Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Can we welcome Haley Bron as she comes and shares the word tonight?
[00:00:20] Thank you so much.
[00:00:27] Hello.
[00:00:29] Good to see you all.
[00:00:31] I am slightly messed up from worship, so we'll see how I do tonight.
[00:00:38] The tears have dried on my shirt, thankfully, but there was little droplets a little bit ago.
[00:00:45] Before I start, I just want to firstly say I have a team here from Bethel.
[00:00:51] Some of them just graduated third year. I see them. Would you guys just stand real quick? My team turn around. Look how cute they are.
[00:01:03] I got an email from these girls saying we're coming to the conference, how can we serve? And these girls, I got to this, it was. I led our third year class for the last four years. I've just transitioned out of third year to do some other things with our church and movement. But these girls were all in third year and are such a gift and they just came to be here and to serve and I'm so thankful for each of them. And later on I think they'll probably help me minister. Either laying hands or I might call them up. When Ben called four guys up this morning, I thought, I'm going to call five girls up. That's what I'm going to do.
[00:01:33] And anyway, but thank you ladies for joining me. I love you and appreciate you so much.
[00:01:38] I want to give away two books real quick. Maybe Steph and Gabby, could you just help me real quick? Just giving these away.
[00:01:47] I brought two books that are out there.
[00:01:49] One is pretty hefty. It's a book called Surrender to the Holy Spirit. I see the hands already. Yeah, definitely to that young man over there, Gabby. But would you come up here real quick?
[00:02:06] Nothing like the youth to cheer each other on, you know what I mean?
[00:02:11] What's your name? Philip. You just put your hands on Philip real quick.
[00:02:17] Just.
[00:02:18] Yeah, Philip, I just saw this absolute hunger in you for more of the Lord. And Philip, you are a leader. You are a joy bringer. You are a good friend. You see hope in places that are hopeless and you bring hope where there's been hopelessness. And you have walked through some things in your life that have not always been easy. But you have stepped, stayed one that has continued to seek the Lord and you've kept the joy of the Lord. And. And so God, we just thank you for Philip. Lord, we thank you for this man of God. We thank you for his hunger. Philip, you're going to walk in the ways of God and know his word. And I see you preaching the word of God and doing discipleship and groups with people as you open up the Word to people. And the Lord is going to just take you deeper and deeper in his word. And so we just bless you in Jesus name. Yeah. Amen.
[00:03:08] Philip, There's a lot of words in this book. You're going to be able to read it as you can. Give it to your mom. So bless you, Philip.
[00:03:16] I had a radical encounter with the Lord six and a half years ago.
[00:03:21] Never in my life did I think I'd write a book. I'm actually dyslexic and so reading was always challenging for me. And they told me how you write a book and I broke all the rules. And I would just. Every Friday, it's all I had because I got three kids. I would lie on my face. I listened to one Upper Room set.
[00:03:38] It was a Christmas set. And anyway, I.
[00:03:42] I would just weep like I've been crying today and. And then the Lord would tell me what to write about. And I never thought I would ever be able to write 40, 000 words or whatever. And I had to stop at over 70000 words. I had to stop because the Lord will do in you what you cannot do for you. Amen.
[00:04:00] And then this is a devotional. It's a 60 day devotional based off of the book.
[00:04:04] It's got some amazing prayers, man. You look hungry, bro. So we'll just say yes to that.
[00:04:09] Would you just run and take that to him? Gabby, that's great. Thanks, Steph.
[00:04:17] God bless you.
[00:04:21] Just. Just turn around, sir, what is your name?
[00:04:24] Brian. Brian, I just heard the Lord say as you walked away, like you're like a Barnabas, a son of encouragement, that you bring encouragement to the people around you and that, you know, Barnabas, at one point he grabbed a hold of Paul and he put, you know, encouragement isn't just fluffy words. It's actually when we take the heart of God and we put it into someone and we put courage into them to do their assignment. And I, I feel like you're that kind of person that you grab ahold of people and you put the courage of God into them. And the Lord's given you really a beautiful lens to see people in. First Corinthians 2, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, it talks about us being a new creation. But verse 18 says now that we no longer know each other after the flesh, but after the spirit. And I believe that the Lord has given you by the Holy Spirit, eyes of the Spirit, to see people not as they are, but as he sees them, and to call the gold of them and so I just bless you, Brian Barnabas, son of encouragement in Jesus.
[00:05:29] Well, hello, my name is Hayley Braun and thank you.
[00:05:36] And I. Yes, hallelujah.
[00:05:41] I'm South African.
[00:05:42] The accent is a little bit mixed right now.
[00:05:46] I notice more and more the heart I'm accentuating my Rs. And sometimes from time to time I, I say words that don't have Rs like they do have Rs because my brain hears just the A sound and the AR sound the same. So anyway, if you notice that, I apologize, but I have been in reading California for 18 years. In August it will be 18 years ago, I.
[00:06:09] I hugged my mom at the airport and I said I was going for nine months and my mother was crying and she's not a big crier. So I was quite like, confused. I'd spent a year in Michigan already when I was 18, serving a church there and I wasn't quite sure. I was like, mom, this is nine months. It's not even a year. And little did I know that the Lord had spoken to my mother and told her that I would be her Samuel and that she would dedicate me to the house of Bethel.
[00:06:34] And.
[00:06:36] And she didn't tell me because I think she was hoping she was wrong.
[00:06:39] And shortly after that, I met a very cute American boy.
[00:06:44] He had the tightest jeans I'd ever seen. I'm not sure they were jeans. I think they were jeggings.
[00:06:49] 2008.
[00:06:52] It was before skinny jeans had come to South Africa. And so I questioned everything about his choices.
[00:06:58] And the V necks were just getting deeper and deeper, you know, and at some point I was like, we're just going to be wearing, you know, cloth or something.
[00:07:07] And anyway, I went against my better judgment and fell in love with that skinny jean, deep V neck wearing boy.
[00:07:15] And I married him. And actually on Friday I woke up and I looked at my phone and I was like, oh, it's our 16 year anniversary.
[00:07:23] And he walked in after dropping all three kids off at school. I said, turns out we've been married 16 years today. And he went, oops.
[00:07:34] May is a very busy season for us and we'll go celebrate in South Africa. But we have three beautiful children and our oldest is nearly 11 and then our youngest is five. And we got a little girl right in the middle and she's eight and never did, I imagine, quite to be honest. And I believe our testimony is the spirit of prophecy. And so I just want to share just this little bit. I didn't quite imagine that marriage could be so fulfilling.
[00:08:02] I heard a lot that marriage was hard work. And I watched my parents put in the hard work of marriage and I grew up in a really wonderful family. But I'm not quite sure people explain to me how fulfilling marriage and having children would be.
[00:08:15] And yes, it is a. It is a cost, but it is a cost that pays you rewards that almost feel embarrassing to talk about the cost when you experience the true reward of godly marriage.
[00:08:27] And I'm not going to get into it fully today. We'll see where this message goes. I've got something stirring in my heart, but I believe that we've been approaching the subject of submission with the wrong question.
[00:08:39] I think we've been approaching the question of submission of who's the boss?
