The Filling of the Holy Spirit

00:01 All right. If you want to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to the book of Ephesians, I want to talk to you this morning about how to be filled with the Spirit, what that looks like, what it means, how do we receive the Holy Spirit, what difference does He make in our lives on a very practical level. 00:22 My personal testimony on this subject goes way back to when I was a boy. 00:27 Growing up in the '60s and '70s, late well, yeah. Being born in the early '60s, but growing up in the late '60s and '70s. 00:40 When the Charismatic movement was running through the church and a new awareness was being brought about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but along with that came much confusion and even excesses. 00:59 And I would say that probably today we have about as much confusion as maybe what we did back then in the '70s. 01:09 But I remember the church that we attended at the time was a Mennonite church, but through various family influences and some apostasy in that church, that some of the people split off and began going to a Pentecostal church. And some of that was family. 01:29 And so this discussion was very much a part of family gatherings. And our family actually went back to our original church, which was a more conservative nature, but be that as it may. I grew up in the middle of that discussion. 01:51 And I remember very vividly wanting from God everything that I could possibly have. And I still want that. And I trust that you do too. 02:06 I wanted as much of God's grace and God's person and presence and Spirit and gifting and just as much as He could possibly give me. I wanted it. 02:21 And it's been a journey through the years to really kind of come to understand some things I didn't understand back then. 02:29 I was seeking from God, listening to the experiences of others, trying to compare my experiences with the other people's experiences, not realizing what I already had in Christ and being much confused in that day. 02:47 Our text this morning is a very simple phrase in verse 18 of Ephesians 5. Very simple phrase. It just simply says this: "Be filled with the Spirit." Now, it's in the context of a larger discussion, 03:08 which we won't really get into this morning, except to notice that in that passage of Scripture, verses 15 through 21 and even through the end of the chapter, that in order to walk circumspectly and not as fools but as wise, and in order to redeem the time, and in order to be wise and understand the will of God, 03:28 and in order not to seek after drunkenness and wine, which is a false substitute for the joy that the Holy Spirit gives, and in order to speak to ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and make melody in our heart and give thanks and submit to one another and have a good marriage and a good home relationship, 03:46 in order to do all that stuff right in the middle of that is the phrase: "Be filled with the Spirit." What does that mean? What does that mean? Because it's an instruction. It's a command. So by virtue of it being a command, 04:06 it is possible to not be filled with the Spirit. So what does it look like to be filled with the Spirit? And how does our terminology affect our understanding of this thing of being filled with the Spirit? 04:23 And what is the difference between the filling of the Spirit and what is called the baptism of the Spirit? And I realize I'm wading into territory this morning that may elicit disagreement. Maybe you would see things differently. That's fine as long as you can support it from Scripture. 04:45 But I'd like for you to turn back to Matthew chapter 3. And I hope you have your Scriptures ready this morning because we're going to look at a number of verses and Scriptures to kind of get this in our be able to wrap our heads around this. What is the difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit? 05:04 I did not understand this when I was a boy. I didn't understand this even as a teen and young adult. And I want to contrast and compare this morning the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Because the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a scary word. 05:25 It is a biblical word. It is found multiple times in the Scriptures. And one of the first ways that it places it appears is in Matthew 3, where John is speaking and he's contrasting his baptism with water with the baptism that Jesus would bring. He said in verse 11, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. 05:44 But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 05:54 His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." I think that baptism of fire has something to do with verse 12. Judgment. Judgment on sin. 06:13 Purification. Sanctification. Eradication of sin, not the sin nature which we shall bear with us till our dying day, but coming to the point where the sin nature need no longer control us. But what about this phrase: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit"? 06:33 The first thing that we see in the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a work of Christ. It is a work of Christ. He would be doing this when He came. Well, when did He do this? Well, in Acts chapter 2, verse 38, please turn there. 