Josh Howerton - Are you QUENCHING or EXPERIENCING the Holy Spirit? (01/11/2026)

Summary:

In this vibrant exposition of Acts chapter 2, the preacher celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, portraying it as God’s empowering presence descending with wind and fire to fill every believer for bold witness, just as Jesus promised there would be «more» after salvation. He contrasts the Old Testament giving of the law at Sinai with the New Testament giving of the Spirit, emphasizing reversal of Babel through unified languages and hearts. The urgent conclusion warns against quenching the Spirit through cynicism, strange fire, unforgiveness, opposing bold preaching, or despising prophecy, while calling the church to hunger for a fresh filling that produces supernatural power to reach the lost.

Welcome and Excitement
And listen, if you are new here at LakePointe, He forgives, rests, redeems, restores, and heals. He did it for others; He can do it for you. Come on, somebody! Man, we are excited this morning! Hey, if you guys have your Bibles, head over to Acts chapter 2. We are officially in the second chapter of Acts. We made it! We made it through chapter 1! We are in right now week whatever of a series that we are calling «There is More, ” where we are right now. What we’re doing is we’re preaching verse by verse through the book of Acts.

Why We Preach Through Acts
Now, I just want to drive this nail home. We’re preaching verse by verse through this book because man, we have this really deep belief here at LakePointe that it takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian. And when we do that, when we get into all the word of God, it redeems, restores, heals, and corrects the whole life of the people of God. And so, man, we’re just all in! Man, just getting into the word.

And the reason we’re doing Acts is I want this really deep in our church’s spirit. We’re doing Acts because this book, the book of Acts, is the second book in a two-part compendium where a doctor—he was not a pastor, not a minister, not a church staffer, just a normal 9-to-5 dude—named Luke was writing this book to one person that was close to him but far from God that he wanted to bring to Jesus. And he writes this book going, „Listen, I cannot help but speak of what I’ve seen and heard.“ He tells this story in the book of Acts about two things: a church that’s exploding in growth as God saves thousands of people, and then, second, this supernatural outpouring of the Spirit of God.

And Lake Church, let me just tell y’all, when you look around our church, we’re seeing two things: God saving thousands of people and a unique outpouring of His Spirit in our midst. And we just need to know this, man. Don’t treat holy things like they’re common. Something’s going on here, y’all. Something’s going on! And so what we want to do is we just want to grab the word and go, „Okay, God, just tell us what to do!“ So I’m going to get right at it today. Listen, I hope you came for a lot of Bible. There’s a lot of Bible in this message. There’s a lot of—okay, so we’re going to get right at it.

There Is More
So here’s what we’re going to do. Okay, here’s what’s happening right now. So in Acts chapter 1, here’s what you’ve got: you’ve got this little band of 120 people, a ragtag bunch. They hung around with Jesus for three years. After three years of ministry, 120 people—Jesus tells them, watch this—this is really important. The whole title of the series comes from this: Jesus tells them, „Hey, you know me. You’ve followed me. You’ve believed in me. You’ve studied me. You’ve been saved. You’ve been baptized.“ But then he goes, „But wait, there’s more!“ He goes, „I’ve got more for you.“ And he goes, „Hey, don’t go anywhere because now I’m going to leave, and watch this: what goes up must come down. When I go up, I’m going to send my Spirit down. And when my Spirit comes on you and fills you, something’s going to change.“ And so he promises they’ll be filled with the Spirit in a unique way. You need to know this: God wants to fill you with His Spirit in a unique way. You just need to know that the Spirit lives in you for your benefit, but the Spirit comes down on you for others' benefit. And when the Spirit fills you—let me just, I need to drive home a couple of things: when the Spirit fills you, the unmistakable sign that you’ve been filled with the Spirit of God is, according to Acts 1:8, that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses.

So like some people, you hear this sometimes. Some people say that, „Oh, the sign of being filled with the Spirit is something like speaking in tongues.“ Let me just say this: according to Acts 1:8, according to Jesus, the sign of being filled with the Spirit is power for witness. You can share Jesus without fear. There’s a grace on your life to bring people to Him. So I said this in week one; I’m just going to keep saying it. They’re like, „Man, I am so glad that we have an increasing number of charismatic background Christians here. You’re increasing our prayer culture, our faith—all those things. I’m so glad.“ But listen, I am not very impressed with your prayer language if you haven’t got power. Because what God wants is—you’re going to hear it in a second—all of them were filled with the Spirit, and they go out and they turn an empire upside down because they were given power for witness. That’s what we want: an entire church with power for witness.

