July 28, 2025 • 33 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Jean 14.12.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Oui, je vous le déclare, c'est la vérité.
Celui qui croit en moi feraaussi les œuvres que je fais.
Il en fera même des plusgrandes, parce que je vais
auprès du Père.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
And now in English.
This is the new internationalversion version.
Very truly, I tell you, whoeverbelieves in me will do the
works I have been doing, andthey will do even greater things
than these, because I am goingto the Father this is the word
(00:59):
of the Lord, la parole de Dieu.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Thank you and thanks be to God.
Hey, it is so good to be backwith you here at Northgate.
For those of you who may benewer, my name is John and you
haven't been here in the past,but this is like my eighth
summer.
I've been able to join you andbe with you, which is exciting.
I figure this is the earlycrowd, so I'm going to have more
grandparents in this crowd.
Any grandparents in this crowd?
Yeah, it'll make it to thelater ones.
You've been up since like threein the morning.
You're already just like that'show you're wired now.
(01:26):
Right, I love being agrandfather.
My grandkids call me Poppy, andthe thing I love about them is
like they're so amazing.
I really wish I would have hadthem first.
I love them so much, but I doknow this like, grandkids are
the reward for not killing yourown kids.
So, speaking of kids, though,when my daughters I have two
(01:49):
daughters in their 30s now whenmy daughters were little, we had
one of those major poweroutages that just blanketed
Southern California and my kidswere like at a loss of what to
do, like okay, there's no power,like there's no lights.
They noticed that they're likewell, can we watch TV?
No, because it plugs in.
(02:09):
Oh, can we listen to the radio?
No, because it plugs in.
Mommy, can you make us somepopcorn?
We use an air popper?
No, because it plugs in, and ittook them a while to figure it
out.
I think they're like three andfive.
It took them a while to figureit out.
Anything that plugged in wouldnot work.
That was the whole idea.
Well, today we're talking aboutpower.
(02:30):
We're talking about the powerof the Holy Spirit.
As we continue this series and Ilove this series that you've
been a part of.
I've been watching some ofthose and kind of keeping up
with you it's something thatdawned on me just a few years
(02:52):
ago.
I've been doing ministry nowfor over 41 years.
That means I'm old.
But something dawned on me acouple of years ago.
I had never done a series onthe Holy Spirit.
No, I've talked about him andobviously he comes up in
Scripture.
I'd never done a whole seriesand we saw something really
spectacular happen in our churchwhen we did that.
Like, people are hungry tolearn more.
So I'm so excited you guys aredoing this, just spending some
time soaking in all thesedifferent things, because how
could you talk about the HolySpirit in just one week anyway?
So you're spending some timetalking about this and, pastor
(03:15):
Larry, he talked about this inthe very first week Is he a
person or is he a force?
And the answer is he's a person.
He's part of the Trinity Father, son and, as Max Lucado says,
the Holy who.
Like, we're just not thatfamiliar, right, the Father, the
Son and the Holy who.
But you've been talking aboutit, you're getting more familiar
with this familiar stranger wecall the Holy Spirit.
(03:41):
I love the idea of this weekendin particular, and I was invited
to talk about power.
Bless you, man.
Speaking of power, I was likebam, way to go.
I was a little impressed rightthere.
My family makes fun of mebecause I always carry this.
Anybody know what this is.
It's a little Swiss Army knife.
(04:02):
It has scissors, it has a knife, it has toothpick, it has
tweezers.
It's like everybody makes funof me and then, all of a sudden,
they're in a spot where theyneed one and they're like hey,
do you have your stupid littleknife?
Yes, I do, right, I'll come tothe rescue Poppy, to the rescue,
(04:23):
right?
I could open that gift for you.
Here you go, right, and this isawesome, unless my job was
cutting down a massive tree, andthen I'd look a little silly
walking up to a tree with this.
If there's an option between mylittle Swiss army pocket knife
which I've lost several of thesein airports because they won't
(04:44):
let you go into the airport,it's like who get this hurt?
Anyway, it's like I have to gobuy another one on Amazon.
If my only option was this or ahuge power saw and my job was
to cut down a tree, I'm going totake the power saw every time.
Right, that's what we got to dowhen we're talking about the
kind of power we're talkingabout in this series.
(05:06):
This particular verse came tomind right the moment when Larry
says I want you to talk aboutthe power part of the Holy
Spirit, and this is what came tomind for me.
I got to turn this on so thatit'll work.
Here we go, not by might, norby power, but by my spirit, says
the Lord.
Let me make sure you understandthis Not by might, like my
(05:30):
power, not by might or humanpower or willpower.
No, it's going to be by thepower of the Holy Spirit that
lives are going to be changed,that God is going to do what he
purposed to do.
It's going to be by his power,and when we go about it in our
way, we look a little silly.
I got in trouble one time.
I showed a clip, and the reasonI say I got in trouble I had a
(05:54):
lady who left our church overthis.
We were talking about the fullarmor of God in Ephesians,
chapter 6, and I showed a clipfrom Monty Python and it was the
scene with the holy handgrenade.
Some of you you've never seenit, you're not old enough.
Those of my age are like wait,wait, woo, this is such a good
(06:15):
movie.
It's stupid, but it's such agood movie.
Anyway.
The holy hand grenade, it'slike thou shalt count to three,
thou shalt not proceed to four,thou shalt not stop at two.
And the reason I showed thatclip was that that's how
ridiculous we look, fightingspiritual battles on our power.
That's how stupid we look.
That's how stupid we look whenthere are massive things that
(06:39):
God wants to do, but it's notgoing to happen on our power,
it's only going to happen by hisspirit.
Tyler Staten says this only aconfrontation with your own
powerlessness will drive you tothe power of the Holy Spirit.
See, our culture constantlydrives us to a thing I called
(06:59):
like a self-reliance.
It's like you're enough.
Believe in yourself, come on,have faith in yourself.
I'm not going to tell youthat's just a dead-end road,
because we are not enough.
But we are not left withoutpower.
This is God's plan and this isthe beauty of His plan.
(07:21):
He has given us His power.
So in John, chapter 14, whichis going to be our primary text,
john 14, 12, jesus is gettingready to tell his disciples
you're not alone.
You're not alone.
You got help and help is on theway.
So here it is in John 14, 12.
Here it is in John 14, 12.
(07:43):
It's not working.
There it goes.
Very true, I tell you whoeverbelieves in me will do the works
I have been doing, and theywill do even greater things than
these, because I'm going to theFather Now.
I know that you already lookedat this verse in the series and
the question is always the samequestion what does do even
greater works or do even greaterthings mean?
(08:05):
Does that mean like quantity,like because there's going to be
millions of us that you justmultiply what Jesus is doing?
That's greater that way.
Or does it mean, like he raisedthe dead and he brought sight
to the blind and he healed theleper?