06:56 We know that something dramatically changed in Acts chapter 2 with the birth of the church and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 07:09 When the Holy Spirit actually came to live in the personality of people and God living in us, the work of the cross has been finished. The work of redemption has been purchased and paid for. 07:27 And man now has the potential to be cleansed from sin and to be a clean vessel in which the Holy Spirit can live. And something happened in Acts chapter 2, which I believe is the initial stages of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 2, they were gathered together in that upper room. 07:47 And by the way, incidentally, Jesus referred to this in chapter 1, verse 5, the words of Jesus, Jesus speaking, "For John truly baptized with water, 07:58 but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So what do we have here is Jesus saying that what is going to happen just a few days later in Acts chapter 2 is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church and upon the individual believers in the church. 08:19 And it was a rather dramatic experience because of the initial impact of this Spirit baptism upon the believers. And so in chapter 2, verse 38, we find out Peter said unto them, 08:37 "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, water baptism, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Notice he said, "What do you need to do? You need to repent and be baptized. 08:54 And you also may have the Holy Spirit living and abiding and resting upon you and within you and around you to purify you, to not only introduce Christ into your life, 09:12 but to introduce you into Christ." Because as many Scriptures as there are about Christ living in us, there are double the number of Scriptures, I'm told, about us living in Christ. 09:27 And so to be baptized by the Holy Spirit is accomplished here when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. That's what Jesus said in 1:5. And in verse 38, he says, "Repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, remission of sins, 09:46 and you shall receive it." Receive what? Receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is often confused then because there are other times well, we know what happened in this passage, that there was speaking in tongues, which were languages. 10:05 There was speaking and hearing, people hearing in their own language from all over the area and various countries. And people groups were in Jerusalem for that day of Pentecost, the feast of Pentecost. 10:19 And all of a sudden, they began to hear people speaking the language and the word of God in a language that these people could understand. The gift of tongues. 10:32 Now, something happened that we must understand is that this is a transition time in the early church. 10:42 And Jesus said, "You will be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and unto Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." So the Gospel is going to be introduced to Jerusalem and Judea. And then it's going to be introduced to the Samaritans. And then it's going to be introduced to the Gentiles. 11:03 And in order to substantiate the claim that Jesus made and the fact that the Gospel is available to all people, the Gospel went to the Samaritans in chapter 8. 11:16 In chapter 8, verse 15, what I find interesting and fascinating is that Philip went down to Samaria to preach the Gospel. 11:28 And this was accompanied by signs and wonders, which you see signs and wonders in the book of Acts and in church history accompanying the introduction of the Gospel into different people groups. And then as that signs and wonders begin to substantiate the Gospel, remember, 11:47 the word of God had not yet been completed and written down. So they did not have the fullness of revelation as we do today. And God established His word with signs and wonders. And then as that church began to be established, you would find those signs and wonders somewhat dissipating. And yet as it went to another group of people, 12:07 there would be this explosion of signs and wonders. And as the people embraced the Gospel and embraced the word of God, you would see those signs and wonders dissipating. In fact, insomuch that Paul left, I think it was Trophimus, sick. Was it in Miletus? I don't remember. 12:26 I didn't look at that Scripture this morning. But he left him sick there. Instead of healing him so he could go on the rest of the missionary journey, the poor guy was left behind sick. Why didn't Paul just heal him if this was a normative kind of thing in every church, in every church age all through history in every location? 12:47 So I think you can see that signs and wonders accompanied the introduction of the Gospel. And so it was in chapter 8, the signs and the wonders accompanied Philip's introduction to the Gospel. In verse 14, now the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God. They sent Peter and John to them. 13:08 Why would they send Peter and John? Well, because this is a transition into the Samaritan world, the Gospel's transitioning into the Samaritan world, who, when they came down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them, they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 13:27 Then they who's the they? The apostles. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 13:38 There's something happening here with the apostolic authority and the apostolic calling and the apostolic gifting that these apostles laid the hands on, and the Holy Spirit came in a way that Philip didn't do it. Catch that. 13:58 Philip did not lay his hands on them. The apostles did. Interesting. And then you go over to chapter 10. And again, transition, transition, transition. Now we've got established that the apostle or that the gift of the Holy Spirit and salvation has been is available to Samaritans. 