FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
The Whole Story about the Holy Spirit | John 14:12; Genesis 1:2; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Mark 1:10; Matthew 28:19-20; Revelation 22:1-3; Revelation 22:17
The Holy Spirit isn't just a mysterious force or an afterthought in Christian theology—He's been actively working since before creation, empowering believers throughout history, and will continue His work into eternity. This powerful message traces the complete story of the Holy Spirit from Genesis to Revelation, revealing how understanding this divine narrative transforms our own life stories.
When we feel formless, empty, or surrounded by darkness, the Holy Spirit—who hovered over the waters at creation—wants to shape us, fill us, and illuminate our path. Throughout the Old Testament, we see glimpses of the Spirit's work as He empowered specific individuals for specific tasks, pointing toward a future where He would indwell every believer.
Jesus Himself modeled complete dependence on the Holy Spirit. Despite being fully God, Christ chose to live His ministry through the Spirit's power—casting out demons, performing miracles, and ultimately offering Himself as a sacrifice "through the eternal Spirit." This profound example challenges us to stop living by our limited human spirit and instead surrender to the unlimited Holy Spirit.
The New Testament reveals how God has "given the power to the people" through His Spirit, commissioning ordinary believers to make disciples and continue Jesus' mission. This democratization of spiritual power means you don't need special credentials or training to be used by God—you simply need to be filled with His Spirit.
Most profoundly, the Spirit's story culminates in eternity, where believers will experience His unhindered presence like a crystal-clear river flowing from God's throne. In heaven, we'll finally be fully fruitful, completely healed, and perfectly worshipful because we'll be perfectly filled with the Spirit.
Ready to experience greater things? The Holy Spirit is calling you to align your story with God's story, emptying yourself so you can be filled with Him. Your human spirit isn't enough—you were created for God's Holy Spirit to empower you for a life beyond anything you could accomplish on your own.
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It is good to see everybody, all of your smiling faces, here this morning. What an honor it is just to get to be a part of what God is doing here at First Baptist Church, powder Springs. We love to be able to be a church where the community can come together as one from the community, come together as one in unity and worshiping Jesus together. I just want to remind you what we get to do every Sunday, what God does in you every Sunday. We don't take any Sunday lightly. We remember that. We get to come here, we get to worship Jesus together, we get to get filled with the Holy Spirit, we get to get into the Word of God as the Word of God gets into us, and then we get to go back into the community and do more ministry and serve people and share the gospel with others so God can work in them and they can come here and they can experience him in the same way. Can I get an amen? Amen. We're just so thankful for all that God is doing. I just wanna remind you yesterday our women's ministry got together and we had 80, I'm sorry, 67 ladies here yesterday and they were here in Priscilla Shire and who's one of my favorite Bible teachers. She's incredible. I don't believe in women preachers, but I believe in her and man. She does just a phenomenal job. And so all men, can we put our hands together just for our ladies getting together and studying the Word of God? I love that man. God is so good. Also, yesterday there were some football games on yesterday. So shout out to Georgia Tech over Clemson. I saw you, georgia Tech, and my Tennessee wife almost preached today because they almost beat Georgia yesterday, but it didn't happen. It didn't happen. And so shout out to the Bulldogs Good job. And.
Speaker 1:But today is Baptism Sunday, and we just saw some people baptized in the first service. There are others planning to get baptized here today, and we just saw some people baptized in the first service. There are others planning to get baptized here today, and we've made opportunity for anybody. Maybe you came here and you weren't expecting to be baptized today, and maybe your baptism would be spontaneous, and the Holy Spirit loves to do that. And so I just want to encourage you just to listen to the Lord and whatever he wants you to do today, whatever decision he wants you, to listen to the Lord and whatever he wants you to do today, whatever decision he wants you to make today, in whatever way he wants you to follow him today.
