Levi Lusko - Hanging In There

When we think about hope, don’t think about something dainty; don’t think about something flimsy. We’re talking about a great anchor that can hold a ship in the roughest seas it goes through in this world. And as I’ve said forever, it encourages me to think not just about Jesus as my anchor but about the fact that hope has a rope, because they don’t make wireless anchors. They don’t come equipped with Bluetooth. You can’t just throw the anchor over; what’s that? Well, it’s got Wi-Fi, right? No, there’s always a massive chain. Yeah, there’s always a mighty rope. So if Jesus is your anchor, you’ve been given the Holy Spirit as a rope to connect you to your hope. You are not just like Jesus. No, no, he’s in you through his Holy Spirit and with you. That anchor connects you; the rope connects you to your anchor, to your promise.

Open your Bibles with me to Joel 2, Joel chapter 2. I want to talk to you today about the Holy Spirit’s power to help us overcome grief and sadness. The title of my message is «Hanging in There.» You ever said that when someone asks how you’re doing? You went, «Hanging in there.» But that’s not how you said it, right? You took a big, tired sigh first because you all know the only way to answer «Hanging in there» when someone says, «How you doing?» is to first go, «Hanging in there. How you doing?» Right? Like, hanging in there! I asked someone this week how they were doing, and they said back, so honestly, «Well, I’m here, aren’t I?» I was like, «I don’t know if that’s good or not.» Like, I guess, so? I guess it’s better than the alternative, right?

When we say, though, «Hanging in there,» I think a lot of times, tragically, we’re saying and acknowledging that we’re just coping, that we’re just sort of squeaking by, that we’re essentially surviving. And if you feel that way today, I understand, right? Things can happen in life that lead to you just being overloaded and overwhelmed. But I think if we’re honest, hanging in there is a far cry from what Jesus hung there for you to experience. That is to say, he said, «I want you to have joy — not just any joy; I want your joy to be full.» So I can say this: if today, as a Christian, you’re not experiencing a life characterized by full joy, you are not experiencing what Jesus intends for you to experience. There’s more in store for you.

Now, I’m not saying just fake it till you make it. I’m not saying put a big spiritual veneer up, right? Like a big cloud of Lysol, you know? Just sanitize everything. «I’m doing so good; God’s so good,» like as though pretending made it true. I’m not saying that if you really trusted God everything would just be roses, and «Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,» like everything’s just going to go amazing if you follow Jesus, because that would be complete-but that will not live well, that will not survive lived experience on this planet for more than three days.

In fact, Jesus used his disciples, who he told firsthand that he wanted them to have joy and for their joy to be full. They experienced a lot of pain, a lot of loss. Every single one of them, except for John, died the death of a martyr, and many of them ended up literally as living torches in Emperor Nero’s garden parties, you know, under the imperial persecutions when the church was a convenient scapegoat for the fire that laid hold of the city of Rome. Christians were just an easy go-to. «Let’s just get them,» and so widespread persecution began to happen. One of the things that Nero would do is round up Christians and light them on fire, and then he would have his parties, just literally someone’s brother, someone’s sister burning there in the corner.

In the midst of that, Peter, Jesus’s disciple who would go on to die a death of crucifixion, said in his letter, 1 Peter 4:12: «Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process with glory just around the corner.» Do you see how different that is from hanging in there? He’s saying, «Guys, you could be going through the worst that this world can throw at you. You can be going through torture; you can be going through pain; you can be going through betrayal and loss, and you can still believe that glory is just around the corner.» Assuming the best about God’s motives, assuming positive intent about what he’s doing in the world, not jumping to the conclusion that God must not care or God must not be there. That is what I’m saying our lives can look like when our joy tanks are full.

So how do we fill them up? You’re like, «Where is the nearest joy gas station? Because I would love to have that kind of outlook on life.» Well, I am going to point it out to you right now-it’s Joel chapter 2:28. It says, «And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. And also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.» Can we thank God for his word together? For this is the joy gas station, ladies and gentlemen!