14:19 Well, they're kind of half Jews. So we can kind of go with that. But what about these Gentiles? I mean, that's another story. And so Cornelius, you know the account of Cornelius. Chapter 10, verse 44 and 45, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word. 14:39 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. Ah, this is for the Gentiles too. 14:50 And it was substantiated with this dramatic evidence of the Holy Spirit in a dramatic way which proved beyond shadow of a doubt that the Gentiles were also included. So we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit being a work of Christ, 15:11 number one. Secondly, fulfilled at Pentecost. 15:17 Thirdly, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is operative in the believer or happens in the life of the believer when he comes to Jesus Christ in saving faith. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13, 15:39 "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, 15:53 and have all been made to drink into one Spirit." Notice the initiating one into Christ, into the body of Christ, is called the baptism. The baptism. 16:14 Being baptized, we have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body. When does this happen? When did you get baptized into one body? I'm not talking about baptism by water into the local church. I'm talking about Spirit baptism into the universal body of Christ. When did that happen? It happened at your conversion. 16:36 It is not a command. It is just something that happens. This is different than the filling of the Spirit in Ephesians chapter 5, which is a command, which means it can either be done by a believer or not done by a believer. 16:52 So he says, "We have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body." So this initiates this baptism. Spirit baptism initiates us into the body of Christ. Now go to Romans chapter 8, verse 9. You have to back up a little bit from 1 Corinthians to Romans 8, verse 9. 17:14 When does a person receive the Holy Spirit? When do you receive him? When does he come into your life? 17:24 Verse 9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." Does the Spirit of God dwell in you? Have you been baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit? 17:43 Have you repented for the remission of sins and trusted Christ? Look at what it says, "If indeed the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, dwells in you, now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." So if you are, you can read that backwards. If a man does belong to Christ, he has the Holy Spirit. 18:04 Are you with me this morning? Amen. Don't let anybody tell you that you, as a believer, do not have the Holy Spirit. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not saved. If you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit. 18:24 Don't let anybody tell you any differently. There are not two levels of Christians: Spirit-filled Christians and regular Christians. Every Christian is Spirit-filled, or he's not a Christian. 18:42 I find it interesting that nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to be baptized in the Spirit. Nowhere. However, let me quickly add now, we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. So what does that look like? By the way, if you're keeping notes this morning, I hope you are. Number one, of the baptism of the Spirit, it is a work of Christ. 19:03 Number two, it is fulfilled at Pentecost. Number three, it initiates us into Christ. Number four, it is given at conversion. And number five, the baptism of the Spirit is a one-time experience. 19:23 You do not find multiple baptisms of the Spirit. You get saved one time. Jesus Christ comes into your heart one time or into your life one time, not multiple times. 19:37 Now, having said that, is there a life in the Spirit that many of us do not experience because we're not following the instruction to be filled with the Spirit? And I would hasten to say yes. So how do you get the filling of the Holy Spirit? 19:59 Well, this point could be placed up in the earlier section on the baptism. But I'm going to put it back here on the filling of the Spirit. The first thing that is a requirement to be filled with the Spirit is you must be born again. You must be born again. The Bible says that unless a man is born again, 20:18 you cannot see the kingdom of God. And then Jesus said, "Unless a man is born," or a person, anyone, "is born of water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. 20:34 That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." And so in order to have the Holy Spirit connect with our spirit, you must be born again. You must be born again. 20:48 That's number one requirement for the filling of the Holy Spirit. The second requirement, well, not requirement, but truth, is that this happens many times. While the baptism of the Spirit happens once, the filling of the Spirit happens many times. Someone said, "Why do we need to be filled with the Spirit multiple times?" I think it was D.O. 21:08 Moody said, "Because I leak. Because I need that continual supply, that continual source. Because the tendency of our hearts and lives is to run out. 21:22 It's to run out." And especially if you're involved in ministry, you know how that ministry happens as the Spirit of God enables you to minister. And you need to continually be filled so that we are like channels, leaky buckets, if you please. And so looking at our text this morning, 21:43 "Be filled with the Spirit," Ephesians 5:18, I want you to know that this word "be filled" is a continuous or repeated action. It talks about something in the future. 