

“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Now, suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?” Verse 12: “Or if he’s asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?”

Verse 13: “If you then, being evil, know how…” See, I tell people, before you’re born again, you’re the son of the devil. Everybody gets mad at me when I say that. I said, “Yeah, but they’re the children of the devil.” They’re like, “Geez, don’t say that, pastor.” Like, I didn’t say it. Jesus said it. They’re evil. I was evil. Before Jesus, I was evil. Were you evil? I was evil. I was headed to hell. I deserved punishment. Without Him, without His love, without His death, without His blood, without His rescue, without His salvation, without redemption.

But He’s talking about just humans. He said, “If then you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” That’s the end of the teaching on prayer. What’s He saying? If you want the power to be a witness, if you want the power and the gifts to be a victorious warrior, more than a conqueror in ministry, you have to ask. Keep on asking. Seek, keep on seeking. Knock, and keep on knocking. And don’t buy the lie that God your Father, while trying to give you the gift He told you to seek—the promise He promised for you and to you through Jesus—that God your Father would let something snatch that away and give you something evil in its place.

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts”—He’s talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit—to your children. He’s not talking about the idea that your children would get the gifts. He’s saying, “Look toward Him giving good gifts to you.”

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, eggs and fish, etc., how much more will your Father in heaven give you good gifts, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to those who are asking and asking and asking and keep on asking?”

Why don’t you stand with me as we pray? There you are, three weeks, maybe four—I don’t remember. We need another 20 hours on this subject. But the style of our lives and churches gives us three or four hours. Stir up your people. Fan the flame of the Spirit that’s within them. Give them a hunger after your truth, a thirst after your righteousness, a faith to not just stand, but to look up and receive orders, to believe, to believe so strongly, to love what they believe so much that they have to act in obedience to your truth.

Thank you that when we’re weak, you’re strong. Thank you that when we can’t make it, your Spirit dwells within us and even comes upon us to help us be more than conquerors. Thank you for overcoming the world. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, that you’ve overcome the flesh. Thank you that you overcome the devil and his cohort, the enemy. Thank you that you’re the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and there’s nothing too hard for you. We worship you. We bless you. Would you glorify yourself in our fellowship and in this last song as we spend time with each other and desire that you would build yourself up in us. In Jesus’ mighty name.