Gateway Church's Podcast
What Happened in the Upper Room?
Well, have you had a good day today? No, you say that with a great deal of enthusiasm. Yeah. Well, it's been a good one, hasn't it? Why is that? I think it's been a good one because God made it. Every day of your life, your order of treasure, the life is an incredible gift from God. You could have never been born, you know that? If you'd never been born, you'd never have an eternal future in the presence of God and glory. So, it's a blessing to have been born in half a day. Today was a good day. A good day because God made it and God gave it to you. How many of you have had the best day you ever had in your life today? Three or four brave souls lifted their hands. Let me put it this way. If you consider the fact that the last 24-hour period of time you spent a life on this earth, we would do twenty-five hours closer to the coming of Christ and the establishing of His Kingdom on earth. And when He comes, we will see Him. When we see Him, we'll be what? Like Him. So, you're twenty-four hours closer to being just like Jesus. When you consider all that, you just had the best day you ever had in your life. What's the matter of perspective? I'm telling you perspective is everything. If you begin to see things correctly, when you think right correctly, you feel right. When you feel right, you act right. It all starts with your thinking. It all starts in how you think, the proper perspective of things. That's the reason God gave us His Word, I believe, more than anything else. God gave us His Word to change the way we think. Now, any of you in here have zero air in your life where you need to change the way you think? I mean, you're just exactly like Jesus right now? Well, if you don't, if you're not just exactly like Jesus, then you have needs of changing the way you think. The only way that's going to happen properly is for you to receive His Word. God's Word changes the way you think. And begins to order your thinking according to God's ways. As your thinking is ordered according to God's ways, it changes the way you feel on the inside. Changes your emotional life, changes your perspective, and it definitely changes the way you act. Changes what you do, but it all starts with your mind. That's why it's important that your mind be renewed. You need your mind to be renewed. God's given us the mind of Christ, and we need to have our mind renewed through His Word. So this Bible is a lot more important than a lot of people think. It's more important just allowing to be, you know, laid around in your house and, you know, picking up every once in a while and carrying it with you thinking because it's with you, the devil can't bother you. It's more important than that. What God really wants you to do is feed on His Word. And it will change the way you think. I hope that what we see, just some simple things in this Word tonight, changes the way you think in one particular area of your life, and that you'll never be the same again because it changed you. That's the way I change is because I began to receive in certain areas that there are different times in different ways that come, sometimes their own personal study or devotion comes through the preaching of the Word as someone else is preaching, comes sometimes when I'm preaching. I mean, there's times where I'll say something and I think, "Man, that was so good. I wish I had to take a note on myself." And a middle note to say, "That is going to change my life, it's going to change the way I think." So it comes through personal study, it comes through others, it may come through just conversations with another brother or sister in the Lord. It may come in some other way, it may come from God Himself. But as you receive His Word, the most important thing it does is change your mind. It changes your thinking. Now if you aren't right now thinking absolutely correctly in all areas, you need to open yourself up to believe that it's possible for God to say something to me tonight that will change my life in a particular area of my life. Don't ever go to church just thinking, "Well, I'm going to church and hope it makes me feel a little better." Don't go with more expectations than that. Go number one, expecting to meet with God, to come into His presence and to meet with Him. But secondly, come expecting that somewhere in this corporate gathering, the Lord is going to come and say something to me that's going to leave me different. And He will. Those who ask, get, that's a little misquote of the Word, but it's the truth. If you seek, you will what? Fine. If you knock, the door will be open to you. Ask and you shall receive. I'm expecting that the Word of God, in whatever form it comes to me, is going to change my life. And God can say something. You totally independent of what I'm saying. Have you ever noticed that in church, preach or be preaching on one of the things God's talking to you about something now? That doesn't happen often, so don't be listening to other voices, don't you listen to me. But anyway, I want you to tune in tonight. Please just give attention for, you know, in the next three or four hours as we go through the Word and concentrate, all right? Why don't you turn over to Acts chapter one, if you would, please. Acts chapter one, before we get into it tonight, I just want to say how much I appreciate the opportunity of coming and teaching and being a part of your