Are we going to do even moreamazing things than that
ourselves?
The answer is no one knows forsure.
But what did he say?
(08:27):
You're going to do even greaterthings.
How is that possible?
Because you're not alone andthere is not just a force.
There is a person named theHoly Spirit who's going to guide
and direct you and he's goingto bring his power.
Power is the same word theapostle Paul uses when he talks
about the church, and he saysthis in 1 Corinthians 4,.
(08:49):
He says, for the kingdom of Godis not a matter of talk, but of
power.
And yet it feels like it's alot of talk and it feels like in
life, where is the power that Ineed?
Because I feel powerless whenlife is hitting me from every
side and all these differentthings are happening.
Like, where is that power andneed?
Because I feel powerless whenlife is hitting me from every
side and all these differentthings are happening, like where
is that power?
And what we've got to do isfigure out how do we connect
(09:13):
with that power.
And like my daughter's figuringout that if it plugs in, it
won't work.
When the power is hot, it won'twork unless it's plugged in.
Right, I mean, you can have areally nice TV, but if it's not
plugged in, if it's not pluggedinto the power source, it's not
going to work.
And so what you and I have gotto do, we've got to figure out
how do we do this.
Now.
The Bible gives us thisbeautiful picture of the Holy
(09:37):
Spirit at work in Jesus' life,and I want you to see this
because it's going to make adifference in the way you view,
maybe the, because it's going tomake a difference in the way
you view, maybe the way you viewthe way God wants to work in
your life as well.
In Jesus' baptism there is thismoment where the Holy Spirit
comes.
Now you might remember this.
Like the Father says something,the Holy Spirit shows up.
You have the Father, the Sonand the Holy Spirit all in the
same scene in Jesus' baptism,and it's in Mark, chapter 1.
(10:01):
It's actually recorded inMatthew, mark, luke and John.
All four gospels record this.
It says just as Jesus wascoming up out of the water, he
saw heaven being torn open andthe spirit descending on him
like a.
What does that say?
Like a dove.
All four of those gospelaccounts use the same word dove.
And a voice came from heaven.
You are my son, whom I love.
With you, I am well pleased.
(10:22):
So you've got the Father,you've got the Son, you've got
the Spirit all together.
Why a dove?
I mean, of all the images thatthe Holy Spirit could arrive on
this evening, why a dove?
That has always baffled me.
So what I want to do is I wantto give you some help in this
with some imagery of the Bible.
(10:42):
I'm going to back up a littlebit and kind of walk through the
Bible and just the imagery ofwhat this possibly could be
talking about, so that we canunderstand more what the power
of the Holy Spirit is and whathe's offering us in our life.
All right, so we're going to goback to what we call the
creation.
All right, the very beginning,in fact, the book of Genesis.
The word means Genesis meansbeginnings, and that's exactly
(11:03):
how this whole thing starts.
Here we go In the beginning,god created the heavens and the
earth.
By the way, remember that verse.
It's going to come up again,but remember that verse.
In the beginning, god createdthe heavens and the earth.
Now, the earth was formless andempty.
Darkness was over the surfaceof the deep and the spirit of
God was what's this word?
Hovering over the waters.
So, however you envision thatthe imagery is that of a bird,
(11:29):
it's hovering over the waters.
And then this is the very firstscene in the Bible where you,
in fact, when we read on, likeGod, says let us make man in our
image.
There is a father, there's ason, there's a Holy Spirit all
involved in creation, and theSpirit is hovering.
That's the idea.
We move through the Bible and weget to the Old Testament, the
Old Covenant, and the one whorepresents that for us is a guy
(11:52):
named Moses, and Moses obviouslyled the children of Israel out
of Egypt to the promised land.
There's 40 years that go bythere.
There's a lot of lessons inthat whole thing, but then when
they get ready to go into thepromised land, this word
hovering that we see in Genesis1-2 is a rare word.
We don't see it very often inthe Bible.
One of the other times we seeit is in Deuteronomy, and what
(12:14):
Moses has done is he hasfashioned a song to teach Israel
that they could sing.
That would remind them ofeverything that God has done for
them.
Like how amazing is this God?
Like that's what they're tryingto do.
So Moses has this song and inDeuteronomy 32, it says this
like an eagle that stirs up itsnest, and what Hovers there's
that word hovers over its young.
(12:35):
That spreads its wings to catchthem and carries them aloft.
This is a very, almost likemotherly, very almost like
motherly loving, positive word.
This eagle is hovering over itsnest, hovering over its little
ones, caring for them.
Now we use the word hover todayand it doesn't sound so
(12:55):
positive because we meanhelicopter parents.
It's like that's not the rightkind of hovering.
This is a very, very positivekind of hovering right here, and
that's what he's explaining tous.
And then we get to Jesus.
Now again, jesus in his baptismhas this dove that ascends, and
then you hear the voice of theFather.
The dove ascends and what he'sreally saying to us.
(13:18):
I think in this imagery, increation the Spirit was hovering
.
God in his care for theIsraelites through his spirit,
was hovering over them,protecting them for 40 years in
the wilderness.
And now that same spirit, inthe form of a dove, is
(13:38):
descending onto Jesus, ontoJesus, Jesus.
And from this time on we seeJesus being led by the Spirit
and the power of the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit.
That's the kind of language wesee in the gospel accounts, as
Jesus did his thing.
In Luke, chapter 4, jesus is ina synagogue and he stands up and
he opens the passage.
He opens the scroll to Isaiah61, and he reads this Now,
(14:02):
listen to this.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, so just know what he's reading
was prophesied hundreds ofyears before and Jesus is going
to make the point.
It's talking about me.
All right.
The Spirit of the Lord is on mebecause he has anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaimfreedom for the prisoners and
recovery and sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to
(14:25):
proclaim the year of the Lord'sfavor.
Don't miss this.
This is such a clear, powerfulclaim that the people from this
little village in the synagoguetake him out because they want
to kill him, because he justclaimed to be God.
(14:45):
He says what we just readyou're seeing happening in my
life, like the spirit is on meand they wanted to kill him.
It says he just walked awayfrom the ground and then it says
and he was led by the spiritand in the spirit and in the
power of the Spirit.
Those kinds of phrases keepcoming up because what Jesus
(15:07):
does now from this point on ishis ministry is launched and
it's miracle after miracle aftermiracle in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Now some people have problemswith the miracles in the Bible.
Did you know that Some peopleare like I don't know if I buy
that, I don't know about that.
And if you ever heard of a guynamed Thomas Jefferson?
There's a famous thing calledthe Jefferson Bible.
(15:29):
Thomas Jefferson believed inGod, but he didn't believe in
all the miracles, and so he cutout all the miracles in the
Bible and he was only left withjust like moral principles of
life.
It's called the Jefferson Bible.
But how bizarre is that?
How do you remove the verythings that gave credibility to
the teaching of Jesus, not justin Jesus' day but even in the
(15:52):
Old Testament?