The Day of Pentecost
Okay, now let’s get into it, and we’re just going to go verse by verse. It’s going to be awesome. Okay, so here we go. When the day of Acts 2:1, when the day of—you say it—when the day of what? Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Now I’m going to stop right here because let me explain what that word means and answer a question that I got the last time after last week’s message. Here was a—actually two times ago—the question was, „Josh, are you trying to make Lake Point a Pentecostal church?“ Okay, now let me answer that question. Let me explain what this word is. All right? Pentecost was one of three feasts in the Jewish calendar—three main feasts. The three feasts were the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths. Pentecost was the second one. Here’s why it’s called Pentecost: it celebrated the giving of the law at Mount Sinai when God gave the Ten Commandments to His people. It celebrated the giving of the law, which—watch this—happened 50 days after Passover. 50 days!

Now here’s what the word Pentecost, or Pentecostal, means. Okay, it’s a—it’s a Greek word. You get a transliteration: Penta, just like Pentagon means five; Costa is a Greek suffix that means times 10. So listen, y’all, here’s all the word Pentecost means: 50th. That’s it! That’s all it means: 50th. So I need to say that because some people, when they hear the word Pentecost or Pentecostal, they think 50th. You think like ladies in really, really long skirts and tons of makeup, or like really, really long skirts and no makeup at all, or tongues and tambourines and all the things and flags. Like, you know, it looks like a tarmac at DFW. Like, you’re starting to think all that stuff, man, when you hear that. So let me just say this: that doesn’t mean any of those things. What it means is 50th.

Pentecost and Sinai
Now let me just show you: this is amazing! Listen, this is one of those things. Like, I love the Bible! So I’m getting ready to read it. Remember, and I’ve got to explain this, okay, to show you how awesome this is. Remember what’s getting ready to happen: there’s going to be this big earthquake—it’s going to say that there’s this loud noise, a sound of a mighty rushing wind. Fire, tongues of fire are going to descend on all the apostles—all of them—and then they’re going to be filled with the Spirit. Okay? So that’s what’s getting ready to happen in Acts 2.

Now check this out: remember the Pentecost celebrates the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The Bible’s amazing, y’all! Check this out! So, 1500 years before Pentecost, at the giving of the law at Mount Sinai—think about this—there was a loud noise; a cloud descended on the mountain; there was fire on top of the mountain. God wrote His law on tablets of stone, and 3000 people died that day. Fast forward to the day of Pentecost, we’re getting ready to read. Think about this: there’s a loud noise; the cloud of the Spirit descended; there were tongues of fire that came to rest on each of them. God wrote His law on men’s hearts, and 3000 people were saved that day! The Bible’s amazing! That’s amazing, y’all! That’s amazing!

Okay, so this is what happens. All right, so let me get into it. Let me just answer this question. Let me go back to the question: Is Lake Point a Pentecostal church? You’re new here; you’re like, „What? What’s going on here? What’s going on?“ Y’all feel like a mut— that’s what it feels like. Okay, well here’s what’s going on: if by that you mean like joining a denomination or like flags and tongues and services or long skirts and tons of makeup—nope, Lake Point is not a Pentecostal church. Okay? But if by that you mean do we believe that the power of God is still at work today—listen, that He is still stretching out His hand to perform signs and wonders to lift up the name of Jesus? If by that you mean do we believe that one second in His presence can change everything—yes, we very much want to be a Pentecostal church in that regard. Yeah, we do!

Wind and Fire
Okay, so this is what we’re getting at. That’s what this means. Okay, now let’s keep going. So, so much going on here! Okay, so this is what it says: Suddenly, the sound like the blowing of a—say it with me—of a violent wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be—this is important—tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And then how many of them? All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit! All of them!

Now here’s a question. Okay, so the Spirit falls; you see two things: you see wind and fire. Why wind and fire? Well, the first-century Jews would have been like, „Bro, I know exactly what’s happening.“ We, 21st-century Americans, have no idea what’s happening. Let me explain this. Throughout the Old Testament, whenever God’s presence descended on a place, he would do so in the form of fire. So He appeared to Moses in a burning bush. He led Israel through the wilderness by a pillar of flame. He consumed Mount Sinai in fire when He gave the law to Moses. The heavenly temple filled up with fire and smoke as Isaiah saw it filled with God’s glory. Solomon saw the fire of God settle into the Holy of Holies when he commissioned the temple. And now, in Acts 2, the fire of God has come to sit on top of the head of every believer. Why? Because every believer is now a burning bush. Every Christian everywhere that’s filled with the Spirit of God has the presence of God working in you so the power of God can work through you. This is what the fire means.

Now you go, „Okay, well that’s the fire. What’s going on with the wind?“ Okay, check this out. This is really interesting. So Hebrew speakers knew this; we miss this. In the Old Testament, the word that gets translated Spirit, or Holy Spirit, is the word „ruach.“ You’ve got to say it like you’ve got a popcorn kernel stuck in the back of your neck—like, „ruach!“ Do it with me, one, two—one, two; just as fun! Okay! One, two, three—“ruach!» If nobody vomited, we did it wrong. Try again! Okay! You’ve got to feel like the popcorn kernel’s back there! You know? Okay, «ruach!» What that word means is spirit, breath, or wind. It means any of the three: spirit, breath, or wind.

