And You Shall Receive Power

For those who don't know me, my name is Andrew Riddle. My lovely wife Sam is over here on the right side. My right, your left. She's my better half always. We serve as the young family's pastors here at the church.

And I also serve as the men's pastor here at the church. I very exciting news about the Stewart baby. Apparently just the hoorah. I mean, it's happening, so I'm excited about that. So be praying for them as they are.

Man, we've got four kids and so I've been there, done that a couple of times. So I know I do want to honor Pastor J and Mel just for man, the labor they've placed into, no pun intended, but the labor that they have done, man, that was good. That was Holy Spirit right there, man. Thank you, Jesus, that they have done for this house. Just because of the faithfulness of God, man, we were all here tonight.

I'm thankful for that. Pastor Steph, thank you so much for the invitation slash directive. I'm not sure which one it was.

So one of the things that is very important to me tonight, that we do, I just want to make some room for the Holy Spirit. That's super important to me. I want to start with this, if you would. I know you just sat down, stand up real quick. We're going to read a scripture.

This is out of the Book of Mark. So if you have your Bible or device or whatever, smoke signal, whatever you want to do, it's great.

Mark, chapter 16 is where we're going to be at tonight for a portion of this. Beginning in verse 15. I believe we should honor the word of the Lord by standing. That's why we stand in this house. His word is authority, so we treat it with respect.

Verse 15.

And then he told them, go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. And these miraculous signs will accompany those who believe. They will cast out demons in my name.

They will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety. And if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and they will be healed. Verse 19.

And when the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. And the disciples went everywhere and preached. And the Lord worked through them, confirming that what they said by many miraculous signs. Holy Spirit, again, we welcome you here tonight. We believe in your work, we believe in your power.

We believe in you are the person of the Holy Spirit. You're not an it. You're not just some random thought. No. You are so vital to the empowered life of a Christian.

Without you, Holy Spirit, where will we be? We welcome you now in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. So tonight we are speaking about the baptism into the Holy Spirit for anyone who is new to our church or maybe a new listener possibly.

If you're listening to this online, the refuge is a spirit filled body of believers. Full stop. Three articles from our statement of faith. I want to quickly mention Article 11, baptism in the Holy Spirit. We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to endue the believer with power and that his empowering is after the same manner as in bible days.

Article 12, the spirit filled life. We believe that it is the will of God that we walk in the Spirit continually. In Article 13, the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit has gifts to bestow upon the Christian and that we should show spiritual fruit as evidence of a spirit filled life. If the seed's been planted, fruit should show up.

It makes sense to me. It makes sense. So these miraculous signs will follow those who believe. Casting out demons, speaking in new languages, living in supernatural and healing the sick. This is supernatural power.

Power. So how do we get this kind of power? And more importantly, how do you walk in it every day? Very simple answer. The baptism into the Holy Spirit.

I want to read this. I took this from. There's an old book by a guy named Gordon Lindsay. Anybody ever read Gordon Lindsay before? Okay.

It's called the Gift of Tongues. I read it recently and his wife wrote this section about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not subject to natural laws and limitations. The Spirit, not having a material body, is free from all physical limitations. He can influence the physical universe, but he himself not be influenced by it.

Gravity and natural laws have no effect upon him. And having no dimensions, no place is too small nor too large for him to fill. He can dwell in the body of a believer or he can occupy the entire universe. He can manifest his presence in the home, in a church, the outdoors, in an airplane, on a cruise ship. No physical walls can hinder his movement in the slightest.

He has supreme power. That's a good place to say amen. Amen. And yet the Holy Spirit is in full cooperation with the Father and the Son, forming the Trinity. In Second Corinthians, Paul closes chapter 13 with these words, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

I would venture to say that it's important that we acknowledge the harmony of the three in one God. Some of the folks in this room or listening online maybe grew up in denominations that never had any experience with the Holy Spirit. This is not a shame fest. This is not a going to point you out. This is none of that.

I want to invite you into the threefold trinity of the Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father. This is not something that I'm. There's no snakes going to come out from the back here. I'm not going to start passing them out. No one's going to do that.

Unless Pastor Nathan has something else. I'm not sure what he's got up his sleeve. I've heard it said like this. To understand the Trinity, to try to understand the Trinity, you'll lose your mind. But to try to deny it, you could end up losing your soul that is really, really staunch.