The blind were healed, thosewith leprosy were cleansed, the
dead were raised to life.
I mean, we see Jesus in thepower of the Holy Spirit doing
all these miracles and more.
We see God doing these kind ofmiracles even before Jesus shows
up on the scene, because theSpirit was doing what the Spirit
does in His power and God usedthose miracles always as
(16:18):
evidence and credibility to letthem know who he really was, so
they would listen to Him, thatthey would pay attention to him.
See, I don't have a problemwith miracles.
Remember, I told you Genesis1-1 was important.
If you can believe Genesis 1-1,you don't have a problem with
(16:40):
God moving a little bit of waterso the Israelites could walk
through in the Red Sea.
If you believe in the beginningGod created the heavens and the
earth, you don't have a problemwith God saying oh you know
what?
Hey fish, go over there andswallow that dude named Jonah
he's jumping over the boat rightnow and then three days later
spit him up.
That's not a big deal for Godbecause of his power.
Because of his power, we keepmoving through and we see the
(17:04):
early church.
The book of Acts is written by aguy named Luke, who also wrote
the book of Luke.
So we have Matthew, mark, luke,john Luke is one of those four
pictures of Jesus' life and whenhe starts writing the book of
Acts he says in my former bookand he's writing to a guy named
Theophilus in my former book,Theophilus, I began to tell you
(17:27):
everything that Jesus did andtaught.
So in Acts, what he's going todo is now.
What Jesus began to do andteach is going to be continued
by his church in the power ofthe Holy Spirit.
Jesus says this but you willreceive power when the Holy
(17:47):
Spirit comes on you and you willbe my witnesses in Jerusalem
and all Judea and Samaria andthe ends of the earth.
You will receive what Power?
And in Acts, chapter 2, thepower guess what Descends on the
church.
The one who has been hoveringanoints the church descends on
the church.
The one who has been hoveringanoints the church, descends on
(18:08):
the church and takes up hisdwelling.
With him, eugene Peterson, whowas the one who translated the
Bible that we have called themessage.
It's kind of like streetlanguage for understanding the
Bible.
He says this God gave us themiracle of congregation, the
same way he gave us the miracleof Jesus.
By the descent of the dove, theHoly Spirit descended into the
womb of Mary in the Galileanvillage of Nazareth.
(18:30):
Thirty or so years later, thesame Holy Spirit descended into
the collective spiritual womb ofmen and women, which included
Mary, who had been followers ofJesus.
The first conception gave usJesus.
The second conception gave usthe church.
The Holy Spirit shows up inActs, chapter 2, and then we're
(18:52):
off and running and miracles arehappening Again.
Miracles.
In fact, at the end of chapter2, it says this everyone was
filled with awe at the manywonders and signs performed by
the apostles.
Well, how were they able to dothat?
It wasn't their own power, wasit?
It was the power of the HolySpirit.
(19:12):
And then we get to us.
What about us?
My grandson is four years old.
He just turned four last month,but ever since he was about two
and a half he came up with thisthing when we're wrestling.
He loves to wrestle, he is allboy.
I mean like I raised twodaughters and then I had a
granddaughter, and then he camein.
(19:33):
It was different, let me tellyou what.
And now I look at him and Ijust I kind of like laugh out
loud to him.
I'm like that's what my parentswent through, because he walks
into a room and mygranddaughter's like I wonder if
they like them and I wonder ifthey're being nice to them and I
wonder if they're.
She's all about relationalconnection and dynamics.
And he walks in and goes I couldjump off that and he will.
(19:57):
If you don't stop him, he'llclimb and just jump.
See what happens, right?
So we're doing this wrestlingthing and he has this thing.
He right.
So we're doing this wrestlingthing and he has this thing.
He says go big poppy.
Again, my name is poppy, go bigpoppy.
And that means that I get ontop of him, like I'm going to
just crush him, but he has hislittle legs ready and as soon as
I get there, he just pushes off.
Now, by the way, he knows, andI know he can't push me off, but
(20:18):
I go flying anyway.
That's what go big poppy means.
I get on him and he's like boom, and I go.
I go flying into a couch or onthe side of a chair or I'm
rolling through the room and hegoes go big poppy.
And I jump back on him and hedoes it again.
Right, this is so fun for usand it's so cool for me that I
was in a car wash just like amonth ago and they have
(20:41):
different levels of the wash.
You can get like wet, you canget wet with soap, you can get
wet with soap and wax, right,like.
They have all these levels andone of them was called go big.
I'm like that's the one I'mgetting because I'm Poppy.
Right, I have to get it.
I went, I took a picture, Ishowed him.
He goes yeah, like he made theconnection right.
Go big Poppy and Jesus.
He made the connection right.
(21:01):
Go big poppy and Jesus.
What he's doing in John 14 ishe's about to tell his disciples
you ready for this?
You're about to go big.
That's what he's going to sayVery truly.
I tell you, whoever believes inme will do the works I have
been doing, and they will doeven greater things.
(21:22):
You're about to go big that'swhat he's saying Bigger things
than these, because I'm going tothe Father.
I desperately want that to betrue in my life.
I desperately want that to betrue in your life.
I want that to be true in yourchurch.
I want Benicia like radicallytransformed because of the Holy
(21:45):
Spirit's power working throughyou.
That's what we should bepraying for on a regular basis.
God, move and work through us,beyond us.
By the way, that's my prayerevery week before I preach, and
I've been doing this for years.
Part of my prayer just goeslike this, and I prayed it
before I came out here.
God, they don't need me, theyneed you, and I ask that the
(22:12):
Holy Spirit would be present inthis room and he would
individually speak to every oneof you according to what's going
on in your life and what youneed.
Years ago, we were gettingready to do a big event in a
stadium for Easter and we had aprayer walk around the stadium
the day before and we werepraying at different stations.
We got to the place where Iwould be teaching the next day
(22:33):
and so they were praying for meand somebody prayed God may the
people tomorrow hear in theirown language, just like in Acts,
chapter 2.
In Acts, chapter 2, there werepeople from like I think it's 18
different nations, and as Petertalked, they all heard in their
own language.
Now, that's one thing.
You got to hear the word of Godin French today, that's another
(22:55):
language.
But what I mean by that, when Igot spirits speak to them in
their own language, what I meanis that, no matter what I say,
that he would say what you needto hear into your heart and that
you would receive that, becauseit's not about me, it's about
him, and we need his power.
Francis Chan wrote a book aboutthe Holy Spirit.
(23:17):
He said there was a time when Igot excited over a crowd
showing up to hear me preach,but those days are long gone.
Now I deeply desire that theSpirit of God would do things
that I know are not of me andthat it cannot be faked or
accounted for by human action.
Max Lucado, in his book aboutthe Holy Spirit, says Forty
years of ministry has left meconvinced.
