 Today we're gonna, I'm just gonna touch briefly on one topic and that's gonna be called baptism in the Holy Spirit Baptism in the Holy Spirit if you have your Bible book of Acts chapter 2 and verse 4 says the following Well, I'll read from verse 1 2 and 3 but only verse 4 is gonna be on the screen When the day of Pentecost at Fulicombe they were all in one accord in one place Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting There then appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and each and one set upon each one of them And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and begun to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them Arrests somebody say praise the lord Baptism in the Holy Spirit now there's about seven baptisms that are recalled in the bible the three major ones That most of us are gonna be aware of or come in contact with the first one is the baptism of the Holy Spirit Into Jesus which produces salvation The bible says that by one spirit we were baptized into the body of Christ That means that when you come to the altar for salvation the Holy Spirit invisibly Baptizes you into Jesus now back word baptism means to immerse What baptism means to dip It's almost like when you take a cloth and you put it into a die and the the collar and and all of the stuff You know gets filled into a die and the cloth gets filled with that as well And that's exactly what happens when you get saved is the Holy Spirit takes you from being martinous lopers South check in the smith and he puts you into christ That's why when you die god is gonna open the gates of heaven to christ and you happen to be in christ Somebody say amen. That's why you're not going to hell. Why because christ is not going to hell. You are in christ Many people live in their crisis, but we as christians will live in christ There could be crisis in our finances. There could be crisis in our marriage There could be crisis in our job, but my life is anchored in christ. Jesus somebody say amen How do I know that? How do I get that when you get saved? Holy spirit puts you in christ If you watch the or you heard a story about how greeks conquered city of troi Is that they produced this horse and they put soldiers into that horse and and city of troi didn't welcome the greeks But they welcome the horse and when they welcome the horse they also welcomed anything that was in the horse See when you're gonna die heaven is gonna welcome jesus and because you receive jesus Holy spirit baptize you in jesus You are in the trojan horse and the gates of heaven are gonna open to jesus and you are in christ somebody say amen That's why it's the most important to bring people to church It's the most important to invite next wednesday every service so that people don't get into religion Into jesus The second baptism is the one that we frequently hear in our church and in the bible is the water baptism baptism in water Baptism in water is done by a preacher For identification So the first baptism is done by holy spirit Into jesus when we get saved The second baptism is done by a preacher or a pastor clergy priest Into water And this one is not for salvation. It's for our identification with jesus christ When you get saved when you follow jesus the bible says that you have to publicly you publicly declare Of your decision to follow jesus water baptism is a public expression or public declaration Over inward decision somebody say amen So public declaration of inward decision It's kind of like when you get married, you know, and then you wear a ring a ring is not marriage but married people wear it Now the challenge we have today is we have a lot of people who come from from a catholic background Or those even who didn't attend the catholic church But they grew up in a catholic family and when they come to church, you know, that is completely wonderful until the idea of baptism appears And for a lot of people, you know, their family begins to and we've had cases here where the family turns against them and begins to say that You know, you betraying your catholic faith by getting baptized But it's good to get baptized as a child as a catholic person those of you who come from a catholic We have to understand where child baptism begun in catholic church It began when nations started to come into a church And they started to come from being a pagan and being involved in witchcraft and occult And the local priest would pray for the family and he would pray for the children by spraying water on them Not for baptism but for breaking generational curses that were attached to the family And with time that became a ceremony that became a tradition where now it's just a routine It's no longer had anything to do with disconnecting with curses. It just part of the baptism But the bible is our standard. It's good to get sprinkled with water Not just when you're a baby every day. It's good to be sprinkled with water But it's not biblical baptism biblical baptism is in a bible where Jesus was baptized as an adult Baptism follows your decision to follow Jesus Christ And when you're a baby, you didn't make any decisions except poop cry and sleep You didn't make a decision to follow Jesus. So that's why when you become an adult When you know what you're doing you make a decision to follow Jesus Christ You have to publicly like the Lord Jesus Christ get water baptized to identify yourself with Jesus When you go into the water it symbolizes when Jesus died and when Jesus rose from the dead It's like you rising back from the water into walking into a new life. Can somebody say amen? Now I understand some people may say Vlad I am not ready I'm not ready to get water baptized and I usually ask them the following question Have you given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ? They said yes I have but I'm not ready to get water baptized and I say you sound very absurd It's like a person who got married and says I'm not ready to wear a wedding ring I'm like you should have thought about not being ready to get baptized before you get saved When you make a decision to follow Jesus It's kind of like you got married and getting water baptized is publicly declaring of that decision to follow Jesus And to say that you're not ready to get publicly baptized when you already made a decision to Jesus That's like a person who you know gets married with his wife and says to his wife. I'm not ready to sit close to you in church Well, you should have done that before we get married You don't get ready By being holier that's just an expression and after that your life begins to change for the glory of God because somebody say amen the third baptism Which is very powerful and that's the baptism of Jesus into the Holy Spirit