[00:08:44] And I just don't believe in the kingdom, that the kingdom asks who's the boss.
[00:08:48] I believe in the kingdom, true leadership and true submission comes from a place of how do I lay my life down so that you can come alive and I'm a strong woman. I thought I was going to have to marry a man that would put a bridle in my mouth and hold me back.
[00:09:03] To be honest, that's what I thought it was going to take. And instead I married a man.
[00:09:08] Sorry.
[00:09:09] Who is tender and kind and who loves me like Jesus loves me. And in places where I used to feel like I had to defend myself or fight for my own rights, instead I found a man that is not fighting for his rights, but is fighting to see me come alive and as I am for him too. And.
[00:09:32] Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
[00:09:33] It's.
[00:09:36] It's not always very beautiful. It's not always, like, amazing to watch. If you're in my kitchen. As we figure out laying our lives down for each other. Sometimes, you know, it's a little interesting, but I'm so grateful for real life where we get to stick in it together and. And let the Lord shape us into Christ likeness. Amen.
[00:09:57] And I just want to speak over you, especially to the young people in this room.
[00:10:01] I'm sorry. I really am messed up by God tonight. So it's just. This is just kind of how it's going to be.
[00:10:08] You know, both Ryan and I, we grew up in the church and I used to think that I didn't have a testimony because I didn't have, like, a radical moment where I gave my life to Jesus. I gave my life to Jesus when I was three years old listening to Salty, the singing songbook. And I genuinely have loved God my whole life. And obviously I've sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and he has saved me. But I didn't have that, like, you know, big, like, rebellious moment. And.
[00:10:37] And when Ryan and I got married, I was Ryan's first ever girlfriend. I had dated boys before. I had kissed a couple boys. Sorry. But Ryan hadn't ever kissed a girl, hadn't held a girl's hand. He took one girl on a date, he said he tried to kiss her head, but he didn't think she felt it because he was so scared.
[00:10:58] And, you know, in my teenage years, and I just want to speak to the young people in this room. Listen, if you've had experiences that you wish you hadn't had, God's blood is enough. Jesus will wash you clean and make you new.
[00:11:10] But I do just want to speak to a couple of you who. You haven't actually tasted the world yet.
[00:11:16] You haven't tasted.
[00:11:18] You haven't tasted the things of the world. And. And there's that temptation around you that says you gotta, like, test drive the car before you buy it, or you need to try those things before you fully give yourself to the Lord. And I just want to tell you, the Lord told me once, Haley, you have a testimony. And your testimony is that I kept you. That I kept you and I. I protected you. And it was the testimony of Jesus over my life that. That when I had opportunities, and I had plenty of opportunities, that the conviction of God's spirit remained strong and loud in my heart.
[00:11:51] And I just want to tell you young people, that you don't have to try sin to know that it's poisonous. You don't have to try the world to know that it's not good, that the love of God far eclipses everything. And marriage is not about performance. Marriage is about a lifetime built together. And intimacy in marriage is not about performance or what you know, it's about building trust with one another and going places together that. That you cannot go in the world.
[00:12:20] And I just wanted to. If you're a young person in this room and you're like, I. I want to set myself apart. I want to set myself pure. And maybe. Maybe you've made mistakes, but you're like, I've come under the blood of the lamb. I just want to ask you to stand and I just want to pray for you.
[00:12:35] And I want to pray for healthy marriages and healthy relationships and for the protection of God over your purity and over your lives.
[00:12:44] Yeah. Thank you, Lord. I don't know what young people is. You can Decide that. I mean, my granny just passed away at 96 and she still called herself youthful.
[00:12:55] So yeah, yeah, you can put your hand out or just on your heart.
[00:13:04] You know what? When I look out over these people, I see strong marriages that will become pillars in the church. I see strong families, I see tables that will be set and people who will come into a family because of commitments like these.
[00:13:19] And so Lord Jesus, I just thank you, Lord, I thank you that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That God, when you have done a work in our lives, that it prophesies that it can be done again. And Lord, I thank you that God, for all those standing and even those that have stood, that have had other experiences that maybe before felt disqualified. And I just thank you Lord, that when you restore, you don't restore to half or to even 80% or 90%, you restore all the way. And Lord Jesus, right now over these young people standing who are committing their lives to purity, God, I pray for the holy flame of God. I pray for the cloud by day and the fire by night. Lord, I pray that they would be led and they would be covered and they would be protected, Lord Jesus. And that they would come into a relationship with you. And I just speak over you the scripture, Timothy, do not let people look down on you because you are young, but by character, by choosing a noble life. Let your life be a testimony of the power of God. And Lord, I just pray for this. I pray for an exponential maturity in each one of these in the ways of God. To live in holiness instead of partners in God. When the world offers them a taste of sin, God, I pray that it would be repulsive to them. Lord, I pray that when. When they are mocked because of purity, God, that they wouldn't feel any ounce of attachment or pain in that moment, but they would feel a strong confidence that. That I am standing in Jesus and that the world has no hold on me. That life is only him. And we just declare this over you. And right now, God, I just pray for the fire of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit. Spirit just to fall on them, Lord, to be marked. God, a love for the word. God, a love for Christian community. God, a love for your presence in Jesus name.
[00:15:03] Amen.
[00:15:06] Amen.
[00:15:10] Okay, God, we welcome you, Holy Spirit. We love you.
[00:15:20] God. Today I pray that as we open the word that it would.
[00:15:24] That God, it would be like a two edged sword. That it would come and separate soul from spirit, joint from marrow. That Lord Jesus, anything that has tried to attach itself, Lord God, to our walk with you in the spirit that is not of you. God. I pray today, Lord, that there would be an invitation into a deeper place in you and Lord Jesus. I pray that that you would increase the manifest glory of your presence in this room. I pray that you would pour out your spirit once again. Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit, Great Revealer, would you take us into the depths of the heart of God and would you make us burn with a greater passion?
[00:16:05] And Lord, I pray that you would soften and break our hearts, Lord, for that which your heart is seeking soft too.
[00:16:16] I do. I pray for a love for the Holy Spirit tonight.
[00:16:22] I pray God that where the Holy Spirit has been a foreign concept to some Lord, that tonight we would come into a realization of the realness and the availability of your spirit.
[00:16:35] Your spirit who reveals the heart of the Father. Your Spirit, that is the spirit of adoption by which we cry out Abba.
[00:16:42] Father. Your spirit that is given without measure.
[00:16:48] Yeah, Father, we ask that the great gift that you have given, Lord. You say in Luke 11:11 that if we ask for a snake, you will not give us. Sorry. If we ask for a fish, you will not give us a snake. If we ask for bread, you will not give us stones. If we ask for an egg, you will not give us a score. So how much more will our Father in heaven give us? The Holy Spirit to those who ask.
[00:17:15] And so, Lord, we are asking for more.
[00:17:19] In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:17:23] Amen.
[00:17:24] Okie dokie.
[00:17:27] I'm gonna see how we get through this today.
[00:17:30] I've had about 10 scriptures bouncing around my heart, but when we were in worship, the Lord just kind of went and refined it down for me, which I was very glad for.
