 You know you have no idea what a miracle it is for me to stand here right now after hearing John David and that incredible testimony from Louie. I just thought I Just could just go home and I Was just so amazing to hear what God has done and you know John began this morning with Telling us that we need to you know challenging us to be at the feet of Jesus and David followed up with challenging us to put on the full armor of God and prayer every day and I looked at David and I thought wow you look like a special forces guy You know without talking about armor and then I looked at John and I thought you've been sitting at the feet of Jesus And And then Louie sharing about the power of the gospel and challenging us to share the gospel with our friends and and so God has kind of Set up this message that I feel like he's given me for us this morning And so let's begin by reading the text for our men's conference here Our men's gathering out of 1st Timothy 3 Verses or 2nd Timothy 3 Verse chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 It says all scripture Is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction For instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be complete Thoroughly equipped for every good work and I just want to make a couple of observations about The text this morning and before I get into my message the first is the word profitable The word profitable can be translated as beneficial And in the Greek it literally means to promote or enhance a your well-being To enhance your well-being to promote your well-being And according to the american heritage dictionary Well-being is the state of being happy The state of being prosperous or healthy It's a state of life which secures or tends Towards happiness. So if you want to live a happy life If you want to live a healthy life a secure life god's word can help you get there It's all based in god's word So how does it get you there? Well paul tells us he says that God's word tells us the right way to believe The right way to think The right way to behave and the right way To live When he says it's profitable for doctrine doctrine is the right way to believe it's right believing Reprove is right thinking Correction is right behavior and instruction and righteousness is right living And the bible tells us everything we need to live right before god And so you want to know You want to know what to believe about god If that's what you want to do study his word because he reveals himself To us through his word In luke chapter 20 verse 21 it says then they speaking of the chief priest asked him saying Teacher we know that you say and teach rightly and you do not show personal favoritism, but Teach the way of god in truth And so the bible reveals who god is and the bible tells us how god works You want to know how to think about life? Study his word because god's word instructs us On how to think In philippines force is finally brethren Whatever things are true Whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely Whatever things are a good report, which means nothing on cnn If there's any virtue and if there's anything praise worthy Meditate on these things think about these things the things which you Learned and received and heard and saw in me these do and the god of peace will be with you You want to know how to act? And how to behave study his word because god reveals to us How we're to treat one another Through his words and Ephesians 4 it says do not grieve the holy spirit of god By whom you were sealed for the day of redemption But let all bitterness and wrath and anger And clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another Tender hearted forgiving one another Even as god in christ forgave you And that's why louis testimony was so powerful Because he did exactly that he forgave someone That attempted to kill him The way that jesus Who our sins put on the cross? In that sense we killed jesus every single one of us That jesus forgave us And he extended that same forgiveness You want to know how to live? Study his word because god reveals to us How we are to live his life live our lives through his word and micah 6 8 it says He has shown you oh man what is good And what does the lord require of you? But to do justly To love mercy and to walk humbly With our god And so god's word tells us the right way to believe The right way to think the right way to behave and the right way to live And if you notice there's an order to this, you know in david's message he he touched on this correct believing or right believing leads to right thinking Right thinking leads to right behaving and right behaving leads to right living Those are the christian rights Right those are the rights that you have as christians everybody's saying we demand our rights as christians Well, here's your right as a christian Believe right Think right behave right live right and we do that Through the word of god and that's the pattern of scripture right believing leads to right living And if what you believe doesn't change how you live then either you don't believe it Or you believe something about god that isn't true Or you're being disobedient to the truth It's going to be one of those three things Either you don't really believe it You're being disobedient to it or what you believe about god is wrong And that's why it's so important To study his word jesus said you will know the truth and that word no in the greek is gnosko It means to experience You're going