I'm just going to say that. So I am a musician. I'm a drummer. I fake it till I make it on Sunday mornings. So I wanted to give this example about why it's important to understand the threefold Trinity.

This is the sound of a kick drum and a snare and a cymbal for the audio guys in the back. I'm very sorry. If I just play this, I can't even play it.

It's just noise. It may be good for certain parts of the song, but at some point you need the snare to give rhythm. If it's just this, well, now it's just punk rock, you know what I'm saying? That's problematic. Okay, we need this.

You see how that flows? We need the three prong trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in our walk with God in order for it to make sense. Yes, you can absolutely have a relationship with Jesus. And you're going to heaven right now if you die, even if you have not been walking in, healing the sick, casting out devils, all that. That's all very true, but what if you started doing that today?

It might make your existence on this side of the curtain a little more important, a little more meaningful. What I want to get at here is that the Holy Spirit operates in synchronization with the Father and the Son. So turn to Acts chapter one, if you would.

This will be a true test of how much anointing I have. I have 37% battery life on my computer. So let's pray we make it. Going to. We're going to make it.

Praise God. Acts, chapter one.

The promise of the Holy Spirit. Starting in verse four. Actually once when he, Jesus was eating with them, the disciples, he commanded them, do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised. As I told you before, John baptized with water. But in just a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom? They just cared about Rome and overthrowing people. That's all they wanted to do. We want our freedom back. I get it.

I love Jesus replied, the Father alone has the authority to set those dates and those times. They're not for you to know, but you will receive everyone. See this next word. Power. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, comes upon you.

And then you'll be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That sounds a lot like mark, chapter 16. Baptize, make disciples, and then go tell people about it. What are you a witness to? Well, it's really hard to be a witness, effectively, if you live a defeated Christian life.

I'm just going to speak the truth. It's very difficult to win souls if everyone thinks you're at the bottom of the barrel all the time. I'm not talking about faking it till you make it. That's not what I'm about here. I'm not talking about that unless it's the drums on Sunday Morning.

That's me. Just kidding. What I'm talking about is if we get our tail kicked all the time by the enemy, something's not right, guys. Something's not right because here, Jesus said, you're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. This is Acts, chapter 1, verse 8.

1 8. What's today? 1-8-1 8.

I realized that this morning. I did. I was like, man, that's exciting. Thank you, Holy Spirit. That's awesome.

The apostles were just average men. And they had not gone to 17 years of theology school. They were not advanced in Bible and biblical hermeneutics. They had no idea how to exegete a text correctly. These were just men that Jesus said, will you come follow me?

But these men were living out the fulfillment of the prophet Zechariah 4. 6. It is not by force, nor by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord. Man, I could probably lift a car like a fraction of an eighth of an inch. But I'm telling you something.

Brains and brawn and all that stuff. If I have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of me and I can cast a demon out of somebody that needs it, I'll take that skill. I'll take that encouragement. Because I would much rather walk in the power of the Spirit of God. Because then he rules my life.

He rules my life. Many times we have talked about the idea of the Spirit of God hovering over the surface of the deep. For example, in Genesis 1, we've talked about the Spirit of God raising Jesus from the dead. But for some reason, it seems like we have in the greater church experience, we have a hard time with this connection with the Holy Spirit. I know for me, I had a hard time with it.

And I grew up in church. I grew up in the Assemblies of God. Praise God for fire tunnels, A lot of those growing up, which is awesome. I'm all about it, and I would be great with that tonight. I'm just whatever.

But I experienced and saw a whole lot of things, but none of that was personal to me until a time and a place happened when the Holy Spirit absolutely clobbered me. I'm going to share that in a minute. Somebody is calling my phone. I'm not sure who is calling me. Okay, scam likely.

So praise God.

Jesus was raised from the dead by the Spirit of God on the day of the feast of First Fruits. Now, Pastor Nathan, rebuke me if I get this wrong, okay? From that day, the Jewish people will begin counting the omer, which is seven weeks or 49 days. And then on day 50, Pentecost, they would offer a sacrifice to the Lord. I got that right.

Okay. So on day 40, after the resurrection, Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift that the Father would bring to them or send to them. Jesus told them in John. I'm going to read this really quickly here. John, chapter 16.