[00:17:42] Sometimes as a minister when you preach a specific message, quite often you kind of want to veer into other places you really love and enjoy. But I felt that the Lord tonight wanted me to speak on the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:17:56] And the reason why I felt he wanted me to do this is because throughout this conference there has been a thread of a need to have dependence on God, but also this. This need right now to walk in godliness, not just in our relationship with the Lord, but in our relationship with one another.
[00:18:18] And to walk in godliness is actually not just possible on your own.
[00:18:25] You don't walk in godliness because you decided on Monday you're going to be godly. You. You walk in godliness because you decide on Monday you're going to surrender to God.
[00:18:35] And surrender is actually more effort than striving. Is for the human being. Surrender is more effort than striving. Humans by nature, we like to feel like we're doing something about a problem when we have issues. I don't know about you. I remember years ago, I was pastoring and I had about 40 requests for meetings and two meet and two weeks left of school.
[00:18:59] And I was trying to figure out how I was going to do 40 meetings in two weeks and do all my other jobs. And I knew in my head it wasn't possible, but in my heart I wanted to make it possible. And I started complaining to God at about 12 o' clock at night because I couldn't sleep, because I felt like I was letting people down.
[00:19:16] And I started complaining about why he made us sleep.
[00:19:19] Like, why couldn't. Why would you give us so many things to do and then tell us to sleep for eight hours a day? That's like you took a third of my lifetime and accomplishment away.
[00:19:29] And.
[00:19:30] And I said, lord, you have a. You gave me a problem, you made me a pastor, now solve it. And do you know what the Lord said to me? He said, haley, will you let me hold you?
[00:19:40] Hold me. I don't want to be held. I want My problem solved. 40 meetings, two weeks. I have eight slots, multiply. Lord, you did it with the loaves and fish. Do it with my meetings. You know what I mean? That's how I felt.
[00:19:52] And the Lord said, haley, will you let me hold you? Now, if you ask my husband, I'm affectionate. It's one of my love languages. But when I'm stressed, I don't want to be touched. When I'm stressed, I want to solve the problem and then you can hug me. Do you have any other ladies like that in this room?
[00:20:07] Especially if you have made me stressed. If you have made me stressed and then you want to hug me, I'm like, no, no, no. I need to know that, you know, you made me stressed. And you know how you made me stressed and you have a plan to solve. Solve how? You just did that before you want to hug me?
[00:20:23] I just saved some of your marriages right there.
[00:20:27] We don't just want to hear sorry, we want to hear why.
[00:20:33] Funny story.
[00:20:35] For my 30th birthday, we took all our savings to book a trip to go to Hawaii. And my husband has a.
[00:20:42] He has grown much since this moment. I'm 40 in a couple months, so it's been 10 years since. Since the Hawaii incident. And he was supposed to come pick me up. We're on a staff retreat In Napa. He was supposed to pick me up and take me to the airport in San Francisco. And the night before, I thought, I need to tell him, you cannot be late. But I thought we'd been married for good six, nearly seven years. I thought, he knows this by now. I'm not going to mom him. He knows not to be late.
[00:21:11] The man decided to wash dishes instead of be on time. And we were late.
[00:21:16] And we were so late driving to the airport. And I was stressed to the max. We didn't make it to the airport. We missed our flight to Hawaii. I'd left my one year old to go on this trip. My mom heart was like, mad. My wife heart was mad. My everything heart, my Hawaii heart was even more mad. And.
[00:21:35] And we're driving. And I made him drive us all the way back to Reading from San Francisco just to see my son, to drive back the next morning to go to Hawaii. Because I was like, I'm seeing my kid. I haven't seen him for two days. I missed the plane. And on our drive back, he had said he was sorry. And I was still mad. And I was like, you got to forgive this dude at some point. You know what I mean? And I'm sitting in the passenger seat and I realized, I said to him, I said, I have to tell you something. He said, okay. I said, in my heart, I feel like I'm looking at the site where the World Trade center was taken out.
[00:22:10] I feel like I'm at the memorial site of my dream.
[00:22:13] And I know that's a little extreme. It's probably more like I had a snow globe and you dropped it and it broke. But right now it feels like the memorial site of all things over and life as we know it is done. And I'm staring at it, and you've said, I'm sorry that it all blew up. I think I just want to know that, you know why it blew up. And then I want to know how you're going to make sure I never have to look at this again.
[00:22:36] And we had friends sitting in our backseat. I thought they were sleeping, but he was engaged and he was taking notes the whole time.
[00:22:45] And this was when we learned that women don't just want to hear I'm sorry. We want to hear what you're gonna do next time.
[00:22:51] I'm sorry I made you miss the plane. Next time, I will not do the dishes and prioritize coming early.
[00:22:59] Make notes. It will help you in the future. I. Okay, there's your marriage lesson for the day.
[00:23:05] Moving on. I was saying something. I can't remember what. And I lost myself down the marriage rabbit trail.
[00:23:12] The Holy Spirit, It's fine. I'm just gonna dive in.
[00:23:20] I can't. I don't know how to dive in now. Lord, help me.
[00:23:26] Hold me. There we go.
[00:23:29] I found it.
[00:23:33] You see, here's the thing.
[00:23:35] In Christianity, Oftentimes, we want God to solve our problems. And in this moment where the Lord was trying to, you know, my husband tries to solve them, too. But in this moment where the Lord wanted to hold me, I was resistant to his presence because I thought that if my problem could be solved, peace would come.
[00:23:52] And I remember that night, eventually, after dialogue with the Lord, eventually I let him. I was like, okay, fine, Lord, you can hold me. And I was like this in my bed. And I just. So you know, when the Lord says, hold you, do you. You like, like, really or just in my head? You know what I mean? Like, you're like. And he was like, no, like, I need you to, like, actually surrender to this.
[00:24:10] And I remember being like this. And then the Lord said, you need to like it.
[00:24:15] And so I was like, okay.
[00:24:18] And in that moment, for me, surrendering to God's embrace was actually harder work than trying to solve my problem.
[00:24:25] And you find this here. If you want to open to John, we're going to go 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
[00:24:32] But little. Just little snippets.
[00:24:34] For me, these five chapters in the Bible are some of the most powerful and important chapters. I mean, everything's important, but these chapters for me have changed the way that I walk in my Christian walk.
[00:24:54] And Jesus here in chapter 13, he's having the last supper with his disciples. And so I'm going to kind of meander through because we won't have time because we want to pray.
[00:25:07] But I want you to see. So verse 13, Jesus is having his last supper. And his disciples have come to realize Jesus is going. Now, you need to understand that Jesus comes on the scene. These disciples are young Jewish boys, and young Jewish boys in their adolescent years.
[00:25:24] They would be waiting to be called by a rabbi. So as they stepped into the adolescence, so 10, 11, 12, they would step into doing their father's job. And so, like, Jesus was learning the trade of being a carpenter. You would see, like, Andrew and Peter would be learning how to be fishermen, right? And so they would be learning the trade of their fathers. And while they were learning the trade of their fathers, they. They would have one eye on the trade and one eye looking around, wanting to see if they would be special enough to be called by a rabbi, and the rabbis, they would walk and they would listen, and they would become aware of young men that they wanted to actually personally pull out of their father's trade and begin to disciple them in the Torah and teach them the Scriptures. Now, this was one of the most noble things a little Hebrew boy could do.