Now, to give some context and help us to understand just how big of a deal this text is, let me tell you that in the Hebrew Bible it’s not a part of chapter 2. I know I told you to go to chapter 2, verses 28-32, and we see these are the last five verses tacked on to the end of Joel 2. But in the actual Hebrew arrangement of Scripture, this is its own chapter all by itself. And then what we find in chapter 3 is actually chapter 4 in the Hebrew Scripture. That’s how big of a deal it is. This is like singled out as being like its own chapter, which is why we saved it for today. But for the audience that Joel wrote to, for them to receive this, you have no idea how big of a deal it would have been when he would have said this to them. It would have been preposterous- the idea of God pouring out his Holy Spirit on all flesh, on anybody. You’re a man, you’re a woman, you’re a servant, lowest economic status you could have, highest-this doesn’t matter. Your station doesn’t matter, your race-it doesn’t matter. Any and every single person who calls on the name of the Lord can tap into, can experience the power of the Holy Spirit of God. That the breath of God, this power that hovered over the waters at creation, this power that would eventually rest upon Jesus at his baptism, like a dove, that this would be available to you at your beck and call in your daily life to help you believe positive intent, especially when life gets difficult. That God would be there for you, and you could have joy to the full and believe that glory is just around the corner.

To describe this as being far-fetched wouldn’t even get into the right state on a road trip. You have to understand, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was only given selectively to random, it would seem, people for very specific jobs. They would be either because of a station-they were a king, or they were a prophet, or they were a priest given a very unique message or for a specific task or an assignment in the moment. But nobody could just assume that it was going to come for them, that they would be given the power of God’s Holy Spirit. So as you read across the landscape of the Old Testament, you might find, yes, Daniel received the Holy Spirit for this job, or Joseph had the Spirit of God upon him for this unique season or this unique task, or these judges, these prophets, those who would be given a message-it was exceptional. Do you see what I’m saying? It was something that a very rare group of people could expect to experience as their day-in-and-day-out situation, and nobody could bank on it.

So exceptional was it that when someone who did uniquely have God’s Holy Spirit upon his life, Moses found himself overwhelmed by how big of a job he had leading the nation of Israel. God said, «Okay, here’s what I’ll do. This is Numbers chapter 11. I’ll tell you to find the seven best that you can find, and I’ll take some of the Spirit I gave to you and I’ll put a little bit on each of them, and they’ll be able to help you out. As they’ll be your micro-Moses.» But there, it’s like you, it’s like passing. Do you see what I’m saying? I’ll take some of the Spirit on you and give a little bit of them to help it all work out. So there’s not this mentality of just lavishly pouring out the Holy Spirit; it was doled out very selectively for unique stations-not just menservants and maidservants.

«And you want some Spirit? It’s out there!» Joel’s like, «There’s coming a day, guys, when the Holy Spirit-» You see what I’m saying? It’s just going to be raining down on anybody who calls on the name of the Lord. Two people, after the seventy, got some of Moses’s Holy Spirit. Two people just randomly started prophesying; it was almost like it leaked onto them. They weren’t in that number, but they just started prophesying, and Joshua ran into Moses’s office, like Dwight trying to talk to Michael about an emergency, and he’s like, «Oh my gosh, Michael, these two got some Holy Spirit on accident! There’s only so much to go around. We need to stop them quick, right? Because we need to make sure all allocated Holy Spirit is used by sanctioned vessels.» And Moses said the most amazing thing. This is Numbers 11, verse 29: «Are you jealous for me? Would that all God’s people were prophets! Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them!»

In Joel 2, a nation who is debilitatingly grieving because of a huge crisis of locusts that had come in, of an impending war that was showing up, of a famine that they were all dealing with, were just given the promise of restoration — that God was going to give them the much-needed rain, both the early and the latter rain and restore to them the years that the locusts had destroyed if they would return to him. Now, Joel looks far off into the future to an event that’s past tense to us but was future tense to him: to a day when God would do exactly what Moses had prayed for-that God would pour His Spirit out on all, and that anybody could operate in the gifts and the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God. That prophecy that Joel gave was fulfilled on a day called Pentecost. And today, thousands, 2,000-some years later or so, is the anniversary of that day. For it was always 50 days after the first Sabbath after Passover that there was a commemoration, a day of feast and celebration called Pentecost.