to experience the truth when you experience jesus and the truth will make you free John 832 Jesus said truth came through jesus christ And so it's that experience of jesus himself in our lives and in john 1717 jesus said your word is true So the word of god tells us what is true about us what is true about the world what is true about each other And that's the word of god is the foundation for a healthy and a happy life And so as I believe the god of the bible It leads to correct thinking Which leads to correct behaving which results in correct living and that promotes a healthy sense Of well-being that brings life into my family that brings life into my relationships Jesus says you will know the truth And the truth will make you free Now that word here free Is actually a political term It's a political term it literally means to be released from the political control of this world How many of you know that this world is seeking to control and dominate people? And the world will dominate your thinking the world will dominate your behavior The world will dominate how you live if you don't live according to the word of god And so the world Jesus said That he has come to make us free From this political bondage of the world that i am free now to be governed by god I'm free to be governed by god and that's what sets you apart That's what sets me apart from the world that we are not governed by the world system We're not governed by world politics that we are equipped by the holy spirit To be god's ambassadors god's representatives in this world that we're not part of this kingdom That we are part of another kingdom a greater kingdom that has power over all the kingdoms of the world And so yes as christians are we involved in politics? Absolutely. It's the politics of the kingdom of heaven How does the politics of kingdom of the kingdom of heaven work it works like this when someone's in bondage You go in the power of jesus with the gospel the good news of jesus christ and you set them free If someone is in bondage to sickness you go in the power of the holy spirit In the power of jesus and you set them free from sickness through by praying for them and seeing them healed You know, we've seen many people healed in our church We had a young boy that would come to our church and they would drive over two hours to get to our church and For this young boy to be prayed for and he had a hole in his heart and god closed the hole in his heart Was verified by a doctor. We had someone die in our church And it was it wasn't during my preaching But actually a family in the hospital had called and they were getting ready to pull the plug and So they called one of our pastors to come and pray for them and they went into pray and And the next morning the the man walked out of the hospital completely healed The power of god Being a representative an ambassador Of god and that's what I want to look at being equipped by the spirit Empowered by the spirit to be an ambassador for jesus christ and There's three relationships that every person can have with the holy spirit And the first two are described in john chapter 14. So if you turn your bibles to john chapter 14 We're going to look at versus 16 And 17 john chapter 14 Versus 16 and 17 Jesus says and I will pray the father And he will give you another helper That he may abide with you forever the spirit of truth Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him Nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you He dwells with you and will be In you two words with you para and the second word in you or the it's in the greek. It's en or n So jesus says the holy spirit dwells with you That's the greek word para and this is the relationship that every person has with the holy spirit Every person alive has this relationship with the holy spirit. It's through This relationship that the holy spirit convicts or exposes the world of sin righteousness And judgment of sin because they do not believe in jesus That's what the scriptures say and so unbelief is the basis of all sin Every time you go out to sin and you know you're sinning the holy spirit is warning you is because of unbelief in your life You have an area that's unsurrendered that you have not Settled in your heart to say i'm gonna trust the lord in this area of my life And so you go to do something to take care of that perceived need illegally Against what god says to do And so the spirit reveals the true motivations of the heart. Are you motivated by unbelief? Or are you motivated by trust in jesus? He says here of Of unright of righteousness because i go to my father and they see me no more You know the only way to see the father is through jesus, right? So that's the only way to come to the father. I cannot come to the father through my own Righteousness my own goodness. That's why no matter how hard i try to become a better person that doesn't guarantee my place in heaven There's only one way i can come to the father and that's through jesus I can't come to the father through my own Righteousness and so the spirit the holy spirit will reveal the source of my righteous My righteousness am i coming in my self righteousness? Am i presenting myself as self righteous before god or am i standing in the righteousness of jesus christ? And i always love it when someone says you know i don't deserve anything But i received everything You see that's not standing in my righteousness. That's standing in the righteousness of god And