[00:26:15] Now, the disciples, they had gone past this stage. They were now too old. Andrew was the youngest, and they think he was about 15. He had passed the stage where they would be called. And so they were fully engaged in their father's business. And. But Matthew actually had left the father's business, betrayed his own people, and become a tax collector for the Roman government.
[00:26:35] And so Jesus comes on the scene, and he takes these men who are not picked, who were not chosen, who were living in complete obscurity, who were living under the oppression of the Roman government. I mean, when Jesus comes on the scene and he starts declaring, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is saying, hey, guys, culture is walking this way. Repent, which means turn around. There's something new available.
[00:27:02] Jesus begins to preach a message of, if you walk a mile in, if someone asks you to walk a mile, walk two. If someone asks you for a robe, give them both.
[00:27:13] Jesus and talking about, hey, if Benny Fitz comes to you and says, hey, Hales, let's go for a walk, go walk a mile with Benny and say, hey, man, I'll walk too. Jesus is teaching a message in this moment. In an oppressive government, they have taken over. The Romans have taken over the land that belongs to the Israelites, the holy city of Jerusalem where they worship. And. And the Roman government is exploiting them for their money. They're fishing and they're pulling in fish, and they're getting taxed quicker than they can actually pull in fish to feed their family. Are you following me? And so when Jesus says, someone asks you to walk a mile, he's saying, if a Roman soldier comes to you while you can barely make ends meet in this moment, you can't even pay your taxes, you can't feed your family. And now they're pulling you from your work. They're saying, walk a mile, carrying my bags, carrying my stuff away from your job, more poverty, more cost for you. Jesus says, walk too.
[00:28:07] This is the scene we're in. So these disciples are men that have not just been chosen, but they're being exploited.
[00:28:14] And Jesus picks one of them that is exploiting them to join him.
[00:28:19] We're not going to talk about that today. But that's what.
[00:28:22] And so you can imagine these disciples go from nothingness into walking with the Messiah, the King of glory. So much so that when Jesus offends everyone and Jesus says, are you going to go too? They say, where will we go?
[00:28:38] You alone speak the words of life. What the disciples have experienced is they have experienced the power of God with them that has taken them out of being nobodies to. All of a sudden they are seeing the dead raised sick, healed, demons cast out. I mean the man of the Gadarenes, an entire legion of demons that has taken hold of a people getting set free and becoming the first evangelist.
[00:29:04] It's wild.
[00:29:06] But you got to imagine now they think Jesus is going to overthrow everything. Jesus is going to rule and reign. He's going to sit on the throne, he's going to kick Rome out. And they're about to live in freedom forever. And they're going to be the big bosses, right?
[00:29:19] They're like, who's going to be the greatest? And now has come a time where Jesus is like, I am about to go and I want to look at chapter 13, verse 3. First, just a small section.
[00:29:32] Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things, say all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God.
[00:29:45] Pause here. Jesus, what did he know?
[00:29:49] He knew that he had been given all things and that he was about to go back to the Father. He was. He had put on flesh. Imagine this. Jesus is at creation. He is the word spoken. He is all supreme. He is completely preeminent. He is full of majesty. He clothes himself in flesh, limits himself to live as a man dependent on the Father, filled by the spirit. Spirit. And he has the knowledge that he is about to cast off this flesh and go sit at the name above every name on the throne of God, knowing all things, what does he do?
[00:30:26] He decides to rule and reign with a mighty scepter and smack us all over the head.
[00:30:31] No. He rises from supper, puts a towel around his waist, lays aside his garment and he begins to pour water into a basin to wash his disciples feet.
[00:30:45] Okay, we're going to move on.
[00:30:48] We're going to come back to that. Verse 14.
[00:30:52] So Jesus has a conversation with his disciples. After washing his feet. Peter says, you can't do it. Jesus says, sir, you cannot actually have part where I'm going if you don't let me do this.
[00:31:01] Can I just tell you if you will not let Jesus wash your feet, you will not be able to walk where he walks.
[00:31:08] There is something profoundly uncomfortable about Jesus washing your feet. Because when Jesus washes your feet, if you think about, I think about my feet, right? You go for a pedicure and all of a sudden you feel like uncomfortable because you're like okay, my toenails, are they weird? I don't know. And then you're like, then you've like your feet have walked places, right? So they've got little calluses and on them and edges. And we all like think it's weird, but it's actually just part of walking. And there's something about when someone washes your feet, they understand where you've walked.
[00:31:42] We will never truly learn to love people unless we let Jesus love us. Unless we let his hands touch where our feet have walked. And the thing is, when Jesus touches where your feet have walked, he knows all things. And immediately you feel exposed because you realize you're not quite, quite as put together as you thought you were.
[00:32:00] And so Jesus begins to enter in by holding their feet, entering into their lives. And then he starts feeling their anxiety in verse four in chapter 14.
[00:32:09] And he says this. Let your hearts not be troubled. Verse 1. Believe in God and believe also in Me. For in my Father's house there are many rooms. And if it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for. For you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be. And you know that where and you know the way to where I am going. This verse is widely debated. It's preached in funerals that one day you're gonna die. And in my Father's house there are many mansions. I am of the theological camp. We can argue later. I'm of the theological belief. I do believe that there is an eternal house and, and a prepared place for us. But this context of the passage, I believe Jesus is saying here that he is going to return to His Father. And the place he is preparing is you to become the house to fill with His Spirit. He goes there to prepare you as the place that he is going to fill with his spirit. And I believe the context of this passage supports this thought. So do many other theologians. N.T. wright, R.T. kendall, the Bible Project guys, they're not charismatic totally. So it makes me feel better.
[00:33:24] You know what I mean? Theology must be tested.
[00:33:29] But in this moment Jesus understands. He's going. His disciples hearts are troubled because the one who speaks life is leaving them.
[00:33:38] Let's go to verse 15, He says, if you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even 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 he will be in you. Jesus is making a point right here, and he's saying this. He's saying, you are worried, but you're going to come to a place where I'm no longer going to be with you.
[00:34:18] But I'm going to send that word. Another helper in the Greek is allos parakletos.
[00:34:25] Parakletos is the one who comes alongside. Helper is not really a great word. It is an advocate. It is one who strengthens you. It is one who leads you, one who teaches you. It's like someone that when you don't know how to do something, he joins you and he makes something that was impossible for you possible.
[00:34:43] That word, another Allos, is one just like me.
[00:34:49] What Jesus is saying is, I have been your Paracletos. He's saying to Peter, I have been the one that has called you out on the water. I've advocated for you to step into places you couldn't go yourself, but you're hungry to live. I have enabled you to see the blind see, the deaf hear. Are you following me?
[00:35:08] And so Jesus is saying, as I have been with you, I am going to send not someone else, but one just like me. But there's going to be a difference. He's not just going to be with you, he's going to be in you.