But now I'm going away to the one who sent me. And not one of you is asking where I'm going. Instead, you grieve because of what I've told you. But in fact, it's best for you that I go away. Because if I don't, the advocate won't come.

If I do, he comes. I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. The world's sin is that it refuses to believe me. Righteousness is available Because I go to the Father and you will see me no more.

When Jesus said it's better that he goes to the Father so that he can send the Spirit, that is a profoundly important statement. So here's the thought. I'm not going to go super long tonight because I honestly want to make room for the Holy Spirit. I always thought that the disciples heard Jesus say, go to Jerusalem and wait until I send the advocate. And I figured they would go there.

And they were counting day one, day two, day three, brush your teeth. Good grief. Day four, please change that diaper. Oh, my gosh. Day five.

But instead I realized they were probably counting day 41, day 42, day 43. Because they were counting the Omer, because they recognized, no, dude, something's going to happen. Like Jesus said to wait here. It doesn't mean there wasn't awkwardness. It doesn't mean there wasn't bad breath.

It wasn't mean there wasn't body odor. There probably was some of that too.

But the anticipation. Sometimes if you've been sitting in this room and you've gone to church services, you've gone to revivals, you've gone to Sunday morning services, you've gone to launch, and you have begged, lord, fill me, Holy Spirit, I just want to speak in tongues. I want to do what I see in Acts chapter two. I want to see all this stuff. And yet you walk out and you're frustrated.

I wish I could tell you that I had some super elaborate answer as to why the waiting can sometimes be so painful. But Jesus had them wait. And sometimes the waiting and the anticipation, will we continue in it? Because 10 days is also the number of testing, testing for 10 days. Will you wait?

Will you be patient? So Acts chapter two. I want us to read this from your Bible. So open it up to Acts 2.

The Holy Spirit comes.

Verse 1. On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. And suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm. And it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.

And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. That's a very important phrase. Chapter the same chapter after this happens, guys, later on in chapter the same chapter, actually, Peter then preaches to a gigantic crowd of thousands of people who gather because they're hearing in their own native language, them praising God. They're like, how is this Possible. And Peter says this word, and the Father, as he promised, gave him, speaking of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, to pour out upon us.

Just as you see here, verse 37. Peter's words pierced their hearts. And they said to him and to the other apostles, brothers, what should we do? In other words, how do we get this? How do we receive this thing?

What is this? The anticipation had built and built and built, and now we're like, what in the world is going on? And here's what Peter says, verse 38. Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This promise is to you, to your children and. And to those far away. It wasn't just, hey, if you're right here on the front row, you get the sneak peek and that's it. Those far away, those who are far from God. Do you realize that if you've ever given your heart to Jesus, and I believe most of the people in this room have given their life to the Lord, the Holy Spirit drew you to him.

Do you realize this? No man comes to the Father except by the drawing. This is what happens. So I believe this. Some people in this room may hear others speaking in tongues.

Maybe they're jealous about it, frustrated by it, weirded out by it. The Holy Spirit's not going to make you the weird guy at the grocery store where you just start blurting out in tongues and, you know, smacking people and kicking babies like Smith Wigglesworth did. And that's not going to. He wants you to walk in power and authority because Jesus said, I have all the authority and I'm giving it to you.

Bottom line is this. The Holy Spirit in our lives accomplishes three main goals. This is very simple. Number one, the Holy Spirit brings conviction to us about sin and leads us to repentance by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. That's the first thing.

He leads you to repentance by saying, boop. I'm gonna put my finger right on that. That's got to change. That's not gonna work for me. It's not because he wants to rub your nose in it.

It's not because he wants to make fun of you about it. He wants you to be free and empowered by his Spirit. Number two, the Holy Spirit induce us with his power and his giftings. In two weeks, Reverend Jonathan over here is going to bring a word about the gifts of the Spirit. He's going to Bring it.

I'm excited about it. The gifts of the Spirit, whether it's speaking in tongues, words of prophecy, words of knowledge, words of encouragement, yada, yada, yada, interpretation of tongues. There is so many giftings the Holy Spirit has that he wants to give number three. It produces fruit in our lives that makes our relationship with him attractive to a dying and desperate world. You smell different when you've been with Jesus.

You look different, your demeanor is better. You're not a grumpy fest. My wife has told me many times, do you get your grump on? And I have to repent many times.