then he says of judgment because the ruler of this world is judge Now a judgment is a determination. It's a decision And so god has already decided And this judgment this decision was rendered in genesis 3 15 when god said satan will bruise jesus's heal But jesus will crush satan's head And so everything in this world is already judged When we talk about god bring judgment on the world the world is already judged Death is a pretty heavy judgment. Don't you think? Every person here is under the judgment of death No one can escape it the the statistics for jet for death are just staggering One out of every one person ties right? And so the spirit reveals to you Who cider you on? Who do you belong to? Do you belong to the lord? Or do you belong to this world? And if you're not born again Then you're on the losing side You're on the side that is under judgment And so god doesn't judge anybody. He doesn't send people to hell. You're already judged You're born under judgment The only thing that sets you free the only thing that liberates you Is when you surrender your life to jesus christ And you're born again Jesus then says the holy spirit dwells in you And this is the relationship that every born-again believer has with the holy spirit The holy spirit lives inside of me The holy spirit lives inside of me paul says because the spirit is living inside of me I have a new mind. I have the mind of christ It is through this relationship that the holy spirit then guides me teaches me Reveals the deep things of god to me. That's what paul says in first carinthians chapter two Now the natural man the person that's in the world Does not receive the things of the spirit Paul says it's foolishness to them. They cannot understand it. They don't have the capacity To understand it. They don't have the ability to comprehend it. It doesn't make sense to them Only the spiritual man who is born of the spirit Can know the mind of god because it is spiritually Understood it's spiritually discerned And it is the foundation of the christian life once the holy spirit lives inside of me That all of a sudden my life begins to change My desires change My will changes god's word becomes alive to me Worship begins to fill my heart with gratitude and praise I have a friend from the jesus movement that he said that the moment he received jesus A song came into his heart and it's never stopped He wakes up with a song of praise He goes to sleep with a song of praise And praise is always in his heart. It's it's like a river that's just constantly flowing this Gratitude and praise to the lord Now for most people that's as far as they go in their walk with the lord God is in them But there is a third relationship with the holy spirit That we can have It's only for those who are born again It's only for those who believe and it's called the baptism of the holy spirit In john or in x chapter 1 verse 5 Jesus said for john truly baptized with water But you shall be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now And jesus said the purpose of the baptism with the holy spirit Is to receive power to be witnesses Power to be witnesses in acts 1 8 says but you shall receive power When the holy spirit has come upon you that word upon is epi speaking of the third relationship the epi relationship And you shall be witnesses that word witnesses marty Martyce and it's where we get the word martyr from You'll be witnesses to me in jerusalem and in all judia and samaria and to the end of the earth And so this third relationship That's described as the epi or the upon relationship Is a relationship of power It's dunamis Which we get our word dynamite from it's explosive Spiritual power the kind of power that causes demons to tremble and darkness to flee And this is the power that is available to every born again believer I mean when you consider the 11 disciples after jesus was crucified. What do they do? They were bold men of god. They went out and hid They were terrifying This man that had performed miracles That they saw him raise people from the dead Doing credible things that they thought was going to conquer the roman empire And set himself up as the messiah the king of israel and he goes gets himself killed That's not a great plan for a takeover And so they're terrified They're afraid They're in hiding But what turned these 11 men Who were in hiding and scared for their lives and turned them into bold street preachers Who proclaimed the resurrection of jesus christ? It was the baptism of the holy spirit In acts chapter three peter and john heal a lame lame man that peter preaches Then about the resurrection of jesus and as a result He and john are arrested and then we get to acts chapter four and acts chapter four They're asked by the jewish supreme court. They're they're brought before the jewish supreme court and they asked them by what power And by what name did you heal the lame man? And peter filled with the holy spirit Preaches the gospel to them Tells them about jesus we did it in the name of jesus Whom you crucified by the way and when they saw the boldness of peter and john And when they saw that the man was standing there healed They realized that they had been with jesus and could say nothing Against them they were speechless Now that's pretty amazing, but what I love is how they responded then to the situation When they were released from custody Which i've told that many of you know about They were threatened They were told not to talk about jesus