(23:37):
We do not have what it takes toheal this hurting world.
We might create programs, trainstaff and build wonderful
sanctuaries, but I gladlyexchange them all for one
raindrop from the Spirit ofheaven.
I'm with those guys.
I love a crowd as much asanybody else, but I want the
(23:57):
Holy Spirit to do what only theHoly Spirit can do in us by His
power.
See, here's the truth.
He empowers us to be what hecalls us to be and he sends us.
He sends us into the placesthat we go.
It might be my prayer before Icome and preach, but it might be
(24:19):
your prayer before you go towork.
It might be your prayer beforeyou walk into a school.
It might be your prayer beforeyou go visit family.
God, I'm not what they need,but they need you and I want you
to use me any way you can, byyour power, to help them.
Because I'm convinced that thegreatest demonstration of God's
power and the Holy Spirit'spower is not the miraculous like
(24:40):
we think of.
Like, I think there's part ofus that wants I want the power
of the Holy Spirit so I can walkoutside and say you know what?
I want?
A better parking spot and justmove a car.
That would be cool, right, butthe greatest demonstration of
his power is a changed life.
Cool, right, but the greatestdemonstration of his power is a
changed life, and when you and Itake the Holy Spirit with us
(25:02):
into those places, there's nostopping what he can do.
Listen, he sends us, but notalone, and not without help and
not without his power.
Let me go back to this verseagain John 14, 12.
Very truly, I tell you, whoeverbelieves in me will do the
works I have been doing, andthey will do even greater things
than these, because I am goingto the Father.
(25:23):
Now I'm going to highlight adifferent word this time, right
here.
What does that say?
Whoever, whoever Jesus tellsthe story of the prodigal son.
And in telling the story of theprodigal son, maybe you know
this story.
I don't even love the titlethat we've given it.
I think it should be called thestory of a father's love.
(25:45):
There's actually two boys inthe story.
Both mess up at some point.
But the prodigal, the one whogoes away, takes his dad's
inheritance and blows it all onwild living and prostitutes
that's what the Bible says.
He has a come-to-Jesus kind ofmoment where he's sitting there
like wait a minute, I should gohome.
At least I could just be ahired hand.
(26:05):
At least I could be one of theworkers, I'd have a roof over my
head, I've had three meals aday, I'm going to go home.
And so he goes home.
But Jesus tells us the story sowe'd understand that, no matter
how much we've blown it, god isstill waiting for us to come
home.
And so when the son makes hisway, even though he's rehearsing
his speech, the dad sees him.
What does the dad do?
He runs to him, throws his armsaround him, and the son says
(26:28):
I'm not even worthy to be.
And the dad's like shut up,right, you were lost.
But now you're found.
We're going to have a party andhere's a robe and here's a ring
and here's some sandals.
Now, what if we all, when wethink of coming home to Jesus,
when we come home to God, theFather, what if the only thing
we thought about was just, atleast I'd have a roof over my
head, at least I had three mealsa day?
Then we wouldn't beexperiencing the rights and the
(26:52):
benefits of being a child.
And I think some people justthink if I just come back, at
least that's a good place.
No, we stopped before we readthe end of the story.
Yes, he had to turn around.
Yes, he had to repent.
But when he did, the father wasready and the father wanted to
(27:16):
make a whole son again, not justadd to his work crew.
I had a friend of mine, see, Itold you that I think the power
of the Holy Spirit is best seenin a changed life.
A friend of mine was a pastorin the same town I'm in A few
years ago.
(27:36):
He stepped aside from that,started another adventure.
He's always kind of anentrepreneur and through one
event after another his life gotworse and worse and worse.
Some were his choices, somewere just life.
He wound up in a deepdepression and he was,
admittedly, far from God In thatspace.
(27:59):
In that time his wife passedaway, the one who had stood by
his side through all the junkthat he had brought her through,
and now he's really alone.
I would text him from time totime, I would call him from time
to time just to check on him,and I knew he was just in this
dark place.
But a little over a month agonot two months ago, end of May
(28:22):
we were sitting in a communitycenter watching our adult kids
play in an adult volleyballleague.
You want to feel old.
So we're sitting there with ourcanes watching our adult kids
play volleyball.
And he's just telling me again,like you can't snap out of it.
(28:50):
Then, right around July 1st, Iget a phone call.
I look at my phone and it's hisname, what's going on?
And he says I'm back.
What?
What do you mean?
Like, tell me what's going on,what's going on?
And for the next, I don't knowhow long we just talked and he
said I was desperate to fall inlove with Jesus again.
(29:13):
I felt so far away.
He goes.
I couldn't listen to worshipmusic, I couldn't read my Bible.
He goes.
I've been a pastor.
I couldn't even read my Bibleand I made myself.
I opened it.
I go, I need to, I need to fallin love with Jesus again.
He opened a John chapter.
One in the beginning was theword, and the word was with God
and the word was God.
And he keeps reading and itgets down to verse 16.
It says for for from hisfullness, jesus, from his
(29:34):
fullness, we have all receivedgrace upon grace.
He said what does that mean?
Grace upon grace, what doesthat mean?
And he closed his Bible infrustration.
I don't even know what thatmeans.
And he went down to the beach.
This is Oceanside, the closestbeach to our valley.
This is where he went.
(29:57):
He says he's sitting there justwatching wave upon wave upon
wave upon wave upon wave, and itfinally hit him.
That's God's grace.
It's like that.
It's like it's grace upon graceupon grace.
It's relentless.
You can't stop it.
It's just grace upon grace.
It doesn't matter what you'vedone, it doesn't matter how bad
it's been, it's like he's stillcoming after you.
(30:17):
And he imagined himself layingin the water, right here, and
just the waves crashing over him.
And you know when a wave doesthat?
And it pulls back into theocean, it pulls all these little
pebbles and rocks and pieces ofseashells and pulls all the
stuff away.
And he says I just imaginedmyself being laying, just laying
there, and God's grace pouringover me, pulling away from me
all the stuff that didn't belonganymore.
He said I'm back.
(30:41):
I'm back.
Let me tell you something.
That's the power of the HolySpirit, who revealed to him on a
beach what God was wanting todo in his life.
And I don't know where you'reat, I don't know how maybe
distant you feel from God.
Just know he's there.
(31:04):
I'm going to pray with you.
I'm going to pray that youunderstand and know and
experience the power of the HolySpirit, but I want that spirit
to change you and to change meand continue to do that and
refine us so we can be more likehim.
Let's pray, god.
Thank you so much for your loveand your grace upon grace.
Upon grace, god, may it beevident to us, clear to us by
(31:30):
experience, that the power thatyou have given us in this spirit
of yours is there to shape usand mold us and change us and
draw us back to you.
In the name of Jesus, we prayand everyone said amen.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Amen, amen.
What a powerful message.
Would you guys stand with us aswe close out.