lives and getting a chance to come because I feel an ownership, some measure of ownership and the birth and the life of this church simply because I've prayed for you and I prayed for Robert long before this church ever started, prayed with him through the process of the decisions and feel a deep ownership of and really a great deal of joy in what God's done in the church in one year. It's quite remarkable. I mean, it really is and the Lord is doing some good things and I feel, and many of our people feel a part of that because we all love Robert. I mean, at Calvary, we love Robert. We love him at Metro in Oklahoma. He's come and done all of the presbytries that we've had in our church and our people there love him and if you all don't like him, we'll take him. I don't know what we do with him, but we'll take him. But we love Robert and love Debbie and love their family and love the staff and the people that God is collecting and putting together as a leadership team here. And so it's an honor to me, it really is to be able to come and teach you and to open the Word of God to you. Acts chapter one, verse one, it says, "The first account I composed theophilus about all that Jesus began to do and to teach." Now this is Luke writing the book of Acts and the first account he composed was the book of Luke. So in the book of Luke, he talks about what Jesus began to do and to teach and the book of Acts is going to tell you a lot of other things that he did. Verse two, "Until the day when he Jesus was taken up after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for that which the Father had promised, which he said, "You heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you should be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And so when they had come together, they were asking him saying, "Lord, is it at this time you are storing the kingdom to Israel?" And he said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father is fixed by his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, Samaria and even the remotest part of the earth." Now look up here, man, Acts chapter one is a transition chapter in the Bible. It's making this huge transition. It marks the beginning of a great chapter or transition in human beings' lives as a matter of fact. It's not a more important transition that ever took place in the history of mankind than took place during this season of time that Luke was writing the book of Acts. Luke was writing the first chapter of the book of Acts as a matter of fact. Now the gospels ended as Robert has been teaching you the last two weeks. What happened the week before? Jesus' crucifixion. What happened the day after his, or three days after his crucifixion and his burial? It happened on Sunday following the Sabbath, the resurrection day. Well, he's beginning to talk about here what happened after that. And so it's a tremendously important transition. The gospels end with the death barrel, resurrection of Christ, and Acts begins to talk about and introduces the account of the birth of the church and its growth through the apostle. So there was a transfer of ownership that took place here. There's a tremendous transition of thinking that took place here. Now Jesus is simply preparing these people that he's writing to, that he's expressing this truth to. He's preparing them for the most incredibly unbelievable event almost, almost, ranks right up there in the top three I think, most incredibly unbelievable event in human history. And that was the advent or the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell and live not only with us but in us, in the lives of human being. The coming of the Holy Spirit is what Jesus is preparing these people to receive. That's what he's doing. He's setting them up for what's about to happen. Now see the disciples faced a big challenge here in the beginning of the book of Acts. Here was their challenge. How are we going to do this without him? He's not here. He's gone. He was here but he's not here anymore. How are we going to do what he told us to do without him? How are we going to do it? How are we going to preach the gospel of the kingdom to all nations and make disciples of all nations? How are we going to preach repentance to the ends of the earth? How are we going to do that? How are we going to heal the sick and raise the dead? All the things that Jesus told us to do. How are we going to do that? He's not here anymore. How are we going to carry on? Now that's a good question, I'd like to ask you, how are we going to do what he left us here to do without him here? Anybody got any ideas? Anybody got a good idea? How are we going to do what Jesus left us here to do without him? Here, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that's how. We're going to do it exactly the same way they did. And that's what Luke was saying. And that's what Jesus was saying when he was preparing them to receive the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The only way to do what Jesus left us here to do is through a dependency and a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Now, I don't know about you, but it's been my observation of church life over the course of the last thirty years, that there's a lot of people that simply feel like it's possible to talk about the Holy Spirit too much. I don't agree with that. I don't believe it's possible to think about, talk about, and emphasize the