Speaker 1:I heard a story just about a baptism Sunday at another church way back years ago. The pastor was baptizing out in the creek right. So the town was coming to get baptized. And everybody's getting baptized. And here comes the town, drunk, to get baptized. And everybody's getting baptized. And here comes the town, drunk to get baptized. Here he comes, walking up to the pastor, and the pastor said uh, would you like to get baptized today? He said I sure would, pastor. The pastor baptized him, put him under the water, brought him up and he said did you find Jesus? Yet he said nope, not yet, pastor. And so the pastor baptized him again, put him back under, brought him back up, did you find Jesus? And the town, drunk, looked at him and said one more time. So the pastor did it a third time last time, brought him back up. He said did you find Jesus? And the drunk said are you sure he fell in right here? I can't find him anywhere. So you never know.
Speaker 1:But the whole point, the whole point is finding Jesus in your life. Can I get an amen? Finding Jesus in your life, because our lives are all about Jesus. Can I just ask everyone, let's just pray right now. Every head bowed, every eye closed, every head bowed, every eye closed. And I just want to encourage you just to say a prayer like this to God. I'm not asking you to repeat me, because I can't live your relationship with God, it's between you and God. But maybe right here, right now, you just wanna say something to God like this God, whatever you want me to hear, help me to hear. Whatever you want me to believe, help me to believe. And however you want me to live, help me to live. All in Jesus' name, in all God's people said amen.
Speaker 1:Well, our series this morning is called we're continuing in our series called Greater Things. Everyone say greater things, greater Things. It is a series on the Holy Spirit and just as a reminder, who is the Holy Spirit? Just to kind of give you a quick overview that I taught on last week the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. You've got God the Father, you've got God the Son, you've got God the Holy Spirit. Three persons, one God. Everybody say one God and he is the third person of the Trinity.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we treat the Holy Spirit like he's the third wheel of the Trinity. He's not the third wheel, right. We believe in the Father, we believe in the Son and we believe in the Holy Spirit. Some people think the Holy Spirit is just the arm of God, just the power of God, just the work of God. No, he is a person of God. He is the person, the God, the Spirit. He is a person of God. He is the person, the God, the Spirit. Sometimes we refer to the Holy Spirit as an it, but the Holy Spirit is not an it. Every time the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit, the Bible calls the Holy Spirit a he because he is a person.
Speaker 1:Also, you hear people teach about the Holy Spirit in the Bible and they say how the Old Testament is all about God the Father, the New Testament is all about God the Son, and today our church age is all about God the Spirit. And they would say God just existed in three different forms throughout history. That is not true. That is heresy. The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God has always been Father, son and Spirit in the past, and God is Father, son and Spirit today, and God will be Father, son and Spirit for eternity in the future.
Speaker 1:Some people still call the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost. It scares the kids. Stop that, don't do that anymore. And just as a reminder, as a reminder often in life we first experience God the Father because we understand how God created us. And then we come to understand our salvation, god the Holy I'm sorry, god the Son. We understand Jesus, how Jesus becomes our Savior, our death and our resurrection for our salvation, and then we often come to understand the Holy Spirit in our salvation and how the Holy Spirit empowers you for your salvation. And that's why Jesus said you will do. Jesus said to you you will do even greater things now that I am going back to the Father. What happened when Jesus went back to the Father? What happened when Jesus went back to the Father, at the right hand of God?
Speaker 1:The Bible says in Acts 2.33 that he poured out his Holy Spirit. In other words, god wants to do greater things in your life than you could ever do for yourself. God wants to do greater things in you. God wants to do greater things in you. God wants to do greater things through you. God wants to do greater things around you. God wants to do greater things in you.
Speaker 1:So this morning, what I wanna talk to you about is the whole story of the Holy Spirit. I wanna talk to you from creation all the way to revelation, from eternity past to eternity future, in 30 minutes or less. So pray for me right now. Okay, I wanna give you the whole story. What does all of the Bible say about the Holy Spirit? Because here's the deal Understanding the Holy Spirit story helps you understand your story.