Jean 14.12.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Oui, je vous le déclare, c'est la vérité.
Celui qui croit en moi feraaussi les œuvres que je fais.
Il en fera même des plusgrandes, parce que je vais
auprès du Père.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
And now in English.
This is the new internationalversion version.
Very truly, I tell you, whoeverbelieves in me will do the
works I have been doing, andthey will do even greater things
than these, because I am goingto the Father this is the word
(00:59):
of the Lord, la parole de Dieu.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Thank you and thanks be to God.
Hey, it is so good to be backwith you here at Northgate.
For those of you who may benewer, my name is John and you
haven't been here in the past,but this is like my eighth
summer.
I've been able to join you andbe with you, which is exciting.
I figure this is the earlycrowd, so I'm going to have more
grandparents in this crowd.
Any grandparents in this crowd?
Yeah, it'll make it to thelater ones.
You've been up since like threein the morning.
You're already just like that'show you're wired now.
(01:26):
Right, I love being agrandfather.
My grandkids call me Poppy, andthe thing I love about them is
like they're so amazing.
I really wish I would have hadthem first.
I love them so much, but I doknow this like, grandkids are
the reward for not killing yourown kids.
So, speaking of kids, though,when my daughters I have two
(01:49):
daughters in their 30s now whenmy daughters were little, we had
one of those major poweroutages that just blanketed
Southern California and my kidswere like at a loss of what to
do, like okay, there's no power,like there's no lights.
They noticed that they're likewell, can we watch TV?
No, because it plugs in.
(02:09):
Oh, can we listen to the radio?
No, because it plugs in.
Mommy, can you make us somepopcorn?
We use an air popper?
No, because it plugs in, and ittook them a while to figure it
out.
I think they're like three andfive.
It took them a while to figureit out.
Anything that plugged in wouldnot work.
That was the whole idea.
Well, today we're talking aboutpower.
(02:30):
We're talking about the powerof the Holy Spirit.
As we continue this series and Ilove this series that you've
been a part of.
I've been watching some ofthose and kind of keeping up
with you it's something thatdawned on me just a few years
(02:52):
ago.
I've been doing ministry nowfor over 41 years.
That means I'm old.
But something dawned on me acouple of years ago.
I had never done a series onthe Holy Spirit.
No, I've talked about him andobviously he comes up in
Scripture.
I'd never done a whole seriesand we saw something really
spectacular happen in our churchwhen we did that.
Like, people are hungry tolearn more.
So I'm so excited you guys aredoing this, just spending some
time soaking in all thesedifferent things, because how
could you talk about the HolySpirit in just one week anyway?
So you're spending some timetalking about this and, pastor
(03:15):
Larry, he talked about this inthe very first week Is he a
person or is he a force?
And the answer is he's a person.
He's part of the Trinity Father, son and, as Max Lucado says,
the Holy who.
Like, we're just not thatfamiliar, right, the Father, the
Son and the Holy who.
But you've been talking aboutit, you're getting more familiar
with this familiar stranger wecall the Holy Spirit.
(03:41):
I love the idea of this weekendin particular, and I was invited
to talk about power.
Bless you, man.
Speaking of power, I was likebam, way to go.
I was a little impressed rightthere.
My family makes fun of mebecause I always carry this.
Anybody know what this is.
It's a little Swiss Army knife.
(04:02):
It has scissors, it has a knife, it has toothpick, it has
tweezers.
It's like everybody makes funof me and then, all of a sudden,
they're in a spot where theyneed one and they're like hey,
do you have your stupid littleknife?
Yes, I do, right, I'll come tothe rescue Poppy, to the rescue,
(04:23):
right?
I could open that gift for you.
Here you go, right, and this isawesome, unless my job was
cutting down a massive tree, andthen I'd look a little silly
walking up to a tree with this.
If there's an option between mylittle Swiss army pocket knife
which I've lost several of thesein airports because they won't
(04:44):
let you go into the airport,it's like who get this hurt?
Anyway, it's like I have to gobuy another one on Amazon.
If my only option was this or ahuge power saw and my job was
to cut down a tree, I'm going totake the power saw every time.
Right, that's what we got to dowhen we're talking about the
kind of power we're talkingabout in this series.
(05:06):
This particular verse came tomind right the moment when Larry
says I want you to talk aboutthe power part of the Holy
Spirit, and this is what came tomind for me.
I got to turn this on so thatit'll work.
Here we go, not by might, norby power, but by my spirit, says
the Lord.
Let me make sure you understandthis Not by might, like my
(05:30):
power, not by might or humanpower or willpower.
No, it's going to be by thepower of the Holy Spirit that
lives are going to be changed,that God is going to do what he
purposed to do.
It's going to be by his power,and when we go about it in our
way, we look a little silly.
I got in trouble one time.
I showed a clip, and the reasonI say I got in trouble I had a
(05:54):
lady who left our church overthis.
We were talking about the fullarmor of God in Ephesians,
chapter 6, and I showed a clipfrom Monty Python and it was the
scene with the holy handgrenade.
Some of you you've never seenit, you're not old enough.
Those of my age are like wait,wait, woo, this is such a good
(06:15):
movie.
It's stupid, but it's such agood movie.
Anyway.
The holy hand grenade, it'slike thou shalt count to three,
thou shalt not proceed to four,thou shalt not stop at two.
And the reason I showed thatclip was that that's how
ridiculous we look, fightingspiritual battles on our power.
That's how stupid we look.
That's how stupid we look whenthere are massive things that
(06:39):
God wants to do, but it's notgoing to happen on our power,
it's only going to happen by hisspirit.
Tyler Staten says this only aconfrontation with your own
powerlessness will drive you tothe power of the Holy Spirit.
See, our culture constantlydrives us to a thing I called
(06:59):
like a self-reliance.
It's like you're enough.
Believe in yourself, come on,have faith in yourself.
I'm not going to tell youthat's just a dead-end road,
because we are not enough.
But we are not left withoutpower.
This is God's plan and this isthe beauty of His plan.
(07:21):
He has given us His power.
So in John, chapter 14, whichis going to be our primary text,
john 14, 12, jesus is gettingready to tell his disciples
you're not alone.
You're not alone.
You got help and help is on theway.
So here it is in John 14, 12.
Here it is in John 14, 12.
(07:43):
It's not working.
There it goes.
Very true, I tell you whoeverbelieves in me will do the works
I have been doing, and theywill do even greater things than
these, because I'm going to theFather Now.
I know that you already lookedat this verse in the series and
the question is always the samequestion what does do even
greater works or do even greaterthings mean?
(08:05):
Does that mean like quantity,like because there's going to be
millions of us that you justmultiply what Jesus is doing?
That's greater that way.
Or does it mean, like he raisedthe dead and he brought sight
to the blind and he healed theleper?
Are we going to do even moreamazing things than that
ourselves?