And so they gathered together to pray and then acts chapter four if you want to turn there really quickly acts chapter four Verse 28 We read this now lord Look upon their threats And grant to your servants that with all boldness They may speak your word By stretching out your hand to heal And that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant jesus And when they had prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken And they were all filled with the holy spirit and they spoke the word of god with boldness They were faced with legal challenges For having preached the gospel And when questioned about it, they said hey lord look at what they're doing to us We need boldness and they were filled with the holy spirit began to speak the word with boldness Our a torii in his book why god used dl moody writes this He says the secret of why god used dl moody was that he had a very definite Endowment with power from on high a very clear and definite baptism with the holy ghost Mr. Moody knew he had the baptism with the holy ghost. He had no doubt about it In his early days. He was a great hustler He had a tremendous desire to do something, but he had no real power He worked very largely in the energy of the flesh But there were two humble free Methodist women Who used to come over to his meetings in the ymca And these two women would come to mr. Moody at the close of his meetings and say We are praying for you Now that irritated dl moody and so finally mr. Moody becomes somewhat nettle and said to them one night Why are you praying for me? Why don't you pray for the unsaved? And they replied we are praying that you may get the power And mr. Moody did not know what that meant, but he got to thinking about it And then went to these women and said I wish you would tell me what you mean And they told him about the definite baptism with the holy ghost And then he asked that he might pray with them and not they merely pray for him And he not only prayed with them, but he also prayed alone And not long after one day on his way to england He was walking up wall street in new york and in the midst of the bustle and hurry of that city His prayer was answered the power of god fell upon him as he walked up the street and he had to hurry himself Off to a house of a friend and asked that he might have a room by himself And in that room he stayed alone for hours and the holy ghost came upon him Filling his soul with such joy That at last he had to ask god to withhold his hand lest he die on the spot from very joy And he went out from that place with the power of the holy ghost upon him And when he got to london the power of god wrought through him mightily in north london and hundreds were added to the church You see that is the purpose of the baptism of the holy spirit It's the purpose is not to operate in the gifts of the spirit Although if you are baptized in the holy spirit, you will operate in the gifts of the spirit It will naturally happen, but the purpose is to win souls for christ The purpose is to lead people to jesus is to preach the gospel in x chapter 2 verse 41 The lord added three thousand to the church after the holy spirit was poured out upon the church in x 247 The lord added to the church daily those who were being saved in acts 514 believers were increasingly Added to the lord both men and women and in acts 1124 a great many people were added to the lord And so jesus said you will receive power to be witnesses to me You will receive power to be witnesses to me And there's something that this world needs today More than anything is they need men that are filled with the holy spirit That are baptized in the holy spirit that are witnesses for the lord jesus christ That the government can't shut down that culture can't shut down that people can't shut down But they're standing in the boldness of the power of the spirit that's been poured upon them And they're proclaiming the good news of jesus christ not who's going to win the election But the good news of who jesus is that he lives that he rose from the dead He forgives sins and he has the power to change your life That word witness in the greek I said it's the word martis where we get our word martyr from But it's a legal term It refers to an eyewitness Some of you know what that is Someone who reports what they have seen Or what has happened in a court of law And so every person who has had an encounter with jesus christ you are now an eyewitness Of what god has done You are a witness for him of how god's power can Save and change a life And now you're responsible for that testimony You're responsible for that witness And god says that you are to go out into all the world And share that witness with other people But here's the thing you cannot do it in your own power You can't do it in your own strength You need the power of the holy spirit God says not by might nor by power But by my spirit says the lord you need the power of the holy spirit to give you boldness to be a witness Now just as an aside The holy spirit was poured out on pentacost. There's another significant event in the bible that occurs on pentacost It's when the the word of god was given to the nation of israel at mount sinai in the book of uh exodus And what's significant about it is that god Through the giving of his word basically what he's saying is i want to govern over my people And he told moses to prepare the people and have them gather around the mountain because i want to speak to them