presence and the power and the gifts and all of the things that the Holy Spirit came to give us. I don't think it's possible. Talk about that too much. And people say, you're going to see you don't know the Holy Spirit. I mean, you're going to get plumb crazy if you keep on talking about the Holy Spirit all the time. Well, if he makes me crazy, then I'm going to be crazy because he's the only choice we got. The only thing you have to depend upon in the Christian life, not only doing what Jesus lets you here to do, but to becoming like Christ. The only hope you have is through the agency in the power of the Holy Spirit because your flesh can't produce it. Your flesh can't do it. It's impossible. So the only way for us to accomplish what Jesus left us here to do is through the power of the Holy Spirit. So we better find out some stuff about him. We better learn how to walk in him. We better learn how to hear him. We better learn to understand and discern his presence and what he desires and what he wants to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. I was reading this, I've read it many times, but when God began to showing me this message, I was reading this one day and again challenged by the whole scenario of the first portion of the book of Acts. I was reading this one day and I saw, you know, he commanded me to go over to the upper room and wait and they waited ten days until the fullness of time had come for Pentecost to take place in the celebration of Pentecost. They were in the upper room and Jesus told them to go over to the city of Jerusalem and wait and look 24, wait for the promise of one of the Father and they went over there and waited. They did a strength. When Jesus told that 120 disciples to go to the upper room and wait, they did a weird thing. They went over there and waited. They did what he said. It's amazing that a whole 120 group of people would do what Jesus said and he went over there and did it. They went over there and did it. And the Spirit of God came into their lives. Now, here's the point. That 120 group of disciples of 120 went into that upper room, totally incapable of doing what Jesus left him there to do, but they came out of that room, absolutely, fully capable of doing everything that the Lord had left him here to do. I don't know about you, but I've got to find out what happened in that room. Are you interested in seeing what happened in that room? I mean, what happened to them, did they all of a sudden just get a lot smarter? They get wiser, they get stronger, they get filled up with some good ideas. What happened to them? So I want to show you tonight just in my own simple way. What happened to them? Now some people in the room here tonight even would say, "Well, I know what happened to them. I don't know why you got to go over that again." You know, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit invaded their lives and came up on them and they were in due to the power and all this kind of stuff. My point is this, even if you know that and have experienced that, it's still easy to get away from it. It's still easy to drift out of dependence on the Holy Spirit to listen. You can move from here to way over there and wake up one day and wonder how you got there. It's kind of just drifting out of dependence on the Holy Spirit and any time you don't depend upon Him and trust in Him and put your hope in Him, you put your hope in something else. Well, what else do you put it in? You put it in your own flesh, the performance of your flesh and especially in good times, it's easy to trust in your flesh. Some of you got some good flesh. So it's easy to put your trust especially in good times. It's easier and hard times really and challenging times to utterly depend upon the Holy Spirit and it isn't good times. But we find ourselves drifting, so I want to call your attention back to where you need to be rather than where you might be, okay? Don't allow the drift to take place. For instance, let me give you an illustration of what I'm talking about here. The way we need to be brought back to attention on this issue because we simply don't have any other hope other than the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. That's the only hope we have. If you were to go to the dictionary, for example, and look up the word black, one of the words that would describe black is the definition of black would be the word dark. If you go to the dictionary, look up dark, one of the words that describes dark or defines dark is obscure. You look up obscure, one of the words that defines obscure is dim. You go to the dictionary, look up dim, one of the words that defines dim is pale. You go to the dictionary, look up pale and one of the words that defines pale is white. Now I started out with black and I end up with white and I didn't take any big steps along the way. I may not be the most brilliant person in the world, but I know that black ain't white. I don't know how I got white and I started out black and started out this way or I started out this way and ended up this way and I don't know how I got here. Now don't you listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. You can find yourself in a hurry somewhere where you never intended to be and thinking things you never intended to think and wake up one day and say how in the world did I get here? It doesn't take a whole lot of being off course to get a long way from God's perfect