But you guys realize the Holy Spirit is here to give power. Power, but also to help fruit be produced in a Christian walk. Fruit. If the seed went into the ground, man, if we just stand there and don't expect nothing to grow. Why are we doing this?

What's the point?

Galatians 5. You don't have to go there, but listen to this. Verses 22 to 25. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

There's is no law against these things. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there. And since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. That means this. He produces in us.

Love instead of lust, joy instead of depression, peace instead of turmoil, patience instead of agitation, kindness instead of cruelty, goodness instead of indifference, faithfulness instead of mere inconvenience, self control instead of hopeless addiction. That's fruit.

When we walk with the Holy Spirit's power, going back all the way to the idea of Mark 16. And these miraculous signs will accompany those who believe. Casting out demons. I can remember being in Brazil with Pastor Steph, like in 2006, something like that, I'm not sure. And we were in this square where it was.

I don't even know what kind of demonic junk was going on, but it was, it was gnarly. And I'm telling you there was a woman there that we were praying with. And she just straight manifested and I'm telling you, shrieks. The face changed and dude, that demon came out of that woman.

Thank you Jesus for the healing. When Jesus healed the sick, he also cast out devils. Because oftentimes infirmities have a root of spirituality. There's a whole lot to be said about that topic, but here's where I want to get on and this. I'm going to wind this down by telling you my personal testimony.

I've shared this with the men, actually. Last year about. About this time When I was 16, I was in a small, tiny little church in London, England. It's a long story how I got there, so I'm not going to go into all that, but I was questioning. I believed that God existed.

I believed that I'd seen things. Remember, I grew up in Fire Tunnel Central with the ag but it was all religion to me. I'd never had an experience with the Holy Spirit before. So now I'm standing in this tiny church as a part of a team that's supposedly going to be praying for people. I didn't feel qualified.

I'm not even sure what I believe. So the time comes in the service where this cute little pastor man says, all right, you folks from the us why don't you come stand right here? And anybody that needs prayer is just going to come up to you. What the pastor didn't know is that during the entire service, kind of in the back corner, and maybe he did know because it was loud, the Holy Spirit hit me like a brick. I don't really know what happened, but I fell to the ground and started belly laughing like a toddler.

I mean, I. And it went on for like 40 minutes. And it probably was really distracting, the cackle. It was like hyenas probably. I don't know.

But I'm on the floor cackling, laughing, and I can't stop. And I don't know what's happening to me. I have no idea.

Eventually I'm able to lift myself off the floor. And that's about the time when he says, come to the front. So there I am. I'm like, I don't really know what just happened, but I believe that that was something I can't explain. And up rolls this woman in a wheelchair.

I'll never forget it. And the people that were with her, I think it was a brother in law or brother and a sister in law possibly. And they said, God told us they don't go to church here. God told us to come to this church tonight because my sister is going to get healed. This woman was a vegetable, guys.

She had had a stroke 20 years before that. She's about 40 years old now.

She had a feeding tube. I was like, what am I going to do here? Exactly. But they said, no, God told us that she'll be healed tonight. And I'm like, and you came to my line.

So I said, I mean, what am I supposed to do? Tell them no, not going to pray for her. I'm like, I can't. That's not going to happen. So I. I'm 16, okay?

Pimple face kid. I walk around the back of this wheelchair and I place my hands very gently on this very frail. I mean, the 20 years, hasn't talked, hasn't walked. The muscle atrophy was just severe. And I'm like, oh man, this is going to look bad when this does not happen.

I placed my hands on her shoulders and they put their hands on my shoulders and I said something to the effect of God, I just pray that you would touch this woman. And I pray. And this woman stands up out of this wheelchair. The power of God hit this woman so hard. And she screamed the loudest scream.

I mean, if you hadn't talked in 20 years, what would you say? No. And then she. I mean, muscle atrophy gone, Instant healing. She begins to run around the room, running around the room, run around the room praising God.

And they're jumping up and down, they're clapping and they're laughing and all this stuff. And I'm like, what in the world? What's going on?

And that's when I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit on my own for the very first time. And he said, you have no idea who I am, do you? That's what he said. But then he said, but do you want to?

And I was hooked. I had seen something that I can't unsee. I've been a part of a miracle I can't explain. I don't know how that happened. Ten years later, I'm standing at the edge of my now late son's hospital bed who's passing from cancer, and I can do nothing to stop it.