Speaker 1:See, we're all living out a story in our life, but the problem is is that we weren't created for our own story. We were created that our story would collide with the story of God. In fact, when your story finds its meaning and its purpose in the story of God, the story of the gospel, of Jesus Christ, that's when your life story finds meaning and purpose and joy and you understand why God even created you, because God's got a greater plan for your life. So here we go, let's dive in together. Number one I want to show you the Holy Spirit in creation. Everyone say creation, the Holy Spirit in creation. Everybody might know.
Speaker 1:Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. Do you realize that verse two, right after that, already talks about the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Spirit in creation, genesis 1-2,. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. To be honest, we don't even know what all that means. Somehow it looks like that God may have just created matter at that time, but the matter did not have the form that it needed to have. It was empty and there was darkness at that time. And so what did God do? God had his spirit present, why? Here's the deal? Because God loves to be present as father, as son and as spirit.
Speaker 1:Even in a life that may feel like that there's no form, that it's not put together. Maybe you feel like that your life is falling apart. Maybe you feel like everything around you is falling apart. Maybe your life feels void. Maybe you came today and you, in your heart of hearts, you feel empty. Maybe you feel like that you need some light in your life, because everywhere you turn is darkness. I'm here to tell you this morning that the Holy Spirit loves to make your life matter. I'm here to tell you this morning the Holy Spirit loves to put lives back together. The Holy Spirit loves to fill life not just with other things but with the presence of God himself. The Holy Spirit loves to shine light into your life so that you are not any longer living in darkness.
Speaker 1:And how does God do it? The Bible says in Genesis 2, 7, that when God created the man, when God created Adam from the dust of the ground, it says that he breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature. It's kind of like when you're born the same thing is true of all of us the doctor takes you, the doctor gives you your first spanking. When you're born, right and you cry and you get filled with air and you start to breathe. The Bible says that when God created Adam, he breathed life into his nostrils and that word is ruach. The Hebrew word is ruach. The Hebrew word is ruach. The Hebrew word for spirit for the Holy Spirit is ruach.
Speaker 1:Spirit means. In the Hebrew it means, can mean breath, and it can mean wind. In other words, when you're born, god fills you with a human spirit, but he did not create you hear me to only have a human spirit, but he did not create you hear me to only have a human spirit. Your human spirit is not enough, because our human spirit is also sinful. God created us to not just have a human spirit. God created us also to have his Holy Spirit. When you get saved, god breathes in you his Holy Spirit, just like you were born. Your human spirit. When you get reborn, it's his Holy Spirit. Can I get an amen? That's how God changes your life. He doesn't wanna just do things around you, he wants to do things within you.
Speaker 1:Spirit means breath or even wind. It would be like your life. Could you imagine being on a large lake or a sea, and let's say a large sea, and you're in a rowboat and you feel like that? You're not even moving. The sea is so large. You're working as hard as you can, you're rowing as hard as you can. That is living your life by your human spirit. But when you let up your sails and you allow the wind to be able to blow you across, to lead you, to guide you, to strengthen you across the sea, I've learned that sailboats go some two to three times faster than rowboats. Why and they don't even have to do the work they allow the wind to do all the work for them. That's the way that you wanna live your life. You wanna live your life by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the power of the human spirit. The whole point is the Holy Spirit is with you, he's with you. The Holy Spirit wants to save you. The Holy Spirit, just like in the creation of the world. He was there when you were born. The Holy Spirit is there throughout your life. The Holy Spirit is with you. But here's the deal. He doesn't want to just be with you, he wants to be within you, because that's why God created you.