22:00 It is a command that is one of continuous or repeated action. So literally, you could translate this: "Be being filled with the Holy Spirit." Continue to be filled with the Spirit. Repeatedly be filled with the Spirit. 22:20 And there are many times in the book of Acts where it says, "Of a group of believers that they were filled with the Spirit." One baptism, many fillings. This happens many times. It is a command in the future that involves continuous or repeated action. Who can do this? 22:40 And what does this filling require? Go back to the book of Acts chapter 5, verse 32. Did you realize that there is a requirement to being filled with the Spirit that is one of obedience? 23:02 Acts 5:32, "And we are witnesses, we are His witnesses to these things, 23:08 and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those" finished the verse "who obey Him." See, the Holy Spirit is not given to us so we can disobey God. 23:28 The Holy Spirit is not given to us so that we can do our own thing. The Holy Spirit is given for us that we might obey God. And He is given to those who obey God. So one of the requirements of being filled with the Spirit is we must be walking in obedience to God. 23:49 And the Holy Spirit is given to assist us in greater obedience to God. 23:57 Luke chapter 11, verse 18, please turn there. How does one go about continuing to be filled with the Spirit? Luke 11:13, I'm not sure where I got 18:11. 24:18 Luke 11:13, a parallel passage that Jesus used. But in this particular passage in Luke 11, He says, "Everyone," He says, verse 9, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. 24:37 For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. If a son asks bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" Verse 13, 24:57 "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who what?" Ask Him. Now, where we are not instructed to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, 25:18 which happens at conversion, we are instructed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And one of the ways that we are filled is by asking. Ask. And your Father will delight in pouring out His Spirit upon you. 25:40 And as with anything that we receive from God, it is received by faith. And so faith is receiving what God has given. Sometimes that filling comes in a rather dramatic way. Other times, 26:00 it is just simply praying, "God, I ask You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit." And we get up by faith and believe that He has. Sometimes it's dramatic. Sometimes it's a feeling. Sometimes it's just a simple act of obedience and faith. 26:22 And so we ask and ask and ask, "Lord, give me the Holy Spirit. Lord, give me the Holy Spirit." We need to come to the place where we have recognized God has given us the Holy Spirit. And then we ask that You would continue to fill me. And then we walk in obedience and in faith. 26:44 I will be honest with you this morning, and maybe some of you have heard me say this, I continually, as a young man, asked God for the filling of His Spirit and wished I could speak in tongues. Why did I want to speak in tongues? I'll tell you why. 27:04 I can say it was because I really wanted all the fullness of God. And that is true. But there was another reason I wanted to be filled with the Spirit. I wanted to speak in tongues or have this manifestation of divine utterance is because I doubted my salvation. 27:24 And I thought, "If God would give me a supernatural manifestation, then I'd know that I'm saved," rather than walking in faith that I am saved. God showed me that. And it changed my perspective. 27:46 I have the Holy Spirit. I asked God. I'm walking in obedience. My heart is to follow God. Sometimes that takes on a rather dramatic experience. Sometimes it's just a simple act of obedience and faith where you get up and walk in obedience. 28:06 There was a time in my life where I did what this next point is: yielded myself to the Holy Spirit. And that is our fifth point. Number one point under the filling is you must be born again. 28:27 Secondly, it happens many times. Thirdly, it is given to them that obey. Fourthly, it is given to them that ask. And fifthly, and I want you to get this, it is operational in those who yield to His control. And so Galatians chapter 5, why don't you turn there? 28:47 Galatians chapter 5, verse 24 and 25, "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." By the way, that is a manifestation of being filled with the Spirit. 29:07 Holy living, by the way, let me remind you that the Holy Spirit is a holy Spirit, not an unholy one. 29:16 And He creates and reproduces in the life of those who experience His power holiness, not lasciviousness or selfness. So He says here, verse 24, 29:35 "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." So here you have the Spirit-filled believer. He's been baptized by the Holy Spirit at his conversion. He's baptized into the body of Christ at his conversion. 