Ruach Power
Now check this out! When the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit being wind, it’s not like this. It’s not like, «No, no!» Like, it’s like a tornado, hurricane-force wind—“ruach!» It’s a big deal, y’all! Now check this out! How many of you know this? When the winds are strong enough, when a weak thing gets caught up in a strong wind, it does some very powerful damage. Okay, so check this out! This is a real picture that somebody from our Lake Point en Español campus sent me. So this is what happens. So we had Pastor Daniel and Pomelo Baltazar—Lake Point shout out! Lake Español, we love y’all! Okay, so thanks to the 70—all that—like our Hispanic brothers and sisters!

So here’s what was going on here. They were living in our Lake Point mission house. Then there was that big tornado a few years ago that ripped through, like, Rowlett. So this happens. So you can barely see it over here. But this tornado comes through and literally evaporates the house. Like, there used to be a wall right here—gone! But then check this out: this is what I want to point out. This little stick that you or I could have broken over our knee—like this frail little stick—it gets caught up in these tornado-force winds and penetrates sheet metal! Now here’s my point, man. That’s «ruach.» Here’s what happens: when a weak thing gets caught up in a strong wind, it does powerful damage! When these apostles—who, by the way, the Bible says were unschooled, ordinary men—these dudes were a band of fools, is what they were, if you read the Gospels. But when these weak men get filled with the presence of the Ruach, the Spirit of the living God, they turn an empire upside down! That’s what God wants to do with every person everywhere. He wants to fill you with the Spirit in this way.

D.L. Moody’s Experience
I’m going to give you one example of this. So, like, in prep for this series, I’ve just been reading stories of when the Spirit has filled someone in a unique way in church history. One of my favorite ones is a dude named D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was part of the Second Great Awakening in North America and Great Britain. Here’s the deal on D.L. Moody: D.L. Moody, let me say it like this, he was raised in poverty. He didn’t even complete an elementary school education. He was originally rejected from his church for church membership; he couldn’t answer the questions correctly. So he grows up and becomes a shoe salesman.

Now I’m going to read you this. I’m going to read you his account of what it was like when God’s Spirit filled him in a unique way. This is what he said: «I remember two holy women who used to come to my meetings. It was delightful to see them in the congregation. When I began to teach, I could tell by the expression on their faces they were praying for me. At the close of the Sunday evening service, they would say to me, 'We have been praying for you.' I said, 'Why don’t you pray for the people? ' They answered, 'Because you need power.'»

Now, as a preacher, I’m going, «Ouch!» They said, «You need power.» I need power. I said to myself, «Why? I thought I had power. I had a large Sunday school—the largest in Chicago. There were some conversions at the time. I was, in a sense, satisfied. But right alongside, these two godly women kept praying for me.» By the way, never underestimate the power of praying women! Never, never, never, never!

Okay, this is what happens. These two godly women kept praying for me, and their earnest talk about being anointed for special service set me to thinking. I asked them to come and talk with me, and we got down on our knees. They poured out their hearts that I might receive the anointing from the Holy Spirit. And there came a great hunger into my soul! I just want to point out his humility: the pastor had these two women say, «Hey, we want to pray for power, ” and he didn’t go, „Well, let me correct you, ” or, „Okay.“ You know, he just knelt on his knees and said, „Well, y’all pray for me right now!“ See, every great spiritual breakthrough is on the other side of your pride. This is what you see right here.

„I did not know what it was. I began to pray as I never did before. I really felt that I did not want to live if I could not have this power for service. The hunger increased. I was praying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit.“ And then he writes this: „Well, one day in the city of New York, oh, what a day! I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience for me to name. The Apostle Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for 14 years. I will only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I asked Him to stay His hand.“

Then listen: „I went to preaching again, but something was different! The sermons weren’t different. I preached the same sermons. I didn’t present any new truths except now when I preached them, hundreds were converted.“ And after that, this dumb shoe salesman went on to preach to more than 100 million people and lead the Second Great Awakening in America!

Now can I just point this out? Listen! Amen, amen, amen! Can I just point this out? When you’re filled with the Spirit of God, you’ll be doing the same thing you were doing but getting different results. See, some of you are like, „Ah, you know, being filled with God’s Spirit, that’s for preachers. That’s for pastors.“ No, no! That’s for stay-at-home moms! That’s for business leaders! That’s for dudes swinging a hammer 9 to 5! And what’s going to happen is when the Spirit fills you is you’ll be doing the same thing but with radically different results. You’ll see anointing on your life, a special grace on your life. You’ll see the parenting go differently; you’ll see the business do differently; you’ll see people affected for the kingdom of God and brought up into the grace of Jesus differently than you did before. Why? Because you got a power you didn’t have before! This is for everybody!

In fact, I just want to point this out: it didn’t say just the apostles were filled with the Spirit. It said all of them! It said all of them were! Every single one!