Now, when the Holy Spirit came and was given, poured out on all flesh so that anybody could have some if they wanted it-not just the select few-not just kings, not just mostly men-but anybody, men and women, and slaves and free, and Gentiles; anybody could have this relationship with God’s Holy Spirit uniquely with them. It didn’t come just on any old day; it came on a specific day called Pentecost, just like Jesus died on Passover, as he died, lambs were being put to death all around the city of Jerusalem. You’re like, «What’s so-what an ironic coincidence!» Not a coincidence! He came on that day to show that the whole thing was just a shadow pointing towards him-that the whole system of putting animals to death was all about him coming as the Lamb of God. Similarly, when he rose from the dead, he said, «My Spirit will come; you’ve got to wait.» He didn’t tell them exactly when it was going to happen; «You’ve got to wait! My Spirit is going to come.»

Of course, we know that 49 days after the first Sabbath after Passover-the day after that-is the 50th day, and the word «Pentecost"-you want to know a cool Greek word? Pentecost just means 50! Okay? So if you want to know what Pentecost means, it just means the 50th. Because you just go 49-or seven sevens. God really likes seven; that’s one of the things you’ll know about these sevens everywhere, okay? So seven sevens is 49, and then the next day, which of course we celebrate today at Pentecost, is 50 days from the first Sabbath after Passover. On that day, the Jews were already commemorating a feast. What did it look back to? It looked back to Moses meeting with God on a mountain. That day represents them coming out of Egypt through Passover, right? The death of the firstborn-the Hebrews survived through that unscathed because of the blood of a lamb put upon their homes, and they’re able to get out of Egypt. God drowns the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, and what do they do? They go to Mount Sinai and meet with God.

Fifty days after the events of the Passover, we find Moses invited to come onto a mountain, and as he does, what happens? The sky grows dark, and clouds and pillars and fire rumble, and thunder blares. The people are terrified, and they’re saying, «We don’t want to go anywhere near all that! You go, Moses; you go!» And it’s good, because God actually said, «If anybody, even an animal, touches the mountain while I’m meeting with Moses on it, you’ll die.» So they were good to stay back a little bit and have a healthy fear of this. Moses goes up to the mountain to meet with God, and this is theophany-God sort of comes down to meet with Moses, and it’s characterized by fire, right? And so Moses says, «God, show me your glory; I want to know who you are.» God gives him the Ten Commandments, but Moses just wants to know more of who God is. So what does God do? He says, «I can’t show you my glory; if you saw me, you would die.» You know that scene in Indiana Jones where those Nazis melt? You’d be like that, right? You don’t want all that, and it’d be messy. Someone would have to get a mop. So he says, «Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tuck you into a rock, and I’ll just pass by, and my F-16 afterburn will be all you can handle, and even that, I’m praying for you.»

So God comes blasting by while Moses is tucked into the rock, and God proclaims who he is over Moses, and the experience left him glowing as he came down the mountain. On the anniversary of that day, God chose to answer Moses’s prayer for all the people to prophesy and experience God’s Holy Spirit. On the anniversary of that day, we get to see what that day was only a picture of-for Acts chapter 2:1 says, «Now when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.» They began to speak with other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. But no matter where you were from, you got to hear what they were saying in your language.

We’ve said before that that’s because Pentecost is a reversal of what happened at Babel, where God scattered the languages and people were divided, and thus easily spread out. But now, they’re given a unity. Think about this: 120 Christians on the face of the Earth at that moment, but with the power of the Holy Spirit united, 2,000 years later, there’s some billion people worshiping the name of Jesus today on this Earth. Think of it! Think of what’s happened! Verse 12: «All these people were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, 'Whatever could this mean? ' Others mocking said, 'Nah, they’re just full of new wine.'» But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, «Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words, for these are not drunk as you suppose. It’s only the third hour of the day.» He’s saying, «They could be a little bit buzzed, but it’s just 9 a.m. They haven’t had time to get drunk yet.» Some of you might be like, «I could get there; we’ll pray for your liver later.»

Verse 16: «But this, what you’re seeing, it’s not alcohol; it’s the prophet Joel. This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.» Then, for his first remarks in his Day of Pentecost sermon, just before 3,000 people get saved, the Apostle Peter turns his attention back to the words given by the prophet Joel and says, «It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Everyone is going to get to take part in this because, unlike the preview of coming attractions where one man, Moses, got to go on top of a mountain and have this experience with God’s power, now every single one of us are invited to come to the mountain! To come to the one who has come to live inside of us!