29:56 He is now walking in obedience. He's asked God to fill his life. And it's happening on a repeated level. And He says, "Now, if you're in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit." In other words, keep in step with the Spirit. Keep walking and yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit. 30:16 Here's something, and I don't mean to be cute. 30:20 You cannot have part of the Holy Spirit. He is a person. The Holy Spirit is a person. You cannot have a half a person. You cannot have a half a Jesus in your life. 30:40 You either have Him or you don't. And the Holy Spirit is a person. He's either there or He isn't. So the bigger question is, does He have us? And that is where we come to yielding. 31:01 That to experience the filling of the Spirit means that I must continually empty myself out of me and of sin 31:15 and of unholiness. And as I empty myself, the Holy Spirit is able to fill more and more areas of my life. There's a sense of humility that comes with a true filling of the Holy Spirit, something that, dare I say, 31:33 many people who promote the filling of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit, whatever you want to call it, whatever they call it, many people who promote that are short on humility. Humility says, "God, I am nothing. Without You, I can do nothing. And I know nothing. 31:53 But with You, Lord, as I yield myself to You in various areas of my life, will You come in and fill me and empower me and strengthen me so that I might work the work of God, that I might do the work of God, that I might hear the voice of God, that I might walk with God." Humbleness, humility. 32:16 So there was a time when I came to the point where I yielded my heart to the Holy Spirit. And I still ask, but I also yield. 32:29 And there is a sense of power that is received and experienced as we yield ourselves to Christ, yielding to Him. 32:43 And many, many, many who have been called by God to service recognize the need that we cannot serve God in our own strength. We cannot. And so we yield ourselves to Christ. We come to the cross. We empty out ourselves of sin and of self and of selfishness. 33:04 And we say, "God, please fill me." And He does. And we get up. And we go out. And we do the work of God. It's very simple. I want to give you, in the next few minutes, five evidences of being Spirit-filled. Number one, 33:25 when a person is walking in the Spirit, by the way, when I initially came to yield myself to the Spirit of God, something did happen. I didn't speak in tongues. But there was an incredible joy that filled my life, 33:46 incredible joy, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit, one of the evidences of the Spirit. And so number one of an evidence of the Spirit is a new consciousness of Christ. 33:58 When we walk in the Spirit, when we're filled with the Spirit, when we're in Christ and we're yielding to the Spirit, there is somehow suddenly a new consciousness of Jesus Christ and His presence in our lives, that He is never far from our consciousness. He is with us. He said, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. I will not leave you comfortless. 34:18 I am with you even unto the end of the age." A new consciousness of Christ. Whereas to some of us, at times, Christ is a distant reality. The Holy Spirit comes and He takes the things of Christ and He applies them to our lives. And He makes Jesus real to us. 34:38 I've said this before in this series, quoted J. Vernon McGee in his prayer, "Lord God, would You may Your Holy Spirit take the things of Christ and make them real to us." That is one of the evidences of the Holy Spirit. Another evidence of the Holy Spirit, 34:57 why don't you go to Acts chapter 4? Acts chapter 4 is a new power in prayer, a new power in prayer. One of the things that we talked about last week is that the Holy Spirit assists us in our praying with groanings, Romans 8 says, 35:17 "with groanings which cannot be uttered." There are times when we do not know how to pray and what to pray. And we just cry out to God from somewhere deep within. And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is able to take those groanings. 35:33 Have you ever been so distraught over something that the only thing you could do was just kind of groan into God? And the Holy Spirit takes those groanings. And He interprets those groanings. And He gives them to God the Father who understands the groan. There is a new power in prayer. 35:56 Not only do we groan, but we we we sense the need of prayer. Prayer moves from the mundane to the mighty when the Spirit of God is actively involved in our lives. And so chapter 4, verse 31, "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. 36:16 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." There's again this filling. Baptized in chapter 2, filled in chapter 4 again. 36:25 "And they spoke the word of God with boldness." There is a new power in prayer when the Spirit of intercession intercedes with us and for us. Thirdly, there is a new boldness in the word. There is a new boldness in the word. 36:46 Scripture takes on a whole new dimension to those who are walking in the Spirit. Acts chapter 4, verse 31, "They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God with boldness." In fact, I could take you to Scripture after Scripture after Scripture, Acts 4:29, 31, 6, 37:05 4, 7 and 7, 8, 4 and 25 and 35, 12:24, 13:49, 15:35, 18:11 and 19:20, where over and over and over the characteristic of the early church was not so much the signs and wonders, 37:23 but was the preaching of the power and authoritative word of God with results. We focus in on on on on signs and wonders and say, "Why aren't they happening in the church?" The bigger question we ought to be asking, is the word of God being preached? 