Filled for Power
Okay, now I just got to say this: whenever I talk about this, every now and then someone will grab me and be like, „Josh, maybe you ought to—someone just gently said this a couple weeks ago—maybe just, you know, don’t talk about it too much. We might have a few people who leave.“ Can I just say this? I would rather lose a few people and gain the power of God than forfeit the power of God and keep a few people! That’s what I would rather!

I’ll just say what Jim Simbala said in an old book I read in college: „I despair of the thought that I should die and not see God work mightily on my behalf. I had to spare that thought.“ Now check this out: when this happens to them, watch what happens! Okay? And so they’re filled with the Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. I just got to say this: this is not a prayer language. You’re going to see it from this right here.

Now there may be questions about what happens in 1 Corinthians 14. There’s not a question about what happens in Acts 2. You’re going to see exactly what happens. They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now they were, watch—they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from where? Every nation!

Now remember Acts 1:8: You’ll receive power for what? Power for witness! This is exactly what happens: God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment. Of course they did! I’ll explain that in a second. They’re all like, „What? What are these dudes doing?“ You know, „What are they doing?“

They came together in bewilderment. By the way, I have stood exactly where this happened: it’s on the southern steps of the temple in Jerusalem. Now, this is really interesting. Little side note. This is totally free. For over 1800 years, historians, archaeologists would read Acts 2 and say, „Couldn’t have happened! They made it up!“ Because this says that 3000 people got baptized on the spot right there. There was no place for them to get baptized—that’s what they said; there was no place. Then about 60 years ago, they dug a layer down and they found dozens and dozens and dozens of these things called mikvaot. Mikvaot! They were Jewish little ceremonial washing basins. And there are dozens and dozens of them—like literally, I’ve stood in one—dozens and dozens of them in the ground right in front of the southern steps! Y’all, everything that book says happened—everything that book says happened!

Speaking in Tongues
So this is what they found out: Everybody comes together in bewilderment because, watch this, each one—what’s the word? —each one heard! They heard their language being spoken! This was not primarily a speaking miracle; it was primarily a hearing miracle. This is what you’re seeing! Utterly amazed—this is Bible humor that you miss unless you really get what’s going on—utterly amazed, they asked, „Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?“ Here’s why they’re saying that: they’re going, „Aren’t all these dudes like country boys from Quinlan? By the way, all right, y’all from Quinlan, I love y’all! I just don’t know another city to use, I don’t! So I love y’all from Quinlan!“

So this would literally be like some dude in a John Deere hat from Quinlan standing up in front of thousands of people and speaking fluent French. Yes, you’re laughing for a reason because that doesn’t happen! So this is what happens: all these country boys from Galilee stand up and everybody’s hearing them in their own language, and then they say, „How is it that each of us hears them in our own language?“

Two Responses
Now this is the whole point of the sermon. You would think that if you were there that you would have been all in! That’s what you think. Are you sure? Because there were two responses to this in the crowd. Watch this: some, however—I just want you to see it—some, however, made fun of them and said they’ve had too much wine. Peter had his breakfast beer—that’s what some of them said, for real. „It’s only 9:00 in the morning, ” that’s what they said.

Now check this out! That is one of the most terrifying verses in the Bible to me: whenever there is a move of God’s Spirit in a person, a church, a city, a nation, there are two responses. And watch this: not from the world, from the people in the church! Two responses! Some people experience it, and some people mock it. That’s always what happens every time! You’re seeing it right here! In fact, you just got a story example of this important verse from 1 Thessalonians 5. We’re given this command: Do not quench the Spirit. That’s what these dudes were doing; they were quenching a move of the Spirit!

Quenching Demonstration
Now I want to give you this visual example. I need you to see this, like what this was actually like. So I got a visual example for you! Taylor, come on up here! Now my buddy Taylor’s coming up. It is very intimidating to stand in front of like 20,000 people. Will y’all welcome Taylor to the stage? And he’s going to help me out! So here’s what this is, man! Some of you guys—you have, you’ve only—your mom used this to comb your hair when you were four! You know? Taylor, we’re going to help! I’m just teasing!

So this is what you use. This right now, what this is, this is my fire quenching tool. This is what this is! I’m having fun with this. I wonder if I can get you down there. Okay! So, so I just want you to imagine this. So Acts 2 happens; the Spirit begins to do His work. I want you to imagine some people who were in the church at the time—these dudes that mocked them. I want you to imagine—so here’s what it looked like. I want to give you a visual.