And all the prayers and all the fasting and all the anointing of the oil and all the. For some woman I don't know yet, for some woman I don't know, God healed her. So what is my option? I can choose to say, well, this whole God thing is not for me. Or I can choose to say, father, apparently what you want I can't see the full picture of Ecclesiastes says that the Lord is working behind the scenes.

Who but God can know the full extent of what he sees doing? Who but God?

We have a mandate as believers if we're going to walk in the Book of Acts type of faith. I can't explain what happened to me. I have been a part of other things. I've Seen other people receive the baptism. I've seen healings happen.

I've been a part of other things since that point, but nothing quite like that. And in this room, with the amount of folks this size, I bet there's some stories in here, and I also bet there's some people in here that have never tasted and never seen anything related to the Holy Spirit, have resisted it. Possibly don't know what it's about, don't know what he's about. But I want to ask you this. Do we want to produce fruit?

Do we want to walk in the baptism, the Holy Spirit? Because if we do, there are things that can and do happen to disciples. Number one, I believe this. Probably most our life looks a little different, man. I wake up in the morning and I want you guys to hear this.

I wake up in the morning, and sometimes it's. I'm groggy, whatever else, but I like to go out to the kitchen. I sit down at the kitchen table. I like to have my quiet time. And sometimes I just pray in the Spirit, And then I wait.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads me somewhere in scripture. Sometimes he gives me a word of encouragement. Sometimes it's just me praying the Spirit. But you know what? I feel that I can run through a wall.

I don't know. Had all the same problems that I had beforehand that I went to bed with. But I woke up and then that morning I began just to ask the Holy Spirit to fill me afresh. And you know what he does.

So, pastor Steph, it's 7:35. I want to respect everyone's time, but I want to read this last piece because I do think that there is a connection that people need to understand. If you were to take time and you manufacturer or you were restoring an old Chevy or whatever else, and you spent so much time putting together, changing, modifying, editing, creating brand new whatever on this awesome. I don't know. 1988 Chevy Silverado.

That's my favorite truck. Let's do that. You build all this stuff out, and then you bring someone over to take a ride with you and like, all right, man, crank it up. You're like, nah, nah, I didn't put an ignition switch in here. Well, why not?

I don't need it. I'm just gonna push it. You're gonna push it. I think you might get some. Looks like, dude, you're nuts, man.

But what if you put the ignition, the key in the ignition, and you crank up that bad boy? Now we can ride. Imagine this. If the word of God tells us in Ephesians 6 to put on the whole armor of God. I want you to hear this.

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Seem like a good idea if we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle, you will be standing firm.

Amen. Stand your ground putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness for shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good news that you'll be fully prepared. In addition to all these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And here's the part that everyone loves to leave out. Verse 18. Pray in the Spirit at all times. On every occasion, we put on the whole armor, man, and we forgot to put on our underwear. Do you hear what I'm saying?

If you are Tony Stark and you're Iron man and you don't put an ignition switch in there, you ain't going nowhere, Jack. The spirit of God inside of you gives you the ability to live a successful, empowered Christian life. You then take ground from the enemy because you're not so worried about him coming making your kids sick. My kids were sick. Thank you, Disney.

My point here is that if we want to put on the full armor of God, but then forget to put in the ignition switch and turn the thing on, what are we doing? Let's put on the full armor of God and then take ground from the enemy. Let's take it from him. How we do that is through the baptism of the Spirit of God. So how I want to close is with this.

Ashley, can you come or. Yeah, can you just come play some keys? That'd be fantastic. I've asked the elders and the pastors that are here tonight just to be on standby to be available. And I want you to understand one thing.

If you have a pounding heart in your chest, if you're like, I can't wait to get out of here because this is making me uncomfortable. Okay, great. God is speaking to you. If you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, yet you are getting the tarby out of you because you're not sure how to live or how to walk in power. We want to pray with you.

If you've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you've never spoken in tongues, but you've heard about it, you've wanted your prayer language, but you're not really sure how to do it, who to ask. Scripture says to bring all those questions and all those things to the elders and the pastors, and let us pray over you, because we're not the one that does it. It's the Holy Spirit. We're just the vessel. I'm just the guy holding the mic.