Speaker 1:So here we see in number two, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Everyone say Old Testament. Now, the Old Testament is fascinating because in the Old Testament, very different from the New Testament. Now, the Old Testament is fascinating because in the Old Testament very different from the New Testament In the Old Testament you see glimpses of the Holy Spirit. It'd be like if you were taking a night walk or a night hike and a storm comes up and maybe it's so dark outside you can't see where you're going, and when the lightning flashes and it lights up the sky and it lights up your way, you can kind of see where you're going and then for a split second. Then it gets dark again. The same way in the Old Testament, we see these glimpses, we see these flashes of the Holy Spirit and we see certain verses that tell us a little bit about what God is planning to do with his Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Throughout the Old Testament, god is, he is filling certain people in order to do specific tasks for him throughout the Old Testament by the empowerment of his Holy Spirit. But here's what's cool, what's so awesome about this is, in the Old Testament it also gives us a prophecy of how the Holy Spirit one day will fill up every single person that believes in Jesus, every single person that gives their life to Jesus. Like Ezekiel, chapter 36, god says and I will give you a new heart. Everybody say new heart, a new heart. Why? Because we don't just want our old heart, we don't want just a human heart, we want God to give us a spiritual heart within us. He said I'm gonna give you a new heart and a new spirit, not just the human spirit but the Holy Spirit, and I will put within you, and I will remove that heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Speaker 1:What is God saying? God is saying you know it's not enough to live on your own. God is saying you know that there's a problem with your human heart. God's saying you know there's a problem with your human spirit. God's saying you know there's a problem with your human spirit. You know that you are not enough, that you need more, because we don't have peace in our life and we don't have joy in our life and we don't have hope in our life without the Holy Spirit moving in us. God's gotta do a new work and here's what we see. The whole point of it is is that the Holy Spirit is pursuing you. Why? Because the Holy Spirit of God, he loves you. He loves you, he wants you to experience him and the things of God. But he's first gotta do a work within you. He has to change you from the inside out. And so, just like the Old Testament, as the Holy Spirit is working in the background to put everything together. For when Jesus comes on the scene, in the same way, before Jesus comes on the scene of your life, before you get saved, the Holy Spirit was working in the background the entire time.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like being parents of toddlers, which is the stage of life that Michelle and I are in right now right, a six-year-old, a two-year-old, a one-year-old and one on the way, and we just have one job, and our one job, raising these kids right now, is just keep them alive. That's it. We're just keeping them alive, y'all. That's all we're doing, right? It's like every time we turn around, they're just like doing death-defying stunts all the time, right, whether we're trying to keep them alive in the bathtub, right, or maybe we're trying to keep them alive just from falling off things all the time.
Speaker 1:Just the other day I was with Eliana on the couch Eliana, 15 months old and she was on the couch and she's kind of, you know, walking like Frankenstein across the couch and you know she's about to fall off and bust her head, and so I'm just right there with her and she sits down. I'm like, okay, god, we can just chill for a second. She sits down and she turns to where her back is, towards the opening of the couch, right, and then she just goes backwards and falls Just head first, tries to fall off the couch like it's going to be fun, right, instead of like, no, that's an ER visit, that's calling the ambulance, so I'm right there and I catch her. I'm like not on my watch, your mother would kill me. And so I catch her. And that's just what we find ourselves doing is keeping them alive.
Speaker 1:You know what's interesting? Eliana did not turn around and she did not thank me. One time she did not even thank me. She went like oh, thank God, dad, you were there that you saved my life. Today Again, again. That's what we do all day long, but that's what the Holy Spirit does for us. He's in the background of our life and he's protecting us and he is using people in our life to come into our life and to tell us about Jesus and to invite us to church so that we can hear the gospel, so that we can learn that Jesus wants to do greater things in our life through his Holy Spirit, and his Holy Spirit is pursuing us.
Speaker 1:Number three is the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus. You ever noticed this before? It's not like when Jesus came, the Holy Spirit left. No, when Jesus came, jesus said that he actually lived his life by the Holy Spirit. You ever noticed even in his birth, the birth of Jesus, luke 1, 35,. The angel said to Mary the Holy Spirit will come upon you. He's the power of the most high will overshadow you and the child Jesus to be born will be called holy the son of God. The Holy Spirit orchestrated the entire birth of Jesus. Just like the Holy Spirit orchestrated the entire birth of Jesus. Just like the Holy Spirit orchestrated your birth.