37:42 And is it responding? And is it changing people's lives? And I would say yes. So you want an early church experience? Move into the word of God and ask God by His Holy Spirit to illuminate you. We don't need more revelation. 38:02 We need to do the revelation that we have and understand it to a greater degree. And that in itself is a work of the Holy Spirit and one of the evidences of His presence. Number four, there is a new Christ-likeness of character. 38:21 It is not without reason why the character qualities in Galatians chapter 5 are called the fruit of the Spirit, capital S. And again, I don't want to be cute. 38:40 And I don't say this to be cute. But I quote J. Sidlo Baxter, who was a preacher and a writer, a speaker of years gone by. 38:49 I quote him when he said, "We oftentimes sing o'er a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise." He said, "One of the things that I have observed," and I say this with humility and with the fear of God, "One of the things that he has noticed is that when people are filled with the Spirit, 39:10 they begin to control the one tongue they have." You see, the evidence of the Holy Spirit is not so much speaking in other tongues. It is, "What do I do with this one?" Amen? Now, one more. 39:32 There is a new effectiveness in ministry 39:37 that characterizes being filled with the Spirit. 39:42 Acts chapter 10, verse 38, "Jesus being filled with the fullness of God from conception, at His baptism received an anointing of the Spirit of God that empowered Him for ministry." We need that too. We need that too. 40:03 Acts chapter 10, verse 38. Cornelius speaking or Peter speaking to Cornelius, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, 40:25 for God was with him." There was an anointing on Jesus' life for the work that God called Him to do, even though He was fully and completely and always God. We don't understand how that is. 40:46 Jesus certainly didn't leak like we do. But there was a reason why Jesus prayed. There was a reason why He communed with His Father. There was a reason why the Spirit of God came upon Him and at that point took Him into the wilderness. 41:03 And after that wilderness experience where He was tempted sorely and tried by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. And after that experience came forth from that wilderness with great power. I don't understand all those dynamics. But I do know that to try to minister, whatever your ministry is, 41:24 without the power of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit, you will be disappointed. We will be disappointed. And we will be tempted to throw up our hands. I go back to the testimony of George R. R. Brunk II. George R. R. Brunk II was a great man of God. 41:43 He was one of the greatest preachers, evangelists in the Mennonite church in the 20th century. Had the Brunk Revival campaigns. Thousands were won to the Lord through His ministry. He was a dynamic preacher. And early in His ministry, when He was called to the ministry in Newport News, 42:03 Virginia, back in the early 1930s, maybe, something like that, '30s or '40s, George R. R. Brunk II, by his own personal testimony, said he almost gave up the ministry because he had no power. Was he saved? Yes. Was he baptized in the Spirit? Yes. Was he filled with the Spirit? 42:23 Well, that's what needed to happen in a greater way as he yielded to the Holy Spirit. He said he could not preach. And if you ever knew George R. R. Brunk II, you'd wonder, "How could that man not preach?" He was a powerful preacher, anointed preacher. 42:42 And he labored and labored and labored to preach until he told his daddy one day, he said, "I can't do this anymore." And his daddy was a great preacher in the late 19th century. And George R. got alone with God and cried out to God and cried out to God. 43:01 And God yielded Himself to God. And God anointed him with the gift of preaching. And you'd have never known it that he ever struggled to preach. 43:14 Many have had that experience where we come to God and say, "God, I cannot do this myself. 43:22 I must have Your anointing and Your Holy Spirit's power poured out on my life." I guess you could say, "Call it what you want." But it is real. And it's necessary. But I believe for our purposes here, 43:42 we receive the baptism of the Spirit at conversion. We receive many fillings throughout our life as we ask and obey and receive by faith. 43:55 And there is a yieldedness that must come as we abandon our self-efforts and ask the Holy Spirit to rest upon us in our ministry. May God grant us a greater awareness of the presence, 44:15 person, and power of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. 44:21 Lord, we pray that in no way we would have dishonored the Holy Spirit this morning or in this series. 44:30 We pray that in no way we would have diminished the need or the awareness of our need for Him. We pray that in no way we would have grieved Him. 44:43 But we would pray that in very biblical terms and ways, we have promoted the need to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, and to understand to a greater degree the ministry of Your Holy Spirit. 45:05 I pray, Father, that You will guard us from deception and yet also, at the same time, free us to truly experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a dynamic way, both in our lives personally and in our church. 45:25 In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.