Turn to Luke chapter 1.
My subject that I'm going to be looking
at is the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
And it's kind of difficult because basically this
conference has been given over to who has
the most flesh.
And, uh, and trying to compete in that.
And I, uh, I've tried