Speaker 1:It says in Matthew I'm sorry Mark chapter one, verse 10, in the baptism of Jesus. And when Jesus came up out of the water, meaning when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, he didn't sprinkle water on him, he didn't just douse a little water, no, he put Jesus under the water and he brought him out of the water because baptism is a symbol of death. Baptism is a symbol of dying for our sin and coming up out of the water and it's a symbol coming out as the symbol of resurrection. So when Jesus came up out of the water, immediately, what did Jesus see? He saw the heavens. He literally sees the sky, and the sky is torn open and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove, like a dove right there. In other words, jesus in that moment is being anointed with the Holy Spirit. You know what's interesting is? The Bible then does not say so.
Speaker 1:When you get baptized is when you get the Holy Spirit. The Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says that when you get saved, you get the Holy Spirit. Because when you get saved, you're united in Christ and what is true of Jesus becomes true of you. And because Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit, when you get saved, when you give in Christ and what is true of Jesus becomes true of you, and because Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit, when you get saved, when you give your life to Jesus, that's when you get the Holy Spirit. That you get the Holy Spirit when you say Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin and, jesus, I need you to forgive me of all my sin. Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead, I believe that you're alive, I believe that you're real and, jesus, I want you to be the Lord of my life. I love the quote that says if Jesus is not Lord of all, then Jesus isn't Lord at all. We are calling Jesus to be the Lord of all of our life, and when we get saved is when we get the Holy Spirit. And hear me, that's not the end. It's just the beginning of your life. It's just the beginning because here's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1:You ever seen this about Jesus? Matthew 12, 28,. But it is by the Spirit of God that I even cast out demons, and the kingdom of God has come upon you. You know what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that he submitted his life to the Holy Spirit. He's not even living out his own deity, he's not even living out his own divinity. That Jesus submitted and he surrendered his life to the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Why? So that he could show you and show me what a life could do in greater things that surrendered and submitted to the Holy Spirit. In other words, I cannot live out the power of my own life, even once I'm saved. I can't live out of my own power. Every day of my salvation, I've got to get in the word of God so the word of God gets in me Every day of my salvation. I've got to get in prayer so that I am getting filled with the Holy Spirit Every day of salvation. I've got to make sure that I'm prioritizing the plan of God over my own plans, the will of God over my own will the agenda of God over my own agenda. Why? Because I believe that the Holy Spirit is enabling me to live my life for him, which is better than me living my life for me. And the Holy Spirit wants to do the same thing in you, no matter who you are. He wants to enable you. You might have told yourself before I'm not able to do this, and if you've told yourself that you were right, you're not able to do it and I'm not able to do it.
Speaker 1:One of the greatest things that you can do spiritually to find spiritual strength in your life is to pursue physical weakness. In other words, why is it that we get up early and we sacrifice sleep? We get up early to get into the word of God in prayer, because the spirit of God gives more strength than sleep does. Why is it that we fast, we skip a meal and we fast and we pray over these very important things in our life? Because we pursue physical weakness in order to get spiritual strength. That's what God is saying is empty yourself of you so that you can be filled with me. And that's what we saw Jesus doing throughout his life, because he didn't live by his own power. He lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Number four the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Everybody say New Testament, so here's what we see when you give your life to Jesus and when you become his disciple and when you get baptized, the most important decision that you can ever make in your life is giving your life to Jesus. Nothing is more important, any decision in your life other than giving your life to Jesus, because it brings the Lord God into your life and it gives you eternity with him, that your eternity and your life are settled right. The most important decision is your salvation. And then the most important decision, once you get saved, is to get baptized, because the Bible talks about it as your first step of obedience before the Lord. Look at Matthew 28.