[00:35:25] And you must understand this, the sentence he says before this, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
[00:35:35] Jesus understands that without his presence, keeping God's commandments is impossible for man.
[00:35:44] These people know the stories of their ancestors. They know the stories of the Israelites wandering the wilderness for 40 years. They fully understand that the blood of goats, the blood of lambs, the blood of bulls, has not been enough to keep the people of God connected to him.
[00:36:00] They're afraid he's leaving. They're afraid of being oppressed for the rest of their life. They've tasted freedom for three years that they don't want to lose.
[00:36:09] Some of you in this room, you are tasting things of God this weekend you don't want to lose. But you know, walking out of those doors, you go into a real world with real troubles.
[00:36:21] But Jesus says, I have not left you as an orphan, that I have not just given you A limited accessibility, but I'm about to release the Holy Spirit. Jesus understands the ability to keep God's commandments does not lie simply with your choice, but your choice submitted to His Spirit.
[00:36:46] I need you to understand this. Romans 11:29. It says that the gifts of God are irrevocable. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. In First Corinthians 1, verse 7, he speaks. Paul's writing to the church in Corinth, and he's saying, you guys are the most advanced in the gifts of all the churches I'm shepherding.
[00:37:08] But then First Corinthians 3, two chapters later, he says that you're immature.
[00:37:15] They're advanced in the gifts. And what does he call immaturity? Not. Not the lack of gifts. No, they have plenty of gifts. It's a lack of love for one another.
[00:37:23] Jesus understands that the biggest challenge that we are going to face is not walking in the gifts of the Spirit, but utilizing the great riches and wealth that God gives us, not to serve ourselves, but to serve one another.
[00:37:39] Jesus understands the temptation of man will be to take his life into his own hands when things get stressful. Jesus understands the temptation of man, that when we begin to walk in pain, we begin to look for other things, to medicate ourselves instead of surrender to a God who loves us. Jesus understands that when we walk through disappointment, we might be threatened in the area of trouble, and we may start putting our trust in other things other than him.
[00:38:10] And he's saying this, if you love me, keep my commands. And he knows in their hearts they're going, how?
[00:38:17] I can barely do it when you're around. I'm chopping off people's ears. I'm trying to build shrines on a mountain. We're. We're arguing who's the greatest.
[00:38:25] I hear this. Sometimes people will criticize certain ministries because someone around there did something. And I'm like, did you see the disciples?
[00:38:33] Jesus was the perfect leader, and they were still trying to be awesome.
[00:38:41] The fruit of good leadership isn't perfect people. The fruit of good leadership is people that are willing to grow.
[00:38:47] So many times we are looking for perfection, but God's just looking for purity of heart. Perfectionism is the. Is the enemy of true purity. Perfectionism is an outward demonstration of goodness without an inward transformation. Perfectionism is a mechanical adjustment when purity is a willingness to let God do what only he can do.
[00:39:13] The word for perfection in. In the Bible is not. Is not that you are without bl. It's not. It's not that you're just living life like a robot. It's. It's actually that you have allowed fire to refine the gold and to let the impurities rise up. And it's not a one time deal. It's a continual process.
[00:39:34] You see, the religious spirit demands that you look good, But the Holy Spirit invites you to plant yourself as a tree by his river.
[00:39:49] Dependence on God is spiritual maturity.
[00:39:55] You are not maturing yourself into independence. You are maturing yourself into greater dependence.
[00:40:01] My need for God doesn't disqualify me from being a minister. My need for God qualifies me.
[00:40:08] I want to tell you, I stand up here today.
[00:40:11] Six and a half years ago, the Holy Spirit met me. For six weeks I shook violently under the power of God as I wept and repented daily. The repentance didn't feel like shame. The repentance didn't feel like guilt. It felt like the most freeing conviction as I let go of my need to be all the things and I let him become everything for me. It felt like the most freedom I had ever felt as I sat in a room realizing God. I've been crying out for you to fill a room and you want it to fill me.
[00:40:43] But you see, the religious spirit says, rather cry out for a room. Because if you say for me, then I have to address the things in me that are not like Him.
[00:40:56] I want to tell you, God did such a work in me.
[00:40:59] But I don't stand on this stage work completed. I stand on this stage continually needing him to do that work in me. And the wildest thing is the work that he does in me. He now does it through me.
[00:41:14] What kind of mercy is that?
[00:41:16] I cannot, in my own strength minister the way that I am ministering today.
[00:41:23] I can only do it if he continually does it for me. But he sees fit while he does it for me, to plop me on the stage when with a microphone in front of a thousand plus people and says, it's good enough to me. What I'm doing in you, I will do through you. Why? Because this is what mercy is.
[00:41:43] You don't walk out of this building saying, I had an encounter here, therefore I'm good. On Wednesday, Jesus had an encounter right before he went into the wilderness. The sky parted, a voice came out. This is my beloved son. Son.
[00:42:01] You can laugh, it's okay.
[00:42:03] With whom? I'm well pleased.
[00:42:05] Forty days after one of the most radical encounters recorded in the Bible, the enemy comes. And what does he question the encounter?
[00:42:15] God says, this is My beloved son. And first thing the enemy does, this is my son, he takes out the word beloved. I will tell you there is a love that you have experienced in God. There is a love that you've experienced in an encounter with God. But when the enemy finds you, he will leave out the love and he will just get the facts.
[00:42:33] He will take out the identity, he'll take out the heart, he'll take out the intention of the Father, and he'll begin to run it like a document.
[00:42:40] If you are.
[00:42:42] If you really heard. And you know how Jesus fights that battle, not with a moment. He fights it with the word of God.
[00:42:49] He fights it with the truth of who God says he is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
[00:42:57] Okay, we have to move on.
[00:43:01] We go to John 15.
[00:43:03] Oh, John 14, verse 21 real quick. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest my myself to him. Verse 23. Jesus answered, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him. I want to. I want to challenge a thought in your mind.
[00:43:30] If you are not keeping the commandments of God, I want to challenge you that the fruit that is a fruit keeping the commandments of God is a fruit of being connected to the Holy Spirit.
[00:43:47] If you are feeling like it is impossible to keep the commandments of God, I would challenge you that it's not so much about a perseverance issue and it's more about a surrender issue.
[00:44:00] Yes, we have to persevere. Hundred percent. But surrender requires us to persevere so many times. I mean, I've had moments in my house where I don't know why, but all my children have a problem at the same time. And it's usually right when my husband and I having a very important conversation and it's just getting to the edge where we're feeling a little bit tense and then everyone screams.
[00:44:23] And I remember one day we're in the kitchen and we're just about. We needed to talk about it for days and.
[00:44:30] And then everybody loses their mind in the next room. And I watched my very patient husband grab the kitchen island and go, I am at the end of my patience rope.
[00:44:41] And we've been married for a long time. So I looked at him and smiled and I said, well, good news that God's patience rope never ends. It's like a swing, right? It's like Tarzan, ah, swing from the end of your rope and grab onto his.
[00:44:59] You See, many times when we get to the end of our rope, we get into the to the end of ourselves. We don't realize there's something else to come grab onto. And we sit and dangle there by a thread, irritated, disconnected, tempted.