So now, with flaming fire upon our heads and Holy Spirit light shining from our eyes, we all get to experience, every single day of our lives, if we’re willing, and want to have what Moses had in miniature for a moment on the mountain but inside of us-the wonder of wonders! We could be the temple of the Holy Spirit, not our own, because we were bought at a price, and that God, who created the world, holds it together with the word of His power, measures it with the span of His hand-that he would come to take up residence inside of you and inside of me, that he would come to dwell inside of us, and there inside our hearts, be proclaiming who he is! He’s the Lord, the Lord, full of compassion and mercy and longsuffering and great in kindness!

And that all of that would be inside of us-Christ in you, your hope of glory! Because the day of Pentecost had fully come. Now, what does this have to do with grief and sadness, and how can we, through participating in the promise of Pentecost-which is still happening and ringing out-that we’re still living in the results and the overflow of the Spirit dumped out on all flesh? Well, I find it interesting that the first reaction of the onlookers was to assume it was booze. Why is that noteworthy? For a few reasons, one of which is when we are plunged into chaos and into grief and into loss, in those low moments, it sure can be tempting to turn to substances. It sure can be tempting to turn to a chemical that can sort of just turn the volume down on the pain, it would seem, to turn the lights a little bit lower down on what we’re seeing-and that’s all they really can do if you think about it: to turn to a substance to cope and to keep hanging in there just a little bit longer. It doesn’t change anything about your reality, does it? It just dims your awareness and your perception of it.

Here’s the reason it’s a mistake, especially in grief, to rely on the chemical high to just get through another day: because when you do come out of your stupor and when you do come out of your fog, and you’re no longer numbed to it anymore, you’re no further along towards healing than you were when you numbed yourself. Not feeling is not the same as healing. So just because I’m no longer caring about it because I’m just sort of like stoned for this moment, and therefore, I don’t care anymore, I didn’t feel good or bad. I haven’t processed any of this grief. I haven’t been able to do any work. I haven’t moved forward in my healing journey, and so I can keep doing that, and the longer I do that, the more easy it is to do it again. Because now I’m feeling all of this, and everything about my situation is exactly the same, but I’m no further along in my journey.

Now maybe ten years have passed, and I still haven’t processed that loss; I still haven’t actually dealt with it and faced it and healed and become resilient and developed, and moved towards God, right? That spiritual refining process that Peter talked about. I haven’t actually processed any of it, so it’s going to be even more tempting just to numb again and not feel any of it at all. And that’s why Paul, in Ephesians 5, pitted being drunk as an opposite choice to the Holy Spirit. He said, Ephesians 5:18, „Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but instead be filled with the Spirit.“ So he’s saying it’s going to be tempting to choose that one because that’s the low- hanging fruit-just becoming under the influence of spirits or under the influence of substances. But the opposite of that is this response of God to pour out my Spirit on all flesh, that we can find what booze and what substances will only give us a counterfeit version of, and that is true joy and real courage.

True joy and real courage! And that’s why, I think, people watching on go, „These guys have to be half-baked a little bit here. They’ve got to be faded!“ Because there’s joy and courage, and those are the things. Right? What do we say? „I’m going to have a drink. See you! I need a little liquid courage.“ People look to substances to make them feel more courageous and to keep coping with life’s difficulties, and for there to be some sense of joy and „How happy it is, and cheers! Aren’t we the best of friends?“ — all the things that we can look to at the bottom of a bottle. And so he’s saying the Holy Spirit offers you not just pretend joy and pretend courage but offers true joy and joy to the full. How does this work? How does that offer hope to those of us who are going through loss?

Five different ways. Number one: Through relying on the Holy Spirit’s power to pull us up out of the pits life throws us into, we can stand on truth, and we know that the Spirit will lead us towards truth because that’s his literal name. Look at Jesus’s words to the disciples in the upper room discourse, John 16. He said, „However, when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come.“ So what the Spirit is going to do is guide you and lead you into truth and guide you into the best path for your life. The Bible talks about a broad road that leads to destruction and a narrow road that leads to eternal life. Jesus is saying when you listen to the Holy Spirit guiding you, he’s always going to lead you to life.