Speaker 1:Jesus said go. Everybody say go, notice that. Jesus didn't say stay. Jesus didn't say sit. Jesus didn't say wait and let everybody else come to you. No, jesus, when you get saved, when you get full of the Holy Spirit, when you follow him, what he's called you to do is go into someone else's life. I don't know who that is for you, but it's probably going to be a family member, is probably gonna be a friend, is probably gonna be a neighbor. It might be somebody you just run into out in the community somewhere. It might be a first-time acquaintance. But Jesus says I want you to go, I want you to go into their life, like he says I've come into your life, I want you to go and I want you to make disciples. We're not just calling people to make decisions, we're calling people to follow Jesus with their life. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Right? So when people get saved, what are we called to do? Hey, I wanna invite you to give your life to Jesus and what you do Now. I would love to help you get baptized, because that baptism, that's what Jesus did for them and that's what we can do for him. He says baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, jesus said I am with you always, to the end of the age. I need you to see something very important here so that you don't miss it.
Speaker 1:Did you realize how many of y'all have ever been on Wikipedia before you ever been on Wikipedia? Raise your hand if you've been on Wikipedia. So Wikipedia, how many of y'all have ever heard of Wikipedia? Raise your hand. It should be everybody in the room, okay, unless you live in a cave. All right, good, all right.
Speaker 1:So Wikipedia did you realize that it started as a website called Newpedia? And Newpedia was a website that were articles written by doctors, experts, professors and PhDs, and they were writing all of these very technical articles for people to read? The only problem is, after about three years, only a handful of articles were written. Why? Because the doctors, the experts, the professionals didn't have the time, and the articles they did write, nobody could read them because they were so deep. So they tried a brand new website called Wikipedia and they said anybody can write any of these articles. And they said it went viral. And today, over seven million Wikipedia articles are written and over 100 million people visit Wikipedia every day.
Speaker 1:What did they do? They gave the power to the people. What is the Holy Spirit doing in your life? He's given the power of the gospel to you. The Bible is saying that. He's given you the keys of the kingdom. The Bible is saying that it's not just up to the pastors and to the professionals and the professors. Jesus is saying no, if you're my disciple, you're called to go. It's the beauty of the gospel that you're called to go and that you are called to make disciples. What is the Holy Spirit doing? He is empowering you. He's empowering you to go to that person that you most desperately want to be saved and you share the gospel of Jesus with them. He's wanting you. He's empowering you to go to that person that you're praying for. He's empowering you to talk to the person that you know that is the furthest from God, the hardest heart toward God, and that's been my prayer today that the hardest heart in the room, the furthest person from him in the room, would give their life to God. Today and then last, we see the Holy Spirit in eternity. The Holy Spirit in eternity. Hebrews 9, 14 says calls the Holy Spirit, the eternal spirit. John 14,. Jesus said the Holy Spirit is your helper and he's going to be with you forever.
Speaker 1:Revelation 22 talks about water and that water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and this is a picture of heaven. Then the angel showed me the river of water of life. Again, I believe it's physical water in heaven, but it is also a picture of the Holy Spirit, bright, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and from the Lamb. If you can imagine, god is giving the Apostle John a vision of what this new Jerusalem city is gonna look like and he sees this beautiful, crystal clear river running through the city, coming from the throne of God and from Jesus, the Lamb. It says. Through the middle of the street of the city is this river, and on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit.
Speaker 1:What is John saying in Revelation? John is saying in heaven we will finally be fully fruitful. We're gonna be perfect, because the Bible says that when we see Jesus, we're gonna be made just like him. You're never gonna be perfect in this life. This life is not about perfection. This life is about direction, just following Jesus with your life. But we're looking forward to the day that we get to experience the perfection of Jesus Christ yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the trees for the healing of the nations. No more sickness, no more pain, no more death, no more sin. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. Why? Because you and I, we will be full of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:When you're full of the Holy Spirit, you can't help but worship God. When you're full of the Holy Spirit, you can't help but obey God. When you're full of the Holy Spirit, you can't help but worship God. When you're full of the Holy Spirit, you can't help but obey God. When you're full of the Holy Spirit, you can't help but bear the fruit of God. So what is the Holy Spirit doing today?