[00:45:16] And God actually says, in me, there is far more capacity to love than there is in you.
[00:45:24] To keep his commands isn't something that simply, we work harder, we try harder, we strive more, we perform more. It's actually a place of Lord, where did I step out of trust in you? And put trust somewhere else. I'll do that. Sometimes if I lose my peace, I'll have peace. And then all of a sudden I'll notice. And sometimes I only will notice. Three days in, I've got anxiety.
[00:45:47] Do better when I notice quickly. Sometimes it used to take me months. I normalized anxiety. I thought anxiety was part of life until God flooded me with his presence.
[00:45:57] And then all of a sudden, I started to learn, oh, I've got anxiety all of a sudden. I'm starting to try cling to things. And I'll say, holy Spirit, where did I leave my peace? And he'll take me back three days before to a meeting that got tense. And all of a sudden I put my future in the hands of a leader instead of in the hands of the Lord. I sat in a meeting and I heard people say things, and I decided to take my trust in the Lord and trust someone else's ability to see, to discern, to experience. And all of a sudden, I've got anxiety through three days later because I've disconnected my vine from the Lord and now my vine is connected to a finite human.
[00:46:37] When I'm irritated with my husband, oftentimes I notice it's because I've unplugged myself from the vine of God and I've plugged myself into Him. And so what he gives me, I can only give him back.
[00:46:51] This whole concept of I'm triggered, all these things, it's real. We all get triggered. The problem is, is what we do with when we're triggered. When I'm triggered, do I place my. My power, my. My ability to choose in someone else's ability to fix themselves, or do I place it in the Lord?
[00:47:09] We will not be able to love people the way God has called us to love. If people are our source, if people have the ability to take away my peace, people are my source.
[00:47:23] I don't say that at you, I say that with you.
[00:47:29] For we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus and the love that God calls us to love with is not with a mortal love.
[00:47:37] The. The first commandment to love the Lord your God, Ben spoke about this this morning. The next one is to love your neighbor as yourself. But what you're going to find in John 3, John 15 is a new commandment, because as he starts talking about this wonderful Holy Spirit, verse 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. Can you say all things?
[00:48:04] Jesus in John 13, knowing God had given him all things, begins to serve, begins to preach of the Holy Spirit. And now he's saying, this Holy Spirit will teach you all things. There is not one thing in your life that he cannot teach you about. There's not one thing you face that he cannot talk to you about. There's not one thing that can come against you that he does not have some kind of word, some kind of peace, some kind of direction for. And he will teach you all things.
[00:48:37] I've got to move on.
[00:48:39] It's really good. Go read the whole thing. All six chapters later, he goes, I am the true vine. 15. 1.
[00:48:49] My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that he may bear more fruit. Some of you are in a season where God has pruned a branch that was bearing fruit.
[00:49:03] God never prunes for your demise. He prunes for more fruit. When the Lord is bringing back, when He. When he begins to cause you to focus and sharpen on something, it's not because he wants to diminish you. It's because he wants to strengthen you for increase.
[00:49:18] When the Lord begins to confront you or convict you in an area of your life, it's not unto your demise. It's unto your strengthening. I want to tell you, I used to get so excited when people were like, you're being promoted. I used to be like, yes, I'm being promoted. Now I hear you're being promoted. I'm like, oh, dang, I'm gonna grow.
[00:49:34] Oh, no. I'm about to get feedback. I. I know it and it. And it hits all of a sudden. And because the Lord, in His goodness, when he marks out a new territory for you to take, what he begins to do is he begins to ready you for increase. He begins to ready you to be the kind of container that can hold more.
[00:49:52] And all of a sudden, that little attitude that there's been graceful, there's no more graceful for it. Oh, the Lord does That to me sometimes. And I don't like it because I like my rights.
[00:50:03] I like my rights to be annoyed.
[00:50:06] Do you guys know who Banning Leapshire is?
[00:50:09] Yes, Banning. He leads Jesus culture. Not so long ago, we're going through a hard season at Bethel and I'm growing in leadership and it's just tough working 17 hour days every day for a month. I'm exhausted, working hard, it's overwhelming. Banning calls me and he fires me with questions all the time. Drives me crazy. Just wham, wham, wham, wham. How are you? What are you doing? How's your family? And I'm like. And then right at the end of the conversation, he says to me, haley, what is God doing in you right now? Because I'm telling him all these things. I'm working 17 hour days and so hard and so overwhelming. And he says, what is God doing in you right now? And I said, banning, I don't want to know.
[00:50:48] Like, let's just be real. When things are overwhelming, we, we don't want to go. God, how you're growing me.
[00:50:54] Yay for growth.
[00:50:56] I love growth so much. This is amazing, you see, because sometimes we think if it's God's will, we think glory to glory means easy to easier.
[00:51:06] We sing these songs that he keeps on getting better. But we've put better in the context of man's mind, right? And better is easy, fun, enjoyable. But God says better is growth, development, maturity. Why? Because better is becoming like me.
[00:51:24] I just want to tell you in my flesh, I like my rights.
[00:51:28] I'm a good debater too. I could have been a lawyer. You should hear me when I have a good argument. I'm like an auctioneer. I can keep going. The Lord told me early in my marriage, he said, you can win every, every argument, but you will never get your husband's heart.
[00:51:43] He said, the gift of communication on your life, you could win every, every argument and you will lose your husband's heart. Because you see, God didn't put me in a marriage to win. He put me in a marriage to die.
[00:51:54] And then he gave me children so I could die some more.
[00:51:59] And then he gave me the church.
[00:52:02] And then he stuck a microphone in my hand and said, let's see how a one way conversation goes with thousands of people.
[00:52:11] It's so wild. I just want to tell you, I stand up here, a work in progress, and the Lord sees it fit to shove a microphone in my hand and say, say what I've put on your heart. I think that's Crazy sometimes, but this is what God does. Because God is not interested in showing how great I am. He's interested in showing the power of his grace and his mercy through a little life. He is interested in displaying his glory through the limitation of a human being. Saying, you want to see what I can do with five loaves and two fish?
[00:52:41] I'm a hairdresser from South Africa.
[00:52:44] Hairdresser. I got all my formal. All my formal theological training cutting hair. I would preach the gospel to anyone that would listen. And turns out you can't leave with half a haircut, man, if you're getting foils. You were there for a long time. It's a lot of gospel to hear.
[00:53:03] I. I grew up in the church. My father's a theologian. I definitely was trained, but maybe just not conventionally.
[00:53:10] I didn't even know a girl could do this.
[00:53:13] In fact, the greatest reason why I needed to be encountered by God was because I. I loathed coming up here because I felt so exposed to people's opinions and I was so afraid because when God would come on me, Dylan was talking about it, when God would come on me, there was this, this fire that would come through me and I didn't understand this fire that would, like, begin to burn. Like, I really like people. I want them to feel really loved. I want them to feel really welcomed. And then I get up here and I'm like, whoa. And I'm like, oh, my word. Chill out.
[00:53:42] But it turns out that my life is not my own. And the Lord needed to grip me in order to have his way.
[00:53:49] I've got to move on.