So like the Spirit starts moving, starts lighting a fire, and they go, „Oh yeah, but they’re getting a little out of hand.“ Let me just quench that; do it again. Or some people, they would have seen it in Acts 2, and they would have read their Old Testament, and they would have been like, „Oh, wait a second! Hey, God doesn’t do it that way! He didn’t do anything like that in the Old Testament!“ Let me just put that out. Or what about this one? Some people would have seen what these guys were doing in Acts 2, started preaching, and they would have said this: „Ah, my theology doesn’t have place for that! No, no place for that! Let me put that!“

Or these dudes are standing in front of thousands of people, and they start—go ahead and do it again—they start preaching, and people are getting emotional because they’re being moved, and they go, „Look at all this theatrics! They’re just putting on a show! This just—this emotionalism—“ all that rah-rah. Just put this down, you know? Or what about this? They would have been watching Peter preach. Peter starts preaching—a bunch of self-righteous spirit quenchers would have been like, „Who’s that guy think he is? He was just sinning 50 days ago!“

Now do it one more time. You keep turning it! Or what about this? They all start worshiping, and some people, maybe in a church, they’re like lifting their hands like the Bible commands them to in the book of Psalms. „Oh man! Man, my goodness! They were out messing around this week! I saw what they do! Who do they think they are?“ These are examples of quenching the Holy Spirit of the living God! Thank Taylor for me real quick! Thank you, Taylor! That’s what this looks like!

So here’s your choice. The choice stands before you: Will you experience Him, or will you mock Him? You have—you’re going to be one of these two people in Acts 2.

Ways to Quench the Spirit
Now here’s how I’m going to finish this sermon. I’m going to go really fast; you got to track with me. The Bible gives us five very specific ways to quench the Spirit—five very specific ways the Bible warns us about. Number one, check this out: you can quench Him by cynicism! That is what these dudes do. Some, however, made fun of them and said they’ve had too much wine. Think about this: These men missed out on the greatest move of God in human history because they were cynical!

They were cynical! Listen; these dudes, here’s what happened: they were asking the wrong question. They were looking at these dudes standing up and preaching in other languages and all they’re seeing: wind and fire and all this stuff, and here’s the question they were asking: „What if it’s not of God?“ What if it’s not God? Wrong question! What they should have been going is, „What if it is?!“ What if it is? That can happen to you! You can be affected by cynicism from past experience. I’m going to talk about this in a second. You may have seen people use the Holy Spirit or the move of the Spirit in manipulative, honestly creepy, weird ways. And then a cynicism can creep into your heart, and your entire life, anytime you see God move, your default question is, „What if it’s not God?“ Wrong question! What if it is?! What if it is?

If you have to choose, let me just say it this way: if you have to choose between a faith that’s too gullible or a suspicion that’s too cynical, choose a faith that’s too gullible. According to your faith, it shall be done for you! And I’ll just say this: when I sometimes ask people, some people what they’re doing is they have—here’s what will happen to people: if cynicism settles in to a Bible-studying Christian’s heart, they will have cynicism in their heart and disguise it as theology.

So here’s what will happen: I’ll ask people questions who don’t think God does this stuff anymore, and they’ll say things like, „Ah, those gifts have ceased“ or „God didn’t do that anymore. That only happened in the beginning. That was only for the book of Acts.“ And when I ask them, „Hey, why do you believe that?“ They don’t have Bible verses; they have bad experiences! What happened is that cynicism disguising itself as theology! If you’ve got to choose between a faith that’s too gullible or a suspicion that’s too cynical, choose a faith that’s too gullible! What if it is God? What if it is?

All right, number two: you can quench the Spirit by offering strange fire. I’m going to read a weird verse to you. This is a very important verse: Leviticus chapter 10. So these two dudes, Nadab and Abihu—if you’re looking for baby names, write those down. They’re available! Nadab and Abihu—they’re Levitical priests. They were Aaron’s sons; Aaron’s the leader of the Levites, and they’re supposed to be ministering in the temple. And this is what it says: Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective fire pans, and after putting fire in them, they placed incense on the fire—which, by the way, God had not commanded. They placed incense on the fire, and they offered—you say it—what did they offer? They offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. When they did this, fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord!

Now some of you may read that, and you may be like, „My goodness! God is so harsh and cruel! How oppressive!“ Can I just say that to you? The reason that our generation says things like that is we have totally lost the fear of God in our generation! We have completely lost the fear of God in our generation! Later in this passage, here’s what God says: He says, „I’m holy, I will be treated as holy! Do not treat what is holy as if it’s common!“

Listen, you’ve got to understand this: if you want the Spirit to be at work in your life, there is a purity that requires—there’s a purity before a consecration, an old Bible word that this requires. Here’s what strange fire is: strange fire is worshiping God in a way that was not authorized by God. Strange fire is someone trying to copy or mimic manifestations of the Spirit that are not actually manifestations of the Spirit; they’re counterfeiting it! It’s fake!