Speaker 1:Revelation 22, the last chapter of the entire Bible, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22,. The Spirit and the bride say come. If you're here this morning and you haven't given your life to Jesus, no matter if you've been in church all your life it's your first time back in a long time or you've never been here before. The Holy Spirit is personally speaking to you and calling your name and the Holy Spirit is telling you come to Jesus, give your life to him, understand how your life can matter. The spirit and the bride say come. Let the one who hears say come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price, let them come.
Speaker 1:The question this morning, as the Holy Spirit is calling you. The question is do you need to be biblically saved? Do you need to really give your life to Jesus? Do you have the real thing? Do you have a real relationship with Jesus? What is that? Very simply, have you come to Jesus and said Jesus, I believe that you are God, that you have died on the cross for my sin. Jesus, I'm asking you to forgive me of my sin.
Speaker 1:Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead. I believe that you're real. I believe that you're alive. Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead. I believe that you're real. I believe that you're alive. And Jesus, I don't wanna just know about you. I wanna follow you. I wanna place my faith and my trust in you. I call on you to be the Lord of my life so I can follow you the rest of my life With every head bowed and every eye closed. There is no more important decision in your life. If this is you right here, right now. I wanna encourage you.
Speaker 1:The Holy Spirit is telling you to come, and if you wanna give your life to Jesus, I can't pray this for you. I can't save you. I'm not even asking you to repeat after me I just wanna help lead you to him. In your own words, in your own heart, you can just tell him something like this right now, you can say dear Jesus, I believe in you and I need you. You can tell him Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin and, jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sin. And you can tell him, jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead, you're alive, you're real. From the dead. You're alive, you're real. And the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So call on him right now. Jesus, be my Lord, be my God, be my Savior. In Jesus' name. In all God's people said Put your hands together for anybody that gave their life to Jesus this morning. No greater decision in life than you could ever make. So I wanna encourage you right now.
Speaker 1:We're about to have a few people get baptized here at the end of this next song. But here's what I want you to know Maybe you came here today and God's working in your life and God is speaking to your heart, and maybe you just got saved and you just gave your life to him, and maybe you've been saved for a while and maybe you haven't been baptized since you have been saved. There's a next step card in front of you that you can fill it out and place on there any decisions that maybe you need to make. That we're not. We don't want to hound you. We just want to help you in your life with Jesus. Do you need to be biblically baptized? That's, being baptized to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Why? Not for your salvation, but from your salvation. Not to be saved, but because you are saved. When do you get baptized After your salvation? How the Bible says, by immersion and submersion, is biblical baptism.
Speaker 1:I said last week just common excuses that people have to not get baptized. You might think I'm scared of water. We've been in church for 183 years. We've not drowned one person yet. We're going to keep that rate, going that streak.
Speaker 1:Maybe you think I don't have any family here. They can watch online. We can record it for you. Maybe you think I don't have a change of clothes. We've got baptism t-shirts, a free t-shirt for everyone getting baptized. We've got hair caps for all you ladies, I don't need one, but maybe you need one, and we've got underwear and all that, everything you need for a change of clothes that you can put your stuff back on and you can go back home dry.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're thinking, well, I rode with somebody, well, they'll wait for you, and if they won't, they need to get saved and baptized too. Or maybe you think, man, I want someone to come with me, I don't want to go alone. If I can just ask the room, if someone asked you today if you would go with them to help them get baptized, how many of y'all would say I'd go with them right now? Raise your hand. You've got all kinds of friends, all kinds of family in here that'd be willing to help you out right here. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to sing a song and I'm going to ask anybody that wants to get baptized that you can go right out to the lobby. They're gonna ask you three questions you believe Jesus died for your sin?
Speaker 1:You believe he rose from the dead? Have you asked to be the Lord of your life? And you too can get baptized, and we'll be here to help you every step along the way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you and God, we just pray that you would have your way in every life, and God, for that life right here, right now. That may just be holding back, god, I pray that you would just empower them to step forward in obedience, not even planning on this today, but, god, you have greater plans for them and so, lord, we just ask that your Holy Spirit will continue to fill us and that we would worship you in all that we say and all that we do in Jesus' name. And all God's people said let's stand together, let's worship him.