[00:53:52] John 15, verse 4. Abide in me, and I in you.
[00:54:03] For the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it bides in the vine.
[00:54:14] Whoever bides in me and I in him, he will bear fruit.
[00:54:18] For apart from me, you can do nothing.
[00:54:23] To walk out of this room and think that we can bear fruit without dependence on the spirit would be a travesty and a failure.
[00:54:40] Verse 12.
[00:54:43] For this is a commandment. It's a new commandment that I give to you, is that you would love one another as I have loved you.
[00:54:54] You see before, the only commandment could be is that you could love as you love yourself, because there was no spirit living inside of you.
[00:55:02] So the greatest love you could have known was self love.
[00:55:06] But now the Holy Spirit is about to be poured out into the hearts of flesh, and we're about to taste of a love that is bigger than life. Love for yourself.
[00:55:14] It's bigger than my Truth, it's bigger than my freedom. It's the kind of love that when it fills you, it doesn't just set you free, it begins to flow out of you and set others free. And so a new commandment is given that we can love each other in a way that heaven loves.
[00:55:32] By this, they will know that you are my disciples.
[00:55:42] Chapter 16, Verse four.
[00:55:51] He begins to promise the Holy Spirit is coming.
[00:55:56] He talks about sorrow filling their hearts.
[00:55:59] And then verse seven, he says, nevertheless, I tell you, that is to your advantage that I should go. Go.
[00:56:05] Could you imagine living with Jesus? Literally staring the Messiah face to face as you feel the words of life permeating your being. And then he says, it's to your advantage that I go.
[00:56:17] Because if I do not go, the promised Holy Spirit will not come.
[00:56:24] Guys, the Holy Spirit is so vital to the Christian life. You cannot do the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has become my best friend.
[00:56:37] Today I watched Angelica just get touched by God. And I was just.
[00:56:43] I was so moved because I thought, there you go again, God.
[00:56:49] There you go again, Lord, doing what we cannot do for ourselves. There you go again, touching this young woman, preparing her, readying her for the things that you have called her to. And, God, you will never leave her. You will stay with her. This infilling that's happening is available to her always. You're gonna propel her and strengthen her, and you're gonna make inside of her a home that she doesn't even know how to make.
[00:57:15] I have so fallen in love with Jesus.
[00:57:19] And I realize it's not.
[00:57:23] It's not my ability to love.
[00:57:27] He gave me the ability to love him.
[00:57:37] I look at my family and I'm like, oh, God, I didn't have the ability you gave me the ability to have a marriage. God, that's fruitful and beautiful.
[00:57:50] I know where I started. It wasn't great.
[00:57:58] I need you to hear that. I know where I started. It wasn't great.
[00:58:03] But he is so good.
[00:58:12] I understand it's annoying sometimes when people cry, but I told God six and a half years ago I would never resist him again.
[00:58:23] I understand that it can look like, I don't know, showmanship or whatever. I really couldn't care about showmanship.
[00:58:30] I really couldn't care about how things look.
[00:58:34] I have to have him.
[00:58:37] Samuel Chadwick says this. He says, I owe it all to the day of Pentecost. This Methodist min. Minister from the 17 and 1800s. I owe it all to the day of Pentecost. For before Pentecost the facts of the gospel were complete. For 50 days, the facts of the gospel were complete. But until Pentecost, there was no birth of the church. Until the Spirit came, the church was not alive. Until the Spirit came. There was no fire. There was no power. There were cowards.
[00:59:06] There were cowards. Denying Jesus, saying, I would never do it. But when the Spirit came, a man who denied Jesus became bold.
[00:59:18] I owe it all to the day of Pentecost.
[00:59:23] For the facts of the gospel were complete in my life. But until the Holy Spirit came crashing in, I did not know fire. I did not know power, and I did not know love.
[00:59:34] But now I'm not just filled, I'm overflowing.
[00:59:55] Tonight I sat in my chair and I thought, okay, I gotta surrender my dignity again.
[01:00:04] I felt the wave of God's spirit.
[01:00:09] I thought, okay, here goes my dignity.
[01:00:18] Sometimes I just want to be a put together preacher, you know, one that doesn't end up on YouTube.
[01:00:30] I just want to tell you I understand. People have flavors. They don't like when you shout sometimes. I don't like when I shout sometimes.
[01:00:40] That's not what we're here for.
[01:00:43] The Lord is waking up his church.
[01:00:47] He's waking us up to a kind of fire that we should not contain.
[01:00:51] The kind of fire we should not have preferences for. We say we want revival, you will lose your preference.
[01:00:58] There's a lot of things I prefer. There's a lot of things I'd rather be doing.
[01:01:05] But that's not what we signed up for.
[01:01:08] And not all of it. I don't know what's personality and what's the Lord. He kind of is happy to go, I like your personality. Let's do this.
[01:01:16] The Lord likes your personality.
[01:01:18] He made it.
[01:01:20] I can bleach my hair. I can. I can put on clothes. You know, I can do all these things. But turns out it's still grows up brown.
[01:01:29] You know how many times we nitpick ourselves?
[01:01:32] We criticize ourselves thinking that if we could just make ourselves good enough, we could be used. And the Lord is like, I made you. And I don't apologize for you. I don't apologize that you're quiet and I don't apologize that you're loud. I don't apologize that you're a boy. I don't apologize that you're a girl. I don't apologize for your age.
[01:01:48] I don't apologize for your upbringing. Do you know what? I know you. I made you. I've walked with you. And I love you. And I want to fill you. And I want to use you. And I want to do things with your life that you should not be able to do on your own. Do you know why? Because I take delight in having my glory in you.
[01:02:07] Because then Jesus, after preaching about the Holy Spirit, he prays and he prays in John 17 about 1.
[01:02:18] He begins to talk about how him, the Father and the Spirit are one and how he's about to be glorified. And then he begins to include us in the prayer.
[01:02:38] And he prays this. He says this verse 22.
[01:02:44] Let's start. 20. I do not ask for these only.
[01:02:48] He's praying for the current disciples. But he says, I don't just pray for these ones, but I also pray for those who will believe in me through their word. Say, that's me.
[01:03:03] This is what he prays for you. That they may be one.
[01:03:08] Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you.
[01:03:15] That they also may be in us. So that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one, as you and I are one, I in them, you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and I have loved them as you loved me. And then Jesus prays this, Father, I desire.
[01:03:46] I desire that they also may be with me where I am, to see my glory. Could you imagine? We asked Jesus, what do you want? Jesus is saying, this is what I desire. That I wouldn't just taste of glory, but they would come into a place of glory with me and they would taste of the riches of your goodness.
[01:04:07] Jesus in this passage is saying, when we cry out for glory, we are crying out for the thing that unifies us.
[01:04:15] When we truly encounter God's glory, we. We grow a capacity to love.
[01:04:26] And this is what I want to pray for tonight.
[01:04:32] For the sweet, sweet, sweet wonderful Holy Spirit to unify us.
[01:04:47] It's really hard to love people when you are. When you don't know the love of God, when you don't know the love of God. You'll compete with people because you'll think that you're really resources are limited.