These, by the way, they’re on TV. They’re offering strange fire before the Lord! Now let me just talk about this manifesting itself in my life. When somebody asks me, „Hey, Josh, what do you think about charismatic stuff?“ I always say the same thing: „I’m charismatic with a seatbelt!“ I believe that God is still working like this! I believe all the things, but I also believe the Bible operates as a seatbelt and tells me how those gifts should and should not be used and how God does and does not manifest Himself. So I just want to say, „Hey man, let’s be charismatic! Let’s have the Spirit but the seatbelt of the Word!“

Okay, so let me give you some examples. And this, I may step on toes from some of your backgrounds. Whenever there’s like a reported revival, you—just by the way, let me help you: Anytime there’s an outpouring of God’s Spirit, this happens! First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, book of Acts—this always happens! We’ll get to this later in the book! Anytime there’s an outpouring of God’s Spirit in the midst of what’s going on, here’s what’s going to be going on: 80% of what you’ll see is from God; 10% is from man, and 10% is from Satan!

What Satan wants to do is create a gross, weird counterfeit and try to get you to reject the real thing because of the presence of the weird, gross counterfeit! So he tries to get you to focus on the dirty bath water so you’ll throw out the baby where the Spirit’s actually working. So what he tries to do is get people stirred up to offer strange fire so that you’ll reject holy fire! Some examples: people doing weird stuff, man! It’s weird stuff, like barking in the Spirit, snake handling, sticking—like, people like sticking spoons to walls, gold dust—like, just weird stuff, man! It’s weird! This is strange fire! It is deeply offensive to the Spirit of God! And the holy fire of the Spirit will not inhabit a place where the strange fire of Satan is present. He won’t do it!

So this is what you see here! This is what it means to offer strange fire!

Unforgiveness Quenches
Number three—arguably the most common reason people do not experience the presence of the Spirit in their life, in my opinion—you can quench the Spirit by unforgiveness! It’s the most common reason! Ephesians 4: „And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.“ Okay! Well, how am I going to do that? You’ve got to get rid of all bitterness, all rage, anger, brawling, slander, along with every form of malice. It’s going, „Hey dude, if you’re driving around having arguments with somebody in your heart, you’re arguing with a person that’s not even there, or like there’s an ungodly anger, ” by the way, the anger of God is anger at that thing that is not of God!

So righteous anger is anger at things that are unrighteous! But if you’re just filled with bitterness that consumes you, that’s not from the Holy Spirit— that’s from unholy spirits! The Bible calls demons! Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you! Let me show you this from this passage!

So you probably missed this. This is like one of the coolest things about Acts 2! I love this so much! So check this out! I’m gonna read it to you. This is what happens right after what we already read. Then—so everybody hears them and then they go, „How is it each of us hears them in our native language?“ And then it lists 17 regions! By the way, if you’re ever teaching the Bible and you don’t know how to pronounce stuff, if you just say it fast and confident, people think you know what you’re talking about! Okay? Here we go!

So he goes, „Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs! We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!“ I nailed every single one of those!

I just like—I practiced that! I practiced that! Now dude, y’all probably missed this! This is incredible! And there’s a very profound application to your life: Bible scholars have pointed out for centuries the day of Pentecost was a reversal of the day of Babel in the Old Testament. At the Tower of Babel, God issued an act of judgment, divided people into separated nations, and confused their languages. At Pentecost, God issues an act of blessing, unites people from every nation, and unites their languages. So here’s what’s happening: Pentecost, a reversal of Babel! Why? Because the Holy Spirit produces love and unity among people! He reconciles that which is at enmity with one another!

So let me just warn you right now: this is the most likely reason for you not to experience the blessing of the Spirit in your life—harboring unforgiveness! I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed how frequently there is a connection in the Bible between demonic activity and unforgiveness. There’s a reason for this, okay? Because heaven is the place where everybody’s forgiven, and hell is the place where nobody’s forgiven! When we forgive, we pull heaven down into our lives! And when we refuse to forgive, we pull hell up into our lives! So, so here’s what happens: We cannot expect to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit when we’re inviting the presence of unholy spirits through bitterness and unforgiveness! We cannot do this!

Two—some of you need to do this as soon as you get home! Two times in my life—I pray it never happens again! Two times in my life the Holy Spirit has convicted me that I had this issue and I had to sit down, make a list of six to eight people with whom I had had a relational rupture, and I had to call them and just do my best to reconcile! The Spirit would not bless me until I did it! You may find the exact same thing!

Opposing Bold Preaching
Number four: you can quench the Spirit—this may sound self-serving, just go with me—by opposing bold preaching! So you know you need to like me, that’s not it! Okay, so this is Stephen in Acts 7, by the way. Not a pastor, not a minister! This dude is like this normal dude working a 9 to 5! He’s a deacon in the—he’s a volunteer in a church! And these Pharisees see him doing miracles, and they’re like, „We’re going to kill you!“ I’ll get to that later in the series.

This Spirit-filled volunteer stands up in front of these religious leaders and, with a Spirit-filled boldness, says, „You stiff-necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised! You are just like your ancestors! You always resist the Holy Spirit!“

Where was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? When you read your Bible, you may read the prophets, and you may think, „I would have loved to sit under their preaching.“ Most of you would not have! Most of you would not! The nation always hated the prophets God raised up—always! Every single one of them! They killed or persecuted! So you just need to know this: what he’s saying is to resist the word of God is to resist the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God authored the word of God.