but when God descended upon the mountain all of a sudden The people freaked out that's what it says in the hebrew And it says this says they stood afar off But when you read it in the language it says they ran for their lives I mean i think i would have been pretty terrified so this Cloud comes down smoke and fire and it's thundering. There's earthquakes And they run for their lives and moses said don't run God is here to test you and in the hebrew that word test means god is giving you an opportunity To grow in your relationship with him through a supernatural encounter with him because he wants to take you somewhere that you can't get on your own That's the idea behind that word testing Now fast forward that to the book of acts What is god doing when he pours out his holy spirit all of a sudden you have you have fire And the room is shaking thunder and the wind is blowing And yet the holy spirit is upon every person. What is he saying? I want to govern over every person's heart Every person's life. That's what the baptism of the holy spirit is all about i'm no longer I'm no longer saying that i am the lord of my life. I'm now receiving the lordship of jesus christ I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price. I'm not under my agenda I don't live life the way that I think that I should do it I'm now submitted and surrendered to the king of all kings and the lord of all lords and I live for him That's what happens at the baptism of the holy spirit And I guarantee you When you are filled with the holy spirit And you're busy being a witness for jesus You won't have time to get involved in things you shouldn't be involved in You won't have time to look at things you shouldn't look at You won't have time to have conversations that you shouldn't be involved in Because the holy spirit will be directing you and guiding your life This is where correct believing becomes correct living You need to believe what god says your purpose is That you are called to be his witness And when you do you will be the best wife or best husband, we're california You will be the best husband your wife has ever seen because god's love will pour out Through you to her by the power of the holy spirit You will be the best friends to your buddies because you will lead them to christ And change their eternal destiny You will be the best dad to your kids because they will see a man on fire for god With purpose and a legacy that they can follow And this is what the lord put on my heart for us today That there are many men here who are like david in the bible You should be in the battle You should be in the battle for men's souls God has put a call on your life You were called to be his witnesses But instead you've been sitting at home Getting involved in things you shouldn't be involved in getting caught up in controversies Arguments over the politics of the world talking like men And your soul is dissatisfied You're not experiencing the joy of the lord You're not happy with your life you feel powerless To change and it's because you need the baptism of the holy spirit I don't have to preach on sin Because the holy spirit is already convicting your hearts You already know what you shouldn't be doing what you need Is the power of god To be who he made you to be and that is to be a witness for him And so I want to invite you to come down and we're going to pray for you to receive the holy spirit And as you come you're making a declaration because I want you to be clear on what you're agreeing to As you come down for prayer You're saying to the lord that I need the power of the spirit I Need the power of the spirit in my life I want to live a life that's different than what I've been living I want to step into that realm that's higher than what I've been living I want to live a life that is supernatural with god And I can tell you from firsthand experience It is the most exciting life you will ever live When I had the privilege of praying for someone who had died in our church and god raised them from the dead Let me tell you something that was an exciting day When we saw this lady's little boy healed of a heart defect And we received the report of the doctor that was an exciting day We've seen god do some miraculous thing, but the greatest miracle that I never get over Is when he saves the soul When someone comes to christ You're saying as you walk forward i'm turning away from the sins that I've been involved in I'm leaving the past behind. I'm making a fresh start with jesus And i'm going to step into my purpose to be a witness for him And so we're going to invite the worship team to come up And as they come up And begin to play i'm going to invite you to come down And we're going to pray for you to receive the power of the holy spirit If there's those that are available to pray as well You come down and be prepared to pray for these men That are designed to be filled with the baptism of the holy spirit One thing I will say about deal moody is that He said afterwards and he was very successful as an evangelist before He was baptized in the spirit But afterwards he said, you know, I didn't change anything I preached the same messages. I did everything I did before the only difference was instead of Hundreds of people coming to christ thousands of people were coming to christ It brought a different dynamic As i've been ministering after I was baptized in the holy spirit having received prayer I led worship the same way I'd always have I taught