will and desire for your life if you don't focus in on trusting in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you. This whole issue of the Holy Spirit is very important to us, it's the most important issue that faces us. He said not many days from now you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It's the most important event in human history since the coming of Jesus. Jesus as a matter of fact is more important than I go away. It's expedient that I go away, it's better that I leave why because another like me will come. The comforter will come but he will no longer be with you, he will be in you. If you don't wake up to the understanding of the fact of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life and the need of receiving this bad titzo, this immersion in his presence. You don't have anything to lean on except the good ideas you have in your mind and the strong armor of your flesh, that's all you've got. It's all that's left. See the Holy Spirit of your flesh. So it's important that we look at this. So I'm just going to ask just a few questions, here's the question, why be baptized in the Holy Spirit, why be filled with the Holy Spirit, and this is not complicated, why be filled with the Holy Spirit, here's the first reason, listening, here's the first reason. So we can think what God thinks, so we can think what God thinks or think as God thinks. We need to be encouraged to be baptized in Holy Spirit so we can think what God thinks. Naturally speaking, we don't have the power to think what God thinks. We don't think God's thoughts in the natural, do we? I say a 55-9 says what, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. His ways and his thoughts are so much higher than ours, it's like the heavens above the earth, I don't have a chance, I don't have a chance of thinking God's thoughts, or thinking the way God thinks in the power of my flesh. So one of the things that happen to these people in the upper image that can happen to you is through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you can begin to think as God thinks. 1 Corinthians 2 talks about the same thing, actually, in verse 14 through 16, where it says essentially a natural man does not receive or accept the things that the Spirit of God. Indeed they are foolishness to him because these kinds of things are spiritually afraid. It's only by the Spirit that we're able to know some things, you cannot know spiritual things with your natural mind, it's impossible. So in order to think what God thinks, you must be baptized, be filled with the Holy Spirit to think the thoughts of God. Now let me just show you a couple of reasons why I think you need to think the thoughts of God, and why we need to, let me ask you this, here's the way we think lots of times, let me ask you this, have you ever thought, has it ever occurred to you or popped into your mind just even randomly sometimes maybe, but have you ever remember ever having this thought, that's impossible, have you ever said that, you ever thought that, huh, have you, it's impossible, I can't do that, it's impossible, they can't do that, it's impossible, that'll never change, it's impossible, it's impossible, that's the way we think, regularly, don't we, yeah, that's the way we think, it's impossible, do you think that's the way God thinks, have you ever wake up morning and say, it's impossible, can't happen, won't change, circumstances will never change, that cannot happen, it's impossible, human beings are hopeless, I can't do it anymore, you think God ever thinks that, no, the thought, it's impossible, has never entered the mind of God, ever, what does the word say about him, with God all things are possible, with God nothing is impossible, all things are possible with God, now I believe God wants us to think his thoughts in that area instead of our own, he wants us to begin to see that in the power of the Spirit, through the agency of the Spirit, there is nothing impossible with God or with God in me, that's how he wants us to think, that becomes the basis of our faith, nothing is impossible, you don't wake up and say, this circumstance will never change, this circumstance cannot ever change, it is impossible, yes it is, how do I know, because that's the way God thinks, so I think it's important for us to begin thinking like God thinks, and I think it definitely changed them thinking like God thinks in this particular area, this particular way, they went into the upper room believing this whole deal is an absolute impossibility, matter of fact they were terribly, terribly challenged by what Jesus had left them to do, that they came out of believing, not only believing but achieving those impossible things, they began to think as God thinks, here's another way we think sometimes, here we have a tendency to think as Christians, as human beings, we begin to think, what I need is I need more faith, I need more faith, I need more faith, and I'd be alright if I had more faith, that's the way we think, do you think that's what God thinks, he doesn't need more faith and he knows that, but do you think God thinks we need more faith, well we get to think that we need more faith, so we'll run to seminars and get us some tapes and listen to tapes on faith and try to build up our faith and all of this and what I need is more faith, how much how much faith does it take? So you need to start thinking a little differently in this