And what people will do is when there is a preacher, when there’s somebody with a prophetic gift who has, like the Bible says, a sword coming out of his mouth—the sword of the Spirit—what will happen is people won’t like the message, but they don’t want to admit they don’t like the message, so they blame it on the messenger! This is what I don’t have any personal experience with this! So they’re like, „I don’t like the message, so I’ll just say, ‘Oh, he’s a mean messenger! ’ Oh, he emphasizes the wrong things! Oh, there’s a—he’s a little too much!“

Or what about this one? Let me just—I need to say this because I’m getting this more and more. Let me just say it. They’ll say things like this: „Oh, he’s getting political!“ Now let me just acknowledge something, y’all: I am a pastor in the most hyper-politicized culture I have ever read about! In our culture, everything—everything is political! In our culture, if I preach about marriage, he’s getting political! If I talk about sexuality, he’s getting political! If I talk about loving and reaching the Hispanic community, he’s getting political! If I say anything about race, he’s getting political! If I preach on gender dysphoria, he’s getting political! If I preach on abortion and God’s limitless love and offer of forgiveness to anyone who has had one, then they say I’m getting political!

So here’s the deal! I live in a world where everything’s political! So if I want to avoid being political, I have to stop being biblical! I will never do that! Amen! I will never do that! This is what it is right here! And let me just say this: if that bothers you, I just want to encourage you to find another church because we are going to preach the whole counsel of God to the whole issues of the world! We’re going to do that!

Now, here’s the other reason I want to encourage that: We need your parking space, that’s the other reason! Okay! Okay! So we will do this!

Despising Prophecy
Now here’s the last reason: the last way you can quench the Spirit is by despising prophecy. Okay now, if you’re like, „Ah, okay!“ Like this is literally exactly what the Bible says! I’m going to read it to you! This is 1 Thessalonians 5. We started here! Don’t quench the Spirit! We’re like, „Okay, well I don’t want to do that! How would somebody quench the Spirit?“ Here’s what it says: „Don’t despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to what is good! Abstain from every form of evil.“

Now here’s the reason: when it says „despise, ” here’s what it means: when somebody says something like, „Dude, I felt like the Lord asked me to tell this to you!“ Or, „I felt like the Spirit prompted me to say…“ Here’s what it looks like to despise prophecies. Inwardly, you go, „Sure, He did!“ That’s what it looks like to despise prophecy!

Now can I just—the reason some people do that is because some people have manipulated people under the banner of prophecy. I’ll give you this: this is so—I collect church signs. I like people send me hilarious church signs and I love them! I keep them all! Okay, this is like literally for real! This is a real church sign somebody did. Check this out: Prophecy class canceled due to unforeseen circumstances! So it’s like, okay, what? What? Okay!

So what may—now here’s the warning: you see this gift of someone where God—the Spirit of God’s moves through the people of God to bless you with the word of God. And so you’ll see somebody go, „Hey, you know, I feel like the Spirit told asked me to share this with you, ” and you’ll eye-roll because you’ve seen weird stuff done.

Can I just—I just need you to know the gift of prophecy, where the Spirit speaks through a person, y’all, it’s—it’s a real thing! It literally just said it right here! Paul knew this gift could be abused, and yet he did not say, „Therefore just never use it!“ He said, „No, no, don’t despise it and test everything!“

You just want to—I think I’ve said this before. I just want to say it: Jana and I are at Lake Point because of two prophetic words that God spoke to us at exactly the right time through other believers that could not have known the decision that we were facing. We would not have left the ministry that we were at. We loved it! We loved the people! We would have never left! But then two prophetic words were spoken to us that were absolutely from God. And we obeyed what the Spirit was speaking to us, and there’s been an incredible blessing on our lives as a result! Incredible blessing! So you just need to know this: The Holy Spirit appears 59 times in the book of Acts!

Modern Acts 2 Story
36—other than me speaking! I’m okay; I’m finishing the sermon! Here we go! You just need to know this: if you—I’ll preach on this later in the series. If you feel like God is speaking a word to you to share with somebody, don’t do this: „I have a word from the Lord for you!“ Don’t do that! Don’t do that! Here’s what you do: you say, „Hey man, I felt like I needed to share this with you. This might be from the Lord and it might not. If God does something later in your life to confirm what I’m about to say, receive it! If not, it was probably my tacos from last night!“

Say it like that! And then when someone gives you a word from God, the first thing you need to do is don’t despise it! Ask the question, „What if it is from God?“ and then go to His word and test it according to the word. And if it lines up with the word, receive it into your life! Receive it into your life!

Now, all this—let me land the plane here. What I’m saying is we’re preaching that Lake Point, we need every one of us to be filled with the Spirit of God for power, for witness, and purpose in our lives. Every one of us! Every single one of us! So I’m going to read you a story from a—I’m going to call him Jack. He’s a pastor that I’ve read before. I’m not going to tell you his name; he’s got a few theological things I disagree with, so I’m going to keep it a little vague, but he’s an honest man, and this is an honest story! Okay? And it’s like a modern-day Acts 2.