The answer is no one knows forsure.
But what did he say?
(08:27):
You're going to do even greaterthings.
How is that possible?
Because you're not alone andthere is not just a force.
There is a person named theHoly Spirit who's going to guide
and direct you and he's goingto bring his power.
Power is the same word theapostle Paul uses when he talks
about the church, and he saysthis in 1 Corinthians 4,.
(08:49):
He says, for the kingdom of Godis not a matter of talk, but of
power.
And yet it feels like it's alot of talk and it feels like in
life, where is the power that Ineed?
Because I feel powerless whenlife is hitting me from every
side and all these differentthings are happening.
Like, where is that power andneed?
Because I feel powerless whenlife is hitting me from every
side and all these differentthings are happening, like where
is that power?
And what we've got to do isfigure out how do we connect
(09:13):
with that power.
And like my daughter's figuringout that if it plugs in, it
won't work.
When the power is hot, it won'twork unless it's plugged in.
Right, I mean, you can have areally nice TV, but if it's not
plugged in, if it's not pluggedinto the power source, it's not
going to work.
And so what you and I have gotto do, we've got to figure out
how do we do this.
Now.
The Bible gives us thisbeautiful picture of the Holy
(09:37):
Spirit at work in Jesus' life,and I want you to see this
because it's going to make adifference in the way you view,
maybe the, because it's going tomake a difference in the way
you view, maybe the way you viewthe way God wants to work in
your life as well.
In Jesus' baptism there is thismoment where the Holy Spirit
comes.
Now you might remember this.
Like the Father says something,the Holy Spirit shows up.
You have the Father, the Sonand the Holy Spirit all in the
same scene in Jesus' baptism,and it's in Mark, chapter 1.
(10:01):
It's actually recorded inMatthew, mark, luke and John.
All four gospels record this.
It says just as Jesus wascoming up out of the water, he
saw heaven being torn open andthe spirit descending on him
like a.
What does that say?
Like a dove.
All four of those gospelaccounts use the same word dove.
And a voice came from heaven.
You are my son, whom I love.
With you, I am well pleased.
(10:22):
So you've got the Father,you've got the Son, you've got
the Spirit all together.
Why a dove?
I mean, of all the images thatthe Holy Spirit could arrive on
this evening, why a dove?
That has always baffled me.
So what I want to do is I wantto give you some help in this
with some imagery of the Bible.
(10:42):
I'm going to back up a littlebit and kind of walk through the
Bible and just the imagery ofwhat this possibly could be
talking about, so that we canunderstand more what the power
of the Holy Spirit is and whathe's offering us in our life.
All right, so we're going to goback to what we call the
creation.
All right, the very beginning,in fact, the book of Genesis.
The word means Genesis meansbeginnings, and that's exactly
(11:03):
how this whole thing starts.
Here we go In the beginning,god created the heavens and the
earth.
By the way, remember that verse.
It's going to come up again,but remember that verse.
In the beginning, god createdthe heavens and the earth.
Now, the earth was formless andempty.
Darkness was over the surfaceof the deep and the spirit of
God was what's this word?
Hovering over the waters.
So, however you envision thatthe imagery is that of a bird,
(11:29):
it's hovering over the waters.
And then this is the very firstscene in the Bible where you,
in fact, when we read on, likeGod, says let us make man in our
image.
There is a father, there's ason, there's a Holy Spirit all
involved in creation, and theSpirit is hovering.
That's the idea.
We move through the Bible and weget to the Old Testament, the
Old Covenant, and the one whorepresents that for us is a guy
(11:52):
named Moses, and Moses obviouslyled the children of Israel out
of Egypt to the promised land.
There's 40 years that go bythere.
There's a lot of lessons inthat whole thing, but then when
they get ready to go into thepromised land, this word
hovering that we see in Genesis1-2 is a rare word.
We don't see it very often inthe Bible.
One of the other times we seeit is in Deuteronomy, and what
(12:14):
Moses has done is he hasfashioned a song to teach Israel
that they could sing.
That would remind them ofeverything that God has done for
them.
Like how amazing is this God?
Like that's what they're tryingto do.
So Moses has this song and inDeuteronomy 32, it says this
like an eagle that stirs up itsnest, and what Hovers there's
that word hovers over its young.
(12:35):
That spreads its wings to catchthem and carries them aloft.
This is a very, almost likemotherly, very almost like
motherly loving, positive word.
This eagle is hovering over itsnest, hovering over its little
ones, caring for them.
Now we use the word hover todayand it doesn't sound so
(12:55):
positive because we meanhelicopter parents.
It's like that's not the rightkind of hovering.
This is a very, very positivekind of hovering right here, and
that's what he's explaining tous.
And then we get to Jesus.
Now again, jesus in his baptismhas this dove that ascends, and
then you hear the voice of theFather.
The dove ascends and what he'sreally saying to us.
(13:18):
I think in this imagery, increation the Spirit was hovering
.
God in his care for theIsraelites through his spirit,
was hovering over them,protecting them for 40 years in
the wilderness.
And now that same spirit, inthe form of a dove, is
(13:38):
descending onto Jesus, ontoJesus, Jesus.
And from this time on we seeJesus being led by the Spirit
and the power of the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit.
That's the kind of language wesee in the gospel accounts, as
Jesus did his thing.
In Luke, chapter 4, jesus is ina synagogue and he stands up and
he opens the passage.
He opens the scroll to Isaiah61, and he reads this Now,
(14:02):
listen to this.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, so just know what he's reading
was prophesied hundreds ofyears before and Jesus is going
to make the point.
It's talking about me.
All right.
The Spirit of the Lord is on mebecause he has anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaimfreedom for the prisoners and
recovery and sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to
(14:25):
proclaim the year of the Lord'sfavor.
Don't miss this.
This is such a clear, powerfulclaim that the people from this
little village in the synagoguetake him out because they want
to kill him, because he justclaimed to be God.
(14:45):
He says what we just readyou're seeing happening in my
life, like the spirit is on meand they wanted to kill him.
It says he just walked awayfrom the ground and then it says
and he was led by the spiritand in the spirit and in the
power of the Spirit.
Those kinds of phrases keepcoming up because what Jesus
(15:07):
does now from this point on ishis ministry is launched and
it's miracle after miracle aftermiracle in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Now some people have problemswith the miracles in the Bible.
Did you know that Some peopleare like I don't know if I buy
that, I don't know about that.
And if you ever heard of a guynamed Thomas Jefferson?
There's a famous thing calledthe Jefferson Bible.
(15:29):
Thomas Jefferson believed inGod, but he didn't believe in
all the miracles, and so he cutout all the miracles in the
Bible and he was only left withjust like moral principles of
life.
It's called the Jefferson Bible.
But how bizarre is that?
How do you remove the verythings that gave credibility to
the teaching of Jesus, not justin Jesus' day but even in the
(15:52):
Old Testament?