What that’s going to actually look like day -to-day is having to rely on what he says, God, and not what we see and not what we feel. Hear me: those two things-what we see and what we feel-will not be good compasses, but God’s word, on the other hand, the truth that God wants to guide you in, will be a light for your feet, a lamp for your path. He will guide you into the right plan for you, but it’s going to take faith. Because what we can see, we can see with our naked eyes, and it horrifies us at times. Your reality you’re facing the first time you come back into a home after the loss of someone you love, it’s really hard. And again, it’s tempting then: „I can’t; I can’t; I can’t! But God can help you to see not just what you can see is there but what he says is there, what he says is happening. And that’s why we rely on God’s word, which the Holy Spirit will always operate through. 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul said, „So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but what the things we cannot see will last forever.“ Eugene Peterson said that reality is made up mostly of what we can’t see.

The problem is we get so focused and fixated on simply what we can see, and it takes our breath away. But what we need to do to build up our faith is to rely on God’s word, because faith comes by hearing and hearing God’s word, and the Spirit is going to lead us into the truth of God’s word, and it will help us to make the decisions we need to make. That’s why Jesus prayed, „Father, sanctify them,“ John 17, „by your truth; your word is truth.“ So how can we grow? Well, listen to Jesus praying for you, saying, „God, I pray that they would read and apply the Bible because your word is going to set them straight; your word is going to help them do what they need to do,“ which oftentimes shockingly will not be what we feel like doing.

A lot of times what opens us up to the blessing God has for us is when we do what he wants us to do, even when we don’t feel like doing it. So first of all, we’re going to hang in truth; we’re going to build our lives not on the flimsiness of emotion and feeling and what we can see in circumstances but rather on the bedrock of God’s word. Didn’t Jesus say he who hears my word and does my word is like a man who builds his house on a rock? The same waves are going to come for it; the same wind is going to come for it, but that house will still be standing after the storm. Don’t you want your life to stand through the storms of this world? Build your life on the truth, and the Holy Spirit is going to guide you to obey God’s word.

Secondly, I’m hanging in hope-not just in truth but in hope: hope that there’s a brighter tomorrow. Like Peter said, „Glory around the corner.“ The definition of hope biblically is a confident expectation, so it’s not just optimism, but it’s actual belief in someone, not just something. So I’m not just trying to be positive a little bit. No, no. I’m actively putting my faith in God that he has good plans-that he’s a good shepherd. So if he’s leading me there, it’s because somehow there’s going to be some anointing oil for my head; there’s going to be some good water; there’s going to be a cup that’s going to run over. Do you see what I’m saying? We’re believing in a good God, and so we can functionally believe in hope because hope is connected to the Holy Spirit in our lives because of Romans chapter 5: „Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.“

So our relationship with the Holy Spirit that each of us get to have now, like Moses on Sinai- just that lucky guy looking up there and being sad-hey, you get your own personal relationship with Jesus! That’s why Jesus said it’s better that I go away because if I go away, every Christian on the face of the Earth gets to be essentially a priest in that way, the priesthood of all believers-that we all have the same exact relationship-not one of you is at a disadvantage. Not one of you, with whatever circumstances have been thrown at you in this life, has a different relationship with God than me, or Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa, or Moses himself, because there is one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ Jesus. So you get to have the same relationship with God with any Christian who has ever lived! That is a really big deal!

And the proof of all that God has planned for you through that is the Holy Spirit. Some of you ladies have had someone propose to you-guy gets down on his knee, opens up that box, asks for your hand in marriage, right? That means something-that he bought a ring that they put — what was supposed to be like six months' pay or whatever it was; the whole point of that is to show I’m serious, right? He’s not just saying, „Oh baby, we’ll get married someday, just keep dating me for 20 years; one of these days we’ll get around to it,“ right? No, he’s saying, „I liked it so much; I’m putting a ring on your finger.“ This is essentially a down payment to show that I’m serious! That’s what the Bible compares the Holy Spirit to. The Holy Spirit, Ephesians says, is the engagement ring of all that God has planned for us! That’s why he calls us his bride!

Heaven is referred to kind of as the honeymoon. It begins with the marriage supper of the lamb. You have to understand, in the biblical culture that was the highest day in any calendar year, getting to go to a wedding. So to describe our relationship with God like that is just describing the greatest joy in the calendar year. That’s just a warm-up for what God has intended for us to experience in heaven, and the Holy Spirit’s proof! So every time you get bogged down and discouraged with how hard life is and how bad things are now, the Holy Spirit living inside of you and your relationship with him is meant to show you, „Hey, I’ve got more in store! I gave you the down payment of the Holy Spirit. You have the engagement ring. Don’t worry-the wedding is coming!“ So we can have hope!