So the first baptism is the baptism that Holy Spirit He puts us into Jesus The second one is when the preacher puts you into water And by the way, if you are here and you have not been water baptized But you have given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ I will highly encourage and recommend to you Next Wednesday is the perfect time to get water baptized And this Friday you can come to the class and learn more about it answers We can answer some of the questions and get you prepared And then next Wednesday you can get water baptized and then continue to grow in the Lord somebody say amen I know some people are getting baptized. I'm gonna be excited for the baptism next Wednesday. Yes Some of you you need to get rebaptized. I didn't hear you How many of you excited for water baptism next Wednesday? Okay, because I was about to think maybe we need to offer second baptism for people No, we don't we only offer one baptism of Jesus into the Holy Spirit For the manifestation or for ministry for empowerment for power So this is a baptism that Jesus does Where Jesus baptizes you into the Holy Spirit So the baptism is done by Jesus Into the Holy Spirit John the Baptist declared about Jesus. He actually told first to all of us that Jesus is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit When people were coming to John to get baptized in water You know, that was good But John says what what do you guys see here is great? You know, everybody gets dunked into water for repentance of their sin But he says in the Messiah Jesus is coming and see most of us know Jesus for one thing He will die on the cross But John didn't say that John said he's coming and guess what he's gonna do. He said he will baptize people not into the liquid water into the liquid fire He said he will baptize people into fire and the next day John said oh, by the way, he's gonna die for your sin See for most of us We only know Jesus as the one who the Lamb of God and he is and without that we will never be saved But Jesus after he died he ascended into heaven and one of the jobs that Jesus does today Is he interceded for us and secondly he baptizes us into the Holy Spirit Now I understand you might say that You know, why would he do that? This is the most one of the most amazing thing about Jesus. It's not only that he gave his life For us. He gives us the salvation It's that he gives us the same access He had to the power and the person when he was on this earth, which made him who he was See many people see Jesus on earth as fully God a hundred percent But Jesus on earth acted not as God Otherwise, he couldn't tell us the works. I do these you'll do and more you can never be like God and better than God Jesus on earth lived like a man fully immersed into the Holy Spirit That's why when he left he says I'm not only giving you salvation I'm giving you the same power the same person I had connection with from the day I was born to the day I died And that is one of the greatest gifts Jesus can give you after your salvation somebody say praise the lord You know sometimes you meet people who become very successful and they do certain business or they have certain connections And they don't share anything with you They don't give you any connections They brag about how good they are How much money they make what they do and how successful they are And when you try to poke around the hole just to sneak in to see what they're doing Maybe it will work for you. They shut you down very quickly and almost like say that's never ever gonna work for you Have you ever had that happen to you? Have you ever done that to somebody? You know what Jesus does Not only he invites he says when I go to heaven He says I'm all every one of you. I'm gonna be introduced you to the same power I was receiving every single day when I was on this earth The power that made me walk on water The power that made me be born from a virgin The power that filled me at the river jordan the power that helped me overcome the devil The power that filled me and I cast out demons the power that helped me to heal the sick The power that helped me to offer myself to the cross and the power when I was dead and gone A roman put a stamp on my grave the power that came remove the stone got me out of the grave That power he says I'm leaving here that person I'm leaving here and my job is going to be to bring you to that person and baptize you in that person The holy spirit for many people it's a very strange topic Many people they come to churches like ours and they say we love jesus Holy spirit freaks us out before Remember if virgin birth Three days being in the grave and getting out of the grave walking on water doesn't freak you out That means you're not really reading the bible when you're reading the bible Did you know that everything about jesus life wasn't normal? The normal normality what we accepted about jesus there was nothing normal about him A man who's born out of a virgin A man who does what he did and get raised from the dead that is not normal That is as strange to a natural man as he can get And he was all done by the power of the holy spirit People who say well, I love the holy spirit I just don't want to do nothing to do with his power or his manifestation I just want the holy spirit, but I don't want anything that goes with it like speaking in tongues Healing of the sick casting out of demons I want nothing to do with the prophecies because those things they kind of freak me out It's like saying I want to go to swim just don't want to get wet It's like people who those of you who've been in the world you say i'm going to drink a bottle of vodka But but I won't get drunk It won't affect me at all. I'll be a sober police officer who put me over Breathe into his thing and everything will be fine. That's not possible You know when we were building on my house and I had to collect connect few electrical wires And connect the lights lamps and an accident one of the breakers were left on And so it's just a small little wires. I mean, what can they do? When the breaker is on you touch him and when the electricity tips you I don't care if you baptist presbyterian catholic atheist it tips you you go like this Somebody's like nah, it won't happen to me try it. Please don't but When the power touches you There is manifestation And somebody say amen. Now you may manifest differently. I've seen how gross manifests I've seen other people. They just shake and they scream and they yell But the point being is this is the many people say I love the electricity. I just don't want it to touch me See when disciples receive the Holy Spirit, there came a wind There came fire. They came tongues. They came things you can't explain and the disciple