The blind were healed, thosewith leprosy were cleansed, the
dead were raised to life.
I mean, we see Jesus in thepower of the Holy Spirit doing
all these miracles and more.
We see God doing these kind ofmiracles even before Jesus shows
up on the scene, because theSpirit was doing what the Spirit
does in His power and God usedthose miracles always as
(16:18):
evidence and credibility to letthem know who he really was, so
they would listen to Him, thatthey would pay attention to him.
See, I don't have a problemwith miracles.
Remember, I told you Genesis1-1 was important.
If you can believe Genesis 1-1,you don't have a problem with
(16:40):
God moving a little bit of waterso the Israelites could walk
through in the Red Sea.
If you believe in the beginningGod created the heavens and the
earth, you don't have a problemwith God saying oh you know
what?
Hey fish, go over there andswallow that dude named Jonah
he's jumping over the boat rightnow and then three days later
spit him up.
That's not a big deal for Godbecause of his power.
Because of his power, we keepmoving through and we see the
(17:04):
early church.
The book of Acts is written by aguy named Luke, who also wrote
the book of Luke.
So we have Matthew, mark, luke,john Luke is one of those four
pictures of Jesus' life and whenhe starts writing the book of
Acts he says in my former bookand he's writing to a guy named
Theophilus in my former book,Theophilus, I began to tell you
(17:27):
everything that Jesus did andtaught.
So in Acts, what he's going todo is now.
What Jesus began to do andteach is going to be continued
by his church in the power ofthe Holy Spirit.
Jesus says this but you willreceive power when the Holy
(17:47):
Spirit comes on you and you willbe my witnesses in Jerusalem
and all Judea and Samaria andthe ends of the earth.
You will receive what Power?
And in Acts, chapter 2, thepower guess what Descends on the
church.
The one who has been hoveringanoints the church descends on
the church.
The one who has been hoveringanoints the church, descends on
(18:08):
the church and takes up hisdwelling.
With him, eugene Peterson, whowas the one who translated the
Bible that we have called themessage.
It's kind of like streetlanguage for understanding the
Bible.
He says this God gave us themiracle of congregation, the
same way he gave us the miracleof Jesus.
By the descent of the dove, theHoly Spirit descended into the
womb of Mary in the Galileanvillage of Nazareth.
(18:30):
Thirty or so years later, thesame Holy Spirit descended into
the collective spiritual womb ofmen and women, which included
Mary, who had been followers ofJesus.
The first conception gave usJesus.
The second conception gave usthe church.
The Holy Spirit shows up inActs, chapter 2, and then we're
(18:52):
off and running and miracles arehappening Again.
Miracles.
In fact, at the end of chapter2, it says this everyone was
filled with awe at the manywonders and signs performed by
the apostles.
Well, how were they able to dothat?
It wasn't their own power, wasit?
It was the power of the HolySpirit.
(19:12):
And then we get to us.
What about us?
My grandson is four years old.
He just turned four last month,but ever since he was about two
and a half he came up with thisthing when we're wrestling.
He loves to wrestle, he is allboy.
I mean like I raised twodaughters and then I had a
granddaughter, and then he camein.
(19:33):
It was different, let me tellyou what.
And now I look at him and Ijust I kind of like laugh out
loud to him.
I'm like that's what my parentswent through, because he walks
into a room and mygranddaughter's like I wonder if
they like them and I wonder ifthey're being nice to them and I
wonder if they're.
She's all about relationalconnection and dynamics.
And he walks in and goes I couldjump off that and he will.
(19:57):
If you don't stop him, he'llclimb and just jump.
See what happens, right?
So we're doing this wrestlingthing and he has this thing.
He right.
So we're doing this wrestlingthing and he has this thing.
He says go big poppy.
Again, my name is poppy, go bigpoppy.
And that means that I get ontop of him, like I'm going to
just crush him, but he has hislittle legs ready and as soon as
I get there, he just pushes off.
Now, by the way, he knows, andI know he can't push me off, but
(20:18):
I go flying anyway.
That's what go big poppy means.
I get on him and he's like boom, and I go.
I go flying into a couch or onthe side of a chair or I'm
rolling through the room and hegoes go big poppy.
And I jump back on him and hedoes it again.
Right, this is so fun for usand it's so cool for me that I
was in a car wash just like amonth ago and they have
(20:41):
different levels of the wash.
You can get like wet, you canget wet with soap, you can get
wet with soap and wax, right,like.
They have all these levels andone of them was called go big.
I'm like that's the one I'mgetting because I'm Poppy.
Right, I have to get it.
I went, I took a picture, Ishowed him.
He goes yeah, like he made theconnection right.
Go big Poppy and Jesus.
He made the connection right.
(21:01):
Go big poppy and Jesus.
What he's doing in John 14 ishe's about to tell his disciples
you ready for this?
You're about to go big.
That's what he's going to sayVery truly.
I tell you, whoever believes inme will do the works I have
been doing, and they will doeven greater things.
(21:22):
You're about to go big that'swhat he's saying Bigger things
than these, because I'm going tothe Father.
I desperately want that to betrue in my life.
I desperately want that to betrue in your life.
I want that to be true in yourchurch.
I want Benicia like radicallytransformed because of the Holy
(21:45):
Spirit's power working throughyou.
That's what we should bepraying for on a regular basis.
God, move and work through us,beyond us.
By the way, that's my prayerevery week before I preach, and
I've been doing this for years.
Part of my prayer just goeslike this, and I prayed it
before I came out here.
God, they don't need me, theyneed you, and I ask that the
(22:12):
Holy Spirit would be present inthis room and he would
individually speak to every oneof you according to what's going
on in your life and what youneed.
Years ago, we were gettingready to do a big event in a
stadium for Easter and we had aprayer walk around the stadium
the day before and we werepraying at different stations.
We got to the place where Iwould be teaching the next day
(22:33):
and so they were praying for meand somebody prayed God may the
people tomorrow hear in theirown language, just like in Acts,
chapter 2.
In Acts, chapter 2, there werepeople from like I think it's 18
different nations, and as Petertalked, they all heard in their
own language.
Now, that's one thing.
You got to hear the word of Godin French today, that's another
(22:55):
language.
But what I mean by that, when Igot spirits speak to them in
their own language, what I meanis that, no matter what I say,
that he would say what you needto hear into your heart and that
you would receive that, becauseit's not about me, it's about
him, and we need his power.
Francis Chan wrote a book aboutthe Holy Spirit.
(23:17):
He said there was a time when Igot excited over a crowd
showing up to hear me preach,but those days are long gone.
Now I deeply desire that theSpirit of God would do things
that I know are not of me andthat it cannot be faked or
accounted for by human action.
Max Lucado, in his book aboutthe Holy Spirit, says Forty
years of ministry has left meconvinced.