And what does that hope do? It functions like an anchor for your soul! Hebrews 6:9: „This hope we have is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. That which enters in behind the veil.“ And what I love to think about, and I’ve always been encouraged by it, is the fact that, hey, I know what anchors look like, but I know they always have a connection to the ship, don’t they? You don’t ever go on a boat ride and like, „They need an anchor,“ and so they just toss a giant anchor over, and you’re like, „Dude, what the heck?“ And he goes, „Oh, this one has Bluetooth!“ Right? No, there’s always a wired connection. There’s always a giant chain or a big old rope or something, okay? So this text, Hebrews 6, is saying Jesus is your anchor. What does that mean? It means that hope has a rope, and the Holy Spirit has been given as the rope for your hope! You are connected to heaven; you are connected to Jesus.

And the more you walk with the Holy Spirit, the closer you keep your connection to the Holy Spirit, I like to say it this way: Don’t let there be a lot of slack in the line! You know when you start missing church and you start missing devotions and you start blowing off your Christian friends? The problem is, the more you miss out on being in the presence of God, the less you’ll miss the presence of God! The more slack there gets in that connection, the easier it goes to just not go! No, no — I’m not saying you’re bad, and I’m not saying God doesn’t love you, and I’m not saying you lose your salvation; none of that! I’m saying you’ll miss out on the perks of your salvation; you’ll miss out on the power of your salvation. The same gym membership can get your abs and keep you fat! It’s all about what you do with what you got, and if you’re in Christ, you have been given it all. You have the exact same scripture that Billy Graham had his whole life in ministry. You see what I’m-You have everything you need to do everything you’ve been called to do!

But it’s all about what you do with what you’ve been given! To the extent that we keep the slack out of the line by keeping a tight connection to our hope through the rope- that’s the Holy Spirit that’s been given to us, that is in us, that is with us, but will come upon us as often as we ask for it and then step out in faith to experience the results of it-well then, we get to walk in that full joy and not have that leaky empty bucket and be like, „How you doing?“ „Me? How you doing? Just hanging in there!“ No, but to experience the vitality and the pulsating, energizing enthusiasm of having the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters of creation inside your heart, convincing you of God’s good plans for you! And each day-from great grace to grace and glory to glory-showing you that he’s got good things in store; he wants to use you and that eye hasn’t seen, an ear hasn’t heard, nor has it even entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for you!

We get to put our feet on the floor every morning, wake up going, „God, what do you have for me today? How you going to lead me into all truth today?“ A.W. Tozer said that being filled with the Holy Spirit is the closest you can actually come to being in heaven until you get there! The closest you can actually come to being in heaven until you get there! The fullness of the Spirit- hope for life’s hurts, truth for life’s confusion, enabling! Enablement! Power! Ability! And the Holy Spirit is for all that because I’ve got news for you-God has called you to do some stuff that’s impossible-not hard-it’s worse than that! Hard is being nice! You know God’s called you to do impossible things, things that you can’t do! Mountains in front of you that you will not be able to move!

As I look at our ministry and think back to all that God’s done, I can’t take credit for any of it! How have we seen what God has done take place? God did it! God did it! And it’s fun; I was there! I have memories and scars and t-shirts, but I can’t say I did it, and neither can you! And that’s the life you want to live, isn’t it? Don’t you want to live a life that you’re stepping out in faith to do things that unless God shows up, it’s doomed to fail? Come on, that’s the life of faith! That’s Hebrews 11! That’s stopping the mouths of the lions! That’s seeing God do the impossible in our time-that’s watching the dead come to life! We have a church in a prison. We see inmates saved all the time! Can you believe what we get to be a part of?

It’s not just hard; it’s impossible! And that’s why we were given power-divine enablement-not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. And you need that power; you need that enabling. You need that opening up of gifts inside of you, and that’s part of what the Spirit does! You know the Spirit gives four primary things. The ability to use our gifts that he’s given to us-the ability to use and grow our skills that all of us have, okay? Number three: he’s been given to us to give us guidance -"Go this way; you’ll hear a voice behind you, 'This way! That way! '» He uses the rumble for me; he uses the rumble strip more often than anything else. «Oh dang it; it’s like operation! The buzz! Oh, sorry! I shouldn’t have touched that!»