didn't say we say well We want the Holy Spirit. We don't want anything that comes with it because you know people will not understand See, this is not about you have to understand on this earth. We are not inviting Holy Spirit into our backyard He invited us into his own Everything you see has a fingerprint of the Holy Ghost To be ashamed afraid weirded out by the power of the Holy Spirit is not it's foolish It is wrong for us as Christians. We have to embrace the Holy Spirit Embrace his power embrace his gifts and embrace his mission for our world and for our life. Can somebody say amen Some people say well Vlad, but when Jesus got filled with Holy Spirit, he didn't speak in tongues It's true At least we don't see it recorded, but Jesus did say in mark chapter 16 that those who will follow him Will speak in tongues. Let me just for a moment Underline the issue of speaking in tongues In our church, we believe In all the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit We believe that they didn't die with the apostles because if they would have died with the apostles Then that means sickness died with the apostles and we all know it didn't Divorce would have died with the apostles, but it didn't Satan would have died with the apostles, but it didn't all the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit They were not just given to make Jesus look good They were given to glorify the name of Jesus by showing his goodness toward humanity And Jesus is still good even 2,000 years later. Somebody say yes Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever That's why his gifts are for today because they're not just to show off his good to show off his power But also to show off his goodness Yes, those gifts when people get healed when people get free it proves that Jesus is powerful But the real reason is because he loves people It's like, you know to say that dan was playing piano here tonight to prove to everyone he has fingers Yeah, it proves he has fingers when he plays piano But let me assure you of one thing when he played piano, it's because he loves music When Jesus heals it proves he is God, but when he heals is because he loves you Because he loves the sick. It's because he is hurting Somebody say amen speaking in tongues and we see The issue of tongues it didn't just start in the new testament We see issue of tongues all the way in the old testament when people were building a tower And the scripture says that they were building a tower to build themselves a name instead of glorifying the name of God They were trying to glorify their own name And God came in and God brought tongues Today the reason why we speak different languages here Is because long time ago when man, God was trying to separate men and help him not to accomplish anything God brought the different languages to bring separation because men were trying to build a tower to reach God And trying to build a tower to exalt themselves So the whole tongues thing anytime you hear somebody speak Spanish Anytime you hear somebody speaks English and you will say well, Vlad speaking in tongues is kind of different Well, it's interesting how we all got used to speaking other languages And it's funny how most of you don't find no problem listening to cuss words It's amazing that most of us don't have any problem And it's not weirded out by dropping f-bombs and anybody or anything that walks But when he comes to speaking in tongues, I'm like, well, this is just strange. No, strange is cussing Holy spirit is not strange And in the new testament As there God came in and brought tongues to bring separation and to stop the progress Because they were building a tower in the new testament the Holy Spirit comes and God says Well, I'm gonna do something completely different. I will reverse what I did then I'll bring the tongues to bring unity build my kingdom and help the progress that they have for my kingdom Somebody say amen And today I want to encourage each one of you that the gift of the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit is a person he's a gift But he also has gifts that he gives to us And one of those gifts he gives to all believers Is the gift of speaking in tongues It's for a prayer language It's not only to pray. It's only to worship. It's also to worship God And it's not only to be used privately Or when we culprately pray But it's also to be used the bible says when somebody amongst us speak in a tongue And then there's an interpretation not translation But interpretation of tongues when somebody gets up and Intrepid that tongue not because he learned it in school But because the Holy Spirit gives him interpretation Last Sunday I had the opportunity of being in Hermiston And there was a wonderful lovely assemblies of God church And during after the first song a lady had a tongue Where she started to speak very loudly in tongues for about two three minutes And I grew up in in the church where I've seen the gift of tongues and interpretation operate all the time Sadly it was the only gift that we saw operate there. No other gifts were focused on And so this was nothing new for me But I saw the people that came with me they kind of were not used to this And so right after the lady finished speaking in tongues. It was very loud. Everybody was quiet. She was very loud And then the person gets up on the other side of the sanctuary and gave the interpretation He didn't translate translation is what our guys do Interpretation is what the Holy Spirit does When it aligns up with the scriptures and so and then the whole church was just erupted in prayer People started just praying and started to see God That's why Paul says if you speak in tongues make sure somebody translates that That's speaking to if somebody in the middle of a sermon gets up and starts speaking in tongue That better be translated But when we corporately pray together when you pray on your own the scripture says and Paul encourages us to constantly pray in the spirit We are encouraged prayer language tongues is a private grace But it's also a public gift During a home group this week, you're gonna learn a little bit more. You're gonna learn how to also receive that gift The best way to receive that gift is you have to want it Stop seeing Holy Spirit is weird. He's an awesome person and he is God This is not a charismatic Pentecostal thing. This is a Jesus thing We don't baptize people in the Holy Spirit. Jesus does that. It was his idea Remove every fear that if you ask God for this gift, you're gonna get something else No, no, God is gonna give you the gift of speaking in tongues. That's gonna be from him Ask for it and receive it. It's not an award. It's a gift You don't earn it. You receive it Can somebody say amen