the same way I always had But the only difference Is as I would lead worship now I would watch people Visibly experience the presence of god There was a sense of god that I wasn't aware of before There was a power moving people were weeping and coming to christ without us saying a word We had a lady come to our church and she had never been to church before She brought a book with her because she saw people going to church with a book And so she thought I got to bring a book to church And it was a christian book. It was the power of a praying woman And as we began to worship she just Wept the whole time And before I could give the invitation she stood up and said I want jesus The power of the holy spirit Is that what you want Or do you want to keep working in the power of your own flesh? The power of your own strength And so we're gonna sing and as we sing and As I said you're making the decision a declaration. I need the spirit I'm turning away from my sin. I'm leaving my past behind I'm making a fresh start with jesus today And i'm stepping into my purpose to be a witness for jesus christ Father thank you for your word lord, and I pray for each of these men lord as we are As we're closing this conference Or that this would be a dedication for them that they're making a commitment to you I want the power of the spirit to be a witness for you To be a bold witness for you to proclaim the good news of jesus That our sins are forgiven That we have a future in heaven That jesus is alive and that he is present and with us here even now in this room And so lord draw those by your spirit That you desire to pour yourself upon in jesus name Amen if that's you you come You come right now So just receive the spirit. That's right. Just receive it. He's all he's he's moving some of you He's just cleansing out the junk. He's just cleansing out that those tears that you're crying right now. That's the holy spirit Just cleansing out the junk cleansing out the filth just cleansing out All of the stuff that's been keeping you help mouths with your words or let The overflow of their heart the goodness of god the thanksgiving that's in their heart Because of all that you've done for them that their sins are your sons that they belong to you let the joy Of that began to overflow out of their mouth Lord let it be unrestrained and anoint them with boldness To proclaim That message of peace That god loves this world That he gave everything Right on the cross That this world could be for dunamis power dynamite power receiving you praise you lord We love you lord bless you jesus. You're so good. You're so kind Oh merciful Give them more show them things that are in the hearts of those that they're speaking to lord Give them eyes to see them ears that are past. You're not identified by your past All over of jesus you belong identified by your desires or by your sin You're identified by jesus and he says you're accepted Release your joy release your joy the joy of the lord that is our strength inexpressible and full of glory The joy of god god is not bummed out God is full of joy when he looks at the world. He sees joy Because he sees salvation being poured out. He sees freedom being poured out. He sees change being broken He sees sins being forgiven. He sees lives being changed And let me tell you what's gonna all of a sudden it may not happen today Might not happen tomorrow, but as the time goes on As you begin to read the word of god, it's just just gonna jump out at you. It's gonna come alive to you And all of a sudden you're gonna look around you and you're gonna see people differently As we've heard in in the testimonies that we and the and the messages that we've Listened to you're gonna see people differently All of a sudden you're not gonna look at them through judgment when they cut you off That won't be your first reaction You'll look at them with compassion And you say after I Get them back then i'm gonna pray for it. No You're gonna see people through the lens of compassion God's gonna begin to show you things about their life that you never saw before God's gonna show you things about your life that you never knew before And he's gonna reveal himself to you And you're gonna get to experience the real god of the bible The god of abraham isek and jake of the god Who walked this earth jesus he's gonna reveal himself to you And your life all of a sudden is You may not get the boldness today, but all of a sudden you're just gonna feel like I need to go share with that person I need to go talk to that person. I need to I need to pray for that person And you'll find yourself walking up to people and just say can I pray for you and they're gonna look at you and go Why and you're just I just feel I should pray for you and you're gonna pray for them and they're gonna Look at you and say, how did you know that prayer? You just prayed over me. How did you know to pray for them? And you're gonna realize oh, that's the holy spirit The holy spirit just spoke to me And then you're gonna go Wow, holy spirit just spoke to me and your heart's gonna be filled with joy and then you're gonna want to do it again And then you're gonna become a jesus And then people are gonna have to hold you back because you're like too freaky You see that's how the walk of the spirit is You've just received the baptism of the spirit and they'll go now go in his power As you go forth from this place Go in his power and see how God begins to use you Amen God bless you guys