So he works within our conscience as well, right? Convicting of sin; he punishes and shapes, and that’s a good thing, believe it or not! It helps us grow by pruning us back. And then, check this out-he is involved in our life, giving us power to overcome indwelling sin! Massive! Massive! We cannot overcome! We can’t get «Why do I keep stumbling with that? Why do I keep sticking to that? Why do I keep…"-he, the Holy Spirit, is there to give you power to use your gifts! He’s there to help you use the skills that you’ve been given! A spiritual gift might be in helps or in administration or words of knowledge or a gift of prayer or a gift of giving —

But then you have as well skills, right? Skills with design, skills when it comes to different things that you can do with your hands, or things that you can see with art. God has given us skills and gifts. He guides us using the Holy Spirit for our divine GPS unit, but then he also gives us the power and the strength to overcome the sin that sticks to us! And I think the Holy Spirit’s power is also there so that we can keep calm and carry on-or as Winston Churchill liked to say-he actually never said that phrase-keep calm and carry on-he liked to say «Keep calm and keep buggering on.» Just keep buggering on! Just keep buggering on! I can’t say that!

So enablement, and then as well, remembrance! The Holy Spirit works through our memory! Do you know that remembrance is what we can hang onto? We can hang onto the promise of remembrance! «How you doing?» «Well, I’m hanging on to remembrance.» What does that mean? Well, John 14:26 is the reference: «But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.» So Holy Spirit, part of his job is when you need something, he’s there, like in the movie Inside Out, to put the right memory orb into your little thing and light up your heart-okay? Specifically when it comes to Jesus’s words, and the disciples needed that because they had to write their gospels, and they were like, «Oh my gosh, how are we ever going to get all this out?» Well luckily, the Jews were very good at oral tradition for one, but then secondly, the Holy Spirit was going to help-"Ah, ah, don’t worry! I’ll help bring back to your mind what you need!»

And you as well can rely on that promise! When you go to share your faith, do you ever think, «I can’t share my faith with someone; what if they ask and I don’t know?» Well, you know, here’s a thought: you could tell them that and be honest for one thing, and they will be refreshed by that, I’m sure. But second, you can trust that things you’ve heard, things you’ve read, things you’ve tucked in your heart that you don’t even remember reading are going to come back to you in the moment when it’s time to put yourself out there!

The Holy Spirit, you’re not alone in evangelism; you’re not alone in sharing your faith; you’re not alone in putting yourself out there to encourage somebody. The Spirit’s there to grab the right thing at the right time. What is your job? Here’s your job: keep the tank full of raw material so he has stuff to put on the little memory shooter- upper thingy! Okay? Like at Fro-Yo when you go to get frozen yogurt; you turn the little knob-the big old tubes full of cereal-and every time you turn it, a bunch of cereal falls out. You don’t know exactly how much is going to come out-like, «Well, this is exciting; what’s going to happen?» «Ooo, that’s a lot-I like that!»

How full is your tank for the Holy Spirit to turn in your life to get it out in the right time? How are your devotions going? What are you doing to keep that tank full so that in those moments, you’re like, «You know what, I was just reading something this morning; it really encouraged me; I’m excited to share it with you! Boom!» You see what I’m saying? Your job is just to keep giving the Holy Spirit that raw material by letting Jesus speak to you so that later on, he can bring to your mind the things you let Jesus speak to you.

It doesn’t really work to not be in the word, to not be consistently studying God’s word, but then go, «Well, I’m excited for you.» That’s like what Jesus was talking about-don’t put God to the test, jumping off that cliff hoping the angels come in and save you, right? Bringing back a Bible verse that you never read! So we want to have lots of raw material when it comes to remembrance! And then lastly, what am I hanging in there with? I’m hanging in there with the encouragement that the Holy Spirit gives me! That the Holy Spirit is going to give me encouragement, and this encouragement is going to be exactly what I need when I feel like quitting! Exactly what I need when I feel like I can’t go on anymore! Exactly what I need to fill up my joy bucket so it is to the full that I experience what God has for me!