area, how much genuine spirit inspired faith does it take, does it take a lot, or does it take a little, how much does it take, so to do what, to do anything, to do anything, see we think we need more faith, yet God comes to say to us, as a matter of fact Jesus, there's no place in the Bible, no place in the Word anywhere where we're encouraged to ask God for more faith, no place, you say wrong, wrong, wrong preacher, the disciples said Lord increase our faith, yeah that's what they said, but do you ever read what he said to their request? Here's a tremendously strong rebuke to them, talking about the fig tree and all of that kind of thing, whether it became, I said wow this, it really happened, what you said happened? He said look, how faith in God, the next time you hear me say something you can go ahead and put it in the bank, it's going to happen, and then he goes ahead to teach us them in a rebuking way, he said listen to me, if you have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, just a tiny little speck, the tip of a pin head, just a tiny speck of faith, this little faith moves this huge mountain, little faith moves huge mountain, that's what he's saying, how much faith does it take, just a little, do you need more than you already have, no, you've already got a little, you have a measure of faith, you have the mustard seed measure of faith in you, the moment you were born again, you had enough faith to believe, God gave you that, you've got plenty of faith, you just need to use the faith you have, exercise it as it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, you don't, listen, how many of you believe that God can do anything, then why are you going to seminar, you're going to have somebody else tell you that God can do anything, you already believe he can do anything, you just said you did, when you raised your hand, do your not, then quit going to seminars, start exercising the faith you have, speak it, listen, at Calvary Assembly for example, when I first got there, they had this huge mountain of death, it was enormous, it was debilitating and crushing and almost took the church under, and one of the things I told them, I said listen, we're going to stop complaining to God about how big this mountain is, and we're going to start telling this mountain how big God is, it only takes a little mustard seed of faith, surely we can drum that much up to move this stinking mountain, amen? God thinks you've got enough of you, you need to start thinking like he thinks, it doesn't take but a little bit of faith to do big things, through the power, the age of seeing the power of the Holy Spirit, that's the reason it's important that you be baptized in the Holy Spirit and walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, your mind begins to change, and you begin to see things differently and you don't judge everything after the matter, you begin judging things after the Spirit, you begin seeing things in a different way, you stop seeing all these impossibilities, you begin to think you know with God, nothing is impossible, I believe I'm going to get off my rear end and start praying, I want to quit complaining so much and start trusting, I'm going to stop looking to natural, natural things to help me do supernatural works, I'm going to stop trying to figure it all out and trust God, those kinds of things happen through the agency of the Holy Spirit and no other place, no other way, it's important that you be baptized in the Holy Spirit, you say what if it starts making me act weird, well just weird all over the place, if that's what the Holy Spirit leads you to do, listen don't be afraid of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit doesn't make you weird, he makes you more genuinely human, don't be afraid of him, we don't think like he thinks, you can see this here in the book of Acts 1, Jesus comes to these disciples and he says not many days now you'll be baptized in the Holy Spirit and what did they say, oh it's at this time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel, we're going to get to be big shots, we've been waiting on this a long time, see that's the way we think, that's the way we think, lots of times, that's the way we think, Jesus comes and says to prepare them for the greatest event in natural human history, the birth of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit and he says you get prepared for this, you're going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, it's going to be more wonderful than anything you've ever experienced in your life, it's going to be God in you, the comforter is coming, the paraclete is about to invade your lives, oh it's at this time you're going to restore the kingdom to us, see they were thinking about themselves, he was thinking about a world without hope and without God, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, we think about us perting here all the time, he's thinking about a world without hope, without God, if you're ever going to get to where you think like God thinks you must be baptized in the Holy Spirit, it changed them in that way, they never asked that question again and never had that expectation again in their lives that they were either going to restore the kingdom and they were going to get to rule with him, if you don't believe that read the rest of the book of Acts and watch what happened to them, God changed their mind that day when