[01:05:01] You'll think when someone else succeeds. I experienced this in my life. I had wonderful parents, but my dad was more of a coach.
[01:05:09] And well, really, I think it was more the South African system really that raised him a certain way. It was years and generations. And watching my father engage with my emotions these last 10 years has been one of the most beautiful breakthroughs of my life.
[01:05:28] But as a kid, I was the youngest of a pretty talented family, and my siblings were leaders of everything. And I always felt like I kind of trailed behind.
[01:05:38] And I began to notice that, that if I didn't win, I didn't feel like I could be loved.
[01:05:45] And so I would compete in my heart and in my mind, trying to be the best because I thought if I could be the best, then I could get love.
[01:05:55] But I've come to find that God isn't waiting for me to achieve anything.
[01:05:59] If you're in this room tonight and you're like, I don't know if I've been baptized in the love of God, I need to know his love. I need to know the depth of his love. That I'm living in a feeling of deficit of if I don't. If I don't do this, I'm going to lose out. If that. That's you just want to invite you to stand.
[01:06:22] Thank you, jesus.
[01:06:30] Thank you, Jesus.
[01:06:34] Thank you, Jesus.
[01:06:39] Just as you're standing.
[01:06:43] My middle child. Her name's Liberty.
[01:06:47] She didn't speak until she was later in years when she was two and a half in my encounter, she got her first word, holy. She got, miraculously got her speech. She has down syndrome.
[01:07:00] And. But Liberty, quickly as she started supernaturally getting her words, she learned this phrase, and it was called Help me, Daddy.
[01:07:11] And Liberty knew that if she stationed herself at the front door, she's got lower muscle tone so she can, like, do the split. So she would kind of split out there at the front door with her shoes right in front of her, because her goal in life was to do the monkey bars, but she couldn't do the monkey bars unless someone helped her.
[01:07:32] And she realized that dad was unable to say no to her if she said, help me, Daddy.
[01:07:40] And so she would wait for that man to walk through the front door, hungry and tired from work. And she would position herself just with enough space for the door to open, but not enough for him to get past her.
[01:07:53] And that man walked through the door tired, probably hadn't eaten lunch because he frequently forgets to take food, a little bit cranky.
[01:07:59] And he would catch his daughter's gaze as she sat with her shoes and did the sign, help me, Daddy.
[01:08:07] And that man would drop everything, pick up his girl, and she would go get to do the things she'd wanted to do all day that she couldn't do on her own unless her daddy showed up.
[01:08:18] I want to tell you today, if the Holy Spirit is your helper, the greatest prayer you can pray is help that tonight. You're not praying for an obstacle course or to learn how to jump through hoops. You're just simply saying, God, you are my helper.
[01:08:32] Help me to receive your love.
[01:08:35] If you don't have faith tonight, I've got good news for you. We have the Holy Spirit. He has a gift of faith for you. All you have to say is, help me, Daddy.
[01:08:44] So with standing, just put your hands out in front of you on your heart, whatever feels comfortable.
[01:08:54] The Lord wants to pour out his love right now.
[01:08:57] He wants to pour out his presence right now.
[01:09:00] I see people standing. If you're hungry, I guess you should just stand. Why not?
[01:09:07] Lord Jesus, we thank you for your presence.
[01:09:11] Lord Jesus, we thank you, God, that you have given us your spirit without measurement.
[01:09:18] I just want to come against the lie that says that you are alone or you are an orphan. I want to come against the lie that says you have to perform in order to receive the love of God. And I want to speak over you that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
[01:09:42] Holy Spirit, right now, just let it, let it sink in before it explodes. Let it come.
[01:09:54] If you're in this room and you are like, I can feel the Lord, I know I need his love.
[01:09:59] You can feel like it's right at hand. I just want you to raise your hands up and I just want you to excuse me as a prophetic sign. Just say, lord, I'm receiving right now in faith. Just receive it.
[01:10:13] Just receive it. Say, God, I'm receiving it by faith. When the Son of Man comes, he is not looking for performance. He's just looking for faith. God, we say, you said, lord, do you believe I can heal you? We say, God, I believe. Help me in my unbelief. Holy Spirit, I thank you that you don't need us to go the full mile. You just need us to take one step, step in your direction. God. And when we turn, Lord, we see that there is a father running down the road to meet us. When we turn to come to you, God, we see that there's a father willing to lift up his tunic and expose himself to come and throw a robe on our shoulders and a ring on our fingers and say, it's time to have a party because my son, my daughter is here.
[01:10:57] Lord God, in the name of Jesus, I come against any self hatred.
[01:11:01] I come against those words that have been spoken over you as children that made you feel like you weren't enough and Lord, we ask for an outpouring of the love of God.
[01:11:28] Thank you, lord jesus.
[01:11:34] Thank you, God.
[01:11:38] I want to pray. You can all stand now if you want to. I want to just pray for us. People are coming to the front. If you want to come to the front, you're welcome to. I am. I know that we've prayed for a baptism of the Holy Spirit.
[01:11:52] I feel this, like, rumble in my spirit that there is more coming for us. Like, there is, like, a patience that the Lord is bringing to the church, and it's a patience to hunger and to stay engaged in hunger.
[01:12:12] If you're in this room as people come to the front. If you're in this room and you've been believing for an outpouring of the Spirit for a long time, and you are. You have felt the tension in the waiting. Would you just wave your hand at me?
[01:12:28] Almost like, do I believe? To how long do I keep believing?
[01:12:34] Thank you. I see your hands. I.
[01:12:37] It's getting a little wild. God is starting to touch people. If that feels a little distracting to you, It's okay. It's normal.
[01:12:50] It's normal. Sometimes if it's new for you, sometimes when God starts coming, he starts moving. Sometimes the human gets involved in that. I'm not too worried. We just want more of what God is doing, and we want to bless what God is doing. So why don't we do this? Why don't we just exalt the Lord for a second? Let's just put our focus on Him. I'm good with all the manifestations, but just some of us, I think sometimes we can get caught up in what's happening. So let's just look at him.
[01:13:16] Because I want to pray for an endurance today. I want to pray for the abiding presence and the endurance of the Holy Spirit that we would be people that pursue in prayer and in confidence. I see the Lord is wanting to anchor some of our confidence in the ability and the willingness of. Of the Holy Spirit to move.
[01:13:44] Thank you, Lord. Just lift up your head for me, like in Psalm 24. Lift up your head. Oh, you gates. Let the King of glory come in. Who is this king of glory? He is the Lord God, strong and mighty. He is mighty in battle. When I hear that he's mighty in battle, I realize he's not just at the finish line waiting for victory. He is there to fight alongside of me. Oh, Lord God, we magnify you. Jesus. Lord, we thank you that you did not leave us as orphans, but you came to us. God we thank you, Lord, that you didn't leave us destitute and alone, but you didn't just come alongside, but you filled us with your nature. That the person of Jesus, the spirit of Jesus, has now been poured out out and is living within me, God, that I'm not trying to reach for you, God. I'm trying to grow in my faith of what you have done and are doing in me.
[01:14:44] Would you just begin to pray out in the spirit of me? Just begin to exalt the Lord.
[01:15:01] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement Online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