One of the Holy Spirit’s names is Comforter- the Comforter! Like in John 15 when the Comforter, verse 26, has come. Think about it-just, I know the rest of that verse is wicked awesome, but let’s just stop at his name-Comforter! You know what makes me think of? Cold morning; don’t want to get out of bed; I just want to roll up in my comforter one more time, right? The Comfort-why would God choose that, of all things, to compare his Holy Spirit to? A comforter? Because that’s what he does! He’s not just there for power and strength and Bible verses-he’s also there just to comfort you!

And when do you need comfort? When you’re hurting. When do you need comfort? When you’re sad? When do you need comfort? When you’re depressed, when you’re scared, when you’re grieving? The Holy Spirit wants to comfort you, and do you know how he does it? We’re told specifically because he’s the spirit of adoption, not the spirit of bondage! He’s better than Moses! Okay? The covenant given on Mount Sinai- the one guy on the mountain-fire comes down; it’s very impressive, but scary! What happened? He comes down with two rock tablets: «Here’s what you have to do; here’s what you have to do.» That’s the spirit of bondage! So then every day you’re looking at God like, «Did I do enough yet? Ah, shoot, I blew it; ah, dang it!» Jesus gives his Holy Spirit; that’s not the spirit of bondage; he’s the spirit of adoption!

And the spirit of adoption is different; it says you didn’t do anything to deserve it! Your father chose you and has brought you into covenant relationship with him and has proof! He put his Holy Spirit to live inside of you! So Romans says, verse 15 of chapter 8: «With this Spirit of adoption inside of us, we get to cry out, 'Abba! Father! '» Not a mountain you can’t even touch the wrong way, or you’re going to die! You get to, if you listen to the Holy Spirit inside of you in your low moments, he’s saying one thing to you: he’s saying, «Dad, Dad, Dad!» Because just like he’s good at bringing back Bible verses you need right when you need them, he’s also good at prayer! Really good at praying! And the Holy Spirit wants to help you pray.

And one of the most important prayers you could ever pray would be in those really hard moments, just to say, «Dad! Dad! Father! Father! Oh, Father in Heaven!» The Spirit’s trying to give you a line to say so you could receive comfort for your wounds, for your sorrows, for your insufficiencies! He knows what healing will flood in because he’s trying to help you see that you don’t look to God now like an angry drill sergeant! You look to him like he is a good father! And he says about you what he says about Jesus!

As the Holy Spirit comes upon him at his baptism, what was it? «Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.» And the reason the Holy Spirit’s trying to get you to pray «Dad» is so that you could realize, «I am His!» That’s what God is saying about you! He’s saying, «Behold my beloved daughter!» Because of Jesus, remember you got tucked into the rock! So God’s glory doesn’t destroy you like it should for your sin; it got Jesus on the cross! So now, tucked into the rock, every time you call out «Dad,» he’s saying, «I love you! I’m pleased with you! I got plans for you!»

So the only question is, will we participate in that love? Will we allow him to fill our bucket to the full? Because in John chapter 7, Jesus said he wants the Holy Spirit to be like how much he wants to pour it out. He wants it to be like a river rushing out of your heart! We’re in spring runoff time! Rivers are about to swell their banks as the snow keeps melting and all the things, right? You think about-we’ve seen full rivers! That’s what he wants your heart to be like! The word «pour out,» «I will pour out my Spirit on flesh,» it does not mean drop by drop; it’s a deluge!

So, Father, we pray you would help us to participate and experience that which you have for us! We start with the cross; we start with salvation. If you’re here and you haven’t settled that issue once for all of «I want to follow Jesus! I want to look to him to forgive me; I want to look to him to give me salvation,» that’s where it begins. We’re not talking about power to live as a Christian; we’re talking about how do I become one? Well, it’s because of what Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection. If you’re here and you would want to make that decision to trust Jesus, turning from your sins, being given the promise of heaven, I want to ask that you pray with me because the Bible says if we call on the name of the Lord, we will be saved! That’s what Joel said. And Peter referenced Joel’s words, but so did Paul in Romans 10. He said that’s how we get saved; we call on the name of the Lord, and we receive safety.

So if that’s you I’m describing, and you would say, «I want to trust Jesus,» church, online, every location, say this with me: Church, pray with us: «Dear God, I call on your name; please save me. In Jesus' name.»