So Pastor Jack says this: „It is unquestionably one of the most disarming and remarkable experiences of my life as a Christian. The day began like so many on my personal calendar—getting into an airplane to go speak somewhere. I’d hardly seated myself when a well-dressed man in a business suit took his seat beside me. I greeted the man, and a casual conversation began. I detected a southwestern accent to his voice and asked if he were from the South. His response was not quite embarrassed, but he was slightly apologetic. I find that funny. I hasten to assure him that my observation was positive—that I enjoyed all flavors of southern draws. To which he responded, ‘You know it’s a funny thing, but I guess I’ve always been inclined to feel awkward about my speech. When I was raised in Oklahoma, my mother was a full-blooded Indian of the Kiowa tribe. When I started school, I was so limited in my English, and I still think I feel embarrassed, and that goes back to when my kids used to make fun of me in school.’ That’s when it happened.“

Jack writes, „The instant he spoke those words, another set of words whispered in my ear: ‘Speak to him in a tongue! ’ Remember Acts 2? It happened so quickly, and the prompting was so unsettling in its implications; I simply let the thought register in my mind but took no immediate action. My mind was now operating on two tracks. On one, I was continuing the conversation with a gentleman—let’s call him Bill—but on the other, I was trying to assess the strange, nearly frightening prompting I’d received. I knew the voice and understood what had been said. What I didn’t know, however, was why in the world God would give me such an assignment and how in the world could I fulfill it without seeming like a total and complete idiot!

The response was that I simply allowed our conversation to continue without any effort on my part of steering it. He was a civil engineer. As we talked, I discovered the diverse projects he’d been involved in. I’m going to make this a little short. He’d been in Israel, and then Jack explains he’d been in Israel for a little bit. And what Jack tried to do is give him a New Testament for him to read later. He declined, saying, ‘Hey, that’s very kind of you, but frankly, I’m never going to read it. I’m not a believer. I’m not much of a believer.’

Jack goes on and says, ‘I smiled and expressed my understanding of his position, and I turned the conversation to other things, which kept the moment from becoming awkward for him. After a while, our breakfast concluded, and we both turned to reading what we brought us. But I had a problem. That voice—the Lord prompted me by His Holy Spirit—had given me a clear directive almost an hour before that had been so clear: „Speak to him in a tongue.“ He was like, „I don’t know what that means.“ I mused over the prompting I’d received, wanting to stand directly before the Almighty and shout, „Speak to him in a tongue!“ Sure, that’s easy for you to say! But what about me, sitting here at 35,000 feet, ending up looking like a religious kook? ’

After about 30 minutes, Bill laid down the book he’d been reading, and I took a course of action which I felt was God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom was showing me. ‘Bill, ’ I said, ‘you know, I’ve been sitting here with the most curious thought. I wonder—I hesitated—I wonder, you know, quite a long time ago, I was taught some words in a language I don’t know. And thinking about your familiarity with your native Kiowa Indian tongue, just out of curiosity, I wondered if you’d mind if I said some of those words just on a chance that you’d recognize their meaning? ’

‘Sure, ’ he responded, ‘go ahead! ’ I looked away from his face and focused on the upholstery pattern on the back of the seat in front of him, and in a conversational tone, I began to speak. I had hardly begun when it seemed like I turned the linguistic corner, and I began speaking in a language unlike any I’d heard before. The total length of all I spoke was approximately the length of this paragraph. I stopped and looked at Bill. His response was immediate and businesslike: ‘That’s a prayer language from our Kiowa Indian tongue! I don’t know all the words you spoke, but I know the idea they express! ’ I could hardly believe what he was saying! I was overwhelmed yet totally reserved in my outward demeanor. What are they about? I asked.

'Well, ' he gestured in an upward expression with his hand, 'it’s something about a light coming down from above! '»

It was a Holy Spirit setup, and I recognized what I was to say! And in the remaining moments, Jack led Bill to the Lord! That’s it.

Okay, now, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses! And so your choice stands before you: Mock Him or experience Him.

Closing Prayer
Let me pray for us.

Father, Holy Spirit, we invite You here, and we just want to give up any pretense, any pride, anything that’s in us that would resist us just being used by You. We just want people to know Jesus. We just want people to know You and for them to experience Your redemptive power and love. And so God, we relinquish anything in us that resists You, that quenches You. And we just say, «You are welcome here! You are welcome here!» God, I ask You to fill-I ask You to fill this church with a fresh outpouring of Your Spirit and power! I pray that You do it to exalt the name of Your Son Jesus! I’m going to pray right along with Acts 4 that You would extend Your hand to perform signs and wonders in our midst to authenticate the message of the saving Gospel that is true! We pray it in Jesus' crucified and risen name! Amen!