the Holy Spirit invaded their lives, same thing happened with Peter, Peter was thinking one way and God was thinking another way, Peter said I'm called to the Jews, I'm not going to the Gentile, that wasn't what God was thinking, that's when the sheet with the unclean stuff was let down and all that happened with Peter, essentially God said Peter you better change your mind about this, you don't think you're called to the Gentiles but I think you are and you better do what I say and he did, he was going one way, God was leading in another way, through the agency of the Holy Spirit's where you find those kinds of things out, it is not by mind and not by power of the flesh, it is by my Spirit says the Lord, a dependence upon the Holy Spirit, here's the second thing, you say man are they all going to be this long, nope, here's the second reason we need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, that we can feel what God feels, not only think what God thinks but feel what God feels, this might be harder than the first one, you can't feel what God feels, we can't do that, yet he wants us to feel what he feels, for instance, the most comprehensive definition of God I guess if you were going to put it in one sentence in the book 1 John where it says God is what, he's love, doesn't say he is lovely or he loves, it says he is love, he is, he embodies love, that's what he is, God is called love, it's only through the agency and the power of the Holy Spirit operating within you in a supernatural manner that you're able to love is God loves, that's the only way, you can't do it in the power of your flesh, can you, have you ever been challenged by the challenges in the words of love is God loves, so we're welling, so we're welling, it's impossible except through God, for example I truly do love Robert, I've loved him a long time, you know I really do, he's a great brother, a great friend and I love him, I do anything for him, I really would, anything that I could do, it would benefit him, I would do, I thought it was in God's plan, God's will, there's one thing I couldn't do and wouldn't do, I would not sacrifice one of my children for him, I wouldn't give one of my children up to die for him, I couldn't, nor would he ask me to, but I couldn't do that even if the request was made, that's something I simply could not do, God did, God did, it's only through the agency and the power of the Holy Spirit that we're able to love as God loves, we're able to feel what God feels, it's only supernaturally imposed upon us by the Holy Spirit, now listen, how in the world are we ever going to reach a world of people we don't even know, how we're going to have compassion for people that we don't even know, in the power of our flesh and like we are, no, it's only through the power of the Holy Spirit, he's the one that brings the compassion for people into our lives so we can feel what God feels, it's the only way, God changed these people that way, the Holy Spirit changed them that way, he changed them from self-centered, self-seeking individuals, into people who were passionately in love with God and had a great compassion and love for other human beings, he did that, I imagine most of you are about like me, tell you the truth, here's the way I am most of the time, I imagine you're about like me, I mean basically I love me and I love those that contribute to my welfare, that's basically the way we are, I love me in mind, those that love me in mind, how am I ever going to think differently from that, how am I ever going to stand over a city like Jesus did and genuinely see the people and weep, not because they're being blown to smithereens or bloods running in the streets necessarily, but begin to weep simply because these human beings look like sheep with no shepherd, how am I going to feel that, do I need to feel that, do I need to feel that way, do you need to feel that way, maybe that's a better question, if we're ever going to do what Jesus left us here to do, is it important that we feel what he feels concerning other people, is it important, yes, I have people all the time going to be pastor, I just don't love people, I don't have compassion for people, I say well I don't either, in the power of my flesh I don't either, it's only through the agency of the Spirit, the anointing of the Spirit, the presence of the Spirit, the fullness of the Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit that you're able even to begin to see with God's eyes to think what God thinks and to feel what he feels, but I believe it's possible for us to feel that same kind of compassion for people, that's why I need the Holy Spirit, that's why you need him too, you want your old cold heart warmed up, let it get invaded by the Spirit of God, he'll warm you up in a hurry, you'll find yourself weeping at times that you wouldn't have wept in the past, you'll find yourself laughing at times that you wouldn't have laughed in the past, you'll find yourself rejoicing at things you wouldn't have rejoiced over before and find yourself weeping at things you wouldn't have wept over, wept wept over before, he changes you that way in how you feel, you remember the story of the good Samaritan, he was a good guy wasn't he, a good Samaritan why, he wouldn't have got the guy, the ditch, he'd been beaten up and left for dead and all that stuff and took care of it, you remember what happened in that story, you remember this