(23:37):
We do not have what it takes toheal this hurting world.
We might create programs, trainstaff and build wonderful
sanctuaries, but I gladlyexchange them all for one
raindrop from the Spirit ofheaven.
I'm with those guys.
I love a crowd as much asanybody else, but I want the
(23:57):
Holy Spirit to do what only theHoly Spirit can do in us by His
power.
See, here's the truth.
He empowers us to be what hecalls us to be and he sends us.
He sends us into the placesthat we go.
It might be my prayer before Icome and preach, but it might be
(24:19):
your prayer before you go towork.
It might be your prayer beforeyou walk into a school.
It might be your prayer beforeyou go visit family.
God, I'm not what they need,but they need you and I want you
to use me any way you can, byyour power, to help them.
Because I'm convinced that thegreatest demonstration of God's
power and the Holy Spirit'spower is not the miraculous like
(24:40):
we think of.
Like, I think there's part ofus that wants I want the power
of the Holy Spirit so I can walkoutside and say you know what?
I want?
A better parking spot and justmove a car.
That would be cool, right, butthe greatest demonstration of
his power is a changed life.
Cool, right, but the greatestdemonstration of his power is a
changed life, and when you and Itake the Holy Spirit with us
(25:02):
into those places, there's nostopping what he can do.
Listen, he sends us, but notalone, and not without help and
not without his power.
Let me go back to this verseagain John 14, 12.
Very truly, I tell you, whoeverbelieves in me will do the
works I have been doing, andthey will do even greater things
than these, because I am goingto the Father.
(25:23):
Now I'm going to highlight adifferent word this time, right
here.
What does that say?
Whoever, whoever Jesus tellsthe story of the prodigal son.
And in telling the story of theprodigal son, maybe you know
this story.
I don't even love the titlethat we've given it.
I think it should be called thestory of a father's love.
(25:45):
There's actually two boys inthe story.
Both mess up at some point.
But the prodigal, the one whogoes away, takes his dad's
inheritance and blows it all onwild living and prostitutes
that's what the Bible says.
He has a come-to-Jesus kind ofmoment where he's sitting there
like wait a minute, I should gohome.
At least I could just be ahired hand.
(26:05):
At least I could be one of theworkers, I'd have a roof over my
head, I've had three meals aday, I'm going to go home.
And so he goes home.
But Jesus tells us the story sowe'd understand that, no matter
how much we've blown it, god isstill waiting for us to come
home.
And so when the son makes hisway, even though he's rehearsing
his speech, the dad sees him.
What does the dad do?
He runs to him, throws his armsaround him, and the son says
(26:28):
I'm not even worthy to be.
And the dad's like shut up,right, you were lost.
But now you're found.
We're going to have a party andhere's a robe and here's a ring
and here's some sandals.
Now, what if we all, when wethink of coming home to Jesus,
when we come home to God, theFather, what if the only thing
we thought about was just, atleast I'd have a roof over my
head, at least I had three mealsa day?
Then we wouldn't beexperiencing the rights and the
(26:52):
benefits of being a child.
And I think some people justthink if I just come back, at
least that's a good place.
No, we stopped before we readthe end of the story.
Yes, he had to turn around.
Yes, he had to repent.
But when he did, the father wasready and the father wanted to
(27:16):
make a whole son again, not justadd to his work crew.
I had a friend of mine, see, Itold you that I think the power
of the Holy Spirit is best seenin a changed life.
A friend of mine was a pastorin the same town I'm in A few
years ago.
(27:36):
He stepped aside from that,started another adventure.
He's always kind of anentrepreneur and through one
event after another his life gotworse and worse and worse.
Some were his choices, somewere just life.
He wound up in a deepdepression and he was,
admittedly, far from God In thatspace.
(27:59):
In that time his wife passedaway, the one who had stood by
his side through all the junkthat he had brought her through,
and now he's really alone.
I would text him from time totime, I would call him from time
to time just to check on him,and I knew he was just in this
dark place.
But a little over a month agonot two months ago, end of May
(28:22):
we were sitting in a communitycenter watching our adult kids
play in an adult volleyballleague.
You want to feel old.
So we're sitting there with ourcanes watching our adult kids
play volleyball.
And he's just telling me again,like you can't snap out of it.
(28:50):
Then, right around July 1st, Iget a phone call.
I look at my phone and it's hisname, what's going on?
And he says I'm back.
What?
What do you mean?
Like, tell me what's going on,what's going on?
And for the next, I don't knowhow long we just talked and he
said I was desperate to fall inlove with Jesus again.
(29:13):
I felt so far away.
He goes.
I couldn't listen to worshipmusic, I couldn't read my Bible.
He goes.
I've been a pastor.
I couldn't even read my Bibleand I made myself.
I opened it.
I go, I need to, I need to fallin love with Jesus again.
He opened a John chapter.
One in the beginning was theword, and the word was with God
and the word was God.
And he keeps reading and itgets down to verse 16.
It says for for from hisfullness, jesus, from his
(29:34):
fullness, we have all receivedgrace upon grace.
He said what does that mean?
Grace upon grace, what doesthat mean?
And he closed his Bible infrustration.
I don't even know what thatmeans.
And he went down to the beach.
This is Oceanside, the closestbeach to our valley.
This is where he went.
(29:57):
He says he's sitting there justwatching wave upon wave upon
wave upon wave upon wave, and itfinally hit him.
That's God's grace.
It's like that.
It's like it's grace upon graceupon grace.
It's relentless.
You can't stop it.
It's just grace upon grace.
It doesn't matter what you'vedone, it doesn't matter how bad
it's been, it's like he's stillcoming after you.
(30:17):
And he imagined himself layingin the water, right here, and
just the waves crashing over him.
And you know when a wave doesthat?
And it pulls back into theocean, it pulls all these little
pebbles and rocks and pieces ofseashells and pulls all the
stuff away.
And he says I just imaginedmyself being laying, just laying
there, and God's grace pouringover me, pulling away from me
all the stuff that didn't belonganymore.
He said I'm back.
(30:41):
I'm back.
Let me tell you something.
That's the power of the HolySpirit, who revealed to him on a
beach what God was wanting todo in his life.
And I don't know where you'reat, I don't know how maybe
distant you feel from God.
Just know he's there.
(31:04):
I'm going to pray with you.
I'm going to pray that youunderstand and know and
experience the power of the HolySpirit, but I want that spirit
to change you and to change meand continue to do that and
refine us so we can be more likehim.
Let's pray, god.
Thank you so much for your loveand your grace upon grace.
Upon grace, god, may it beevident to us, clear to us by
(31:30):
experience, that the power thatyou have given us in this spirit
of yours is there to shape usand mold us and change us and
draw us back to you.
In the name of Jesus, we prayand everyone said amen.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Amen, amen.
What a powerful message.
Would you guys stand with us aswe close out.
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