guy got robbed and beat up and left in the ditch and so forth and this priest came by first and the Levite came by second, they saw this old guy down there in the ditch and thought and walked by on the other side, you know why they went by on the other side, because they could tell from where they were that he'd already been robbed, that's why, now listen, listen, listen, listen, some of you got that didn't you, listen, listen, I'm gonna make a point out of this if you listen to me, listen to me, you don't go into the ditch based upon who it is and who it is that's in there, you don't go into the ditch based upon who it is that's in there or what they have, you go into the ditch based upon the fact that somebody's in there that was created in the image of God, it's only through the agency of the Holy Spirit that we are able to feel what God feels about human being, I don't think there's a more important issue for the church that faces the church today than the issue I just mentioned, we must in Jesus name, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we must, we must, we must step beyond where the disciples were in desiring to have a kingdom where we can be big shots and see the world that's lost in going to hell without hope, so we can feel what God feels, here's the third reason, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, so we can want what He wants, so we can want what He wants, the Holy Spirit will change your water, He'll change your water, I think this is just a personal opinion, I believe we need our walners changed, I believe we got a problem with our water, there is a war going on over our water, our wants, isn't it, you feel it all the time don't you, there's a huge difference between our walner and our neater, isn't there, how wonderful it will be, think about this folks, just for a moment, just consider it, what an incredible way to live, to always want what God wants, to be free of everything else except what God wants, wow, I'd give a lot for that, it would freeze from so many things, so many wasted moments and hours and endless time spent in activities that are meaningless, so much emotion wrapped up in stuff and things and projects and all this stuff, what it would be like to live only wanting what God wants, I believe that's possible, I don't believe I'm there but I believe it's possible, I believe through the agency of the Spirit that's possible that we can want what God wants, you remember what Psalm 374 says don't you, it says it's incredible little statement, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, I believe He will give you what you want but the important thing in that is this, He will give you what you want but He changes your walner to want what He wants you to want, so everything you want is His will, people come and say to me, pastor how do I find the will of God, I mean that's probably the most often asked question of all, how do I know the will of God in this particular area, this particular matter or how do I figure out what the will of God is, let me give you a definition of the will of God and how to find the will of God, want what God wants and do anything you want to, amen, you just want what God wants and do anything you want to, now you begin to see this if you'll think about it in a minute, you'll see it displayed in this pristine form in the lives of the early New Testament Christians, you see it displayed in their community, you see it displayed in their relationships with each other, you see the destruction and the utter wiping out of their previous desires and wants and stuff, so they come to the place of this beautiful and it's very, very significantly beautiful, relationships with one another and compassion for those around them, the Holy Spirit changed their lives in this area, they began to want what God wants, there's a war over a warner and I know I was kidding around about that little bit, but it's really serious, it's really serious and it's really glorious to contemplate, it's one of the most glorious things that I have ever contemplated, is a life lived wanting only what God wants, what a liberating thing that would be, hot dog, through the power of the Holy Spirit I believe it's possible for us to want what God wants, let me give you number four, you see it coming don't you, think what he thinks, feel what he feels, want what he wants, you've got to guess on the last one, so we can do, we're empowered by the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, so we can do what God does, so we can do what God does, the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to move beyond dependence upon our flesh, Paul put it this way Philippians 3-3, you remember what he said, he said we glory in Christ, we worship in the Spirit, we glory in Christ Jesus, talking about Christians or spiritual people, we worship in the Spirit, we glory in Christ Jesus and we put no confidence in the flesh, do you want to be like to have no confidence in your flesh, have important that that is to you, to have no confidence in your flesh because it's not going to produce the works of God or the character of God or the acts of God, it's not going to produce that, it can produce some things but it's not going to produce those things, the Lord desires for us to get beyond dependence upon the flesh and get into the place where we really can supernaturally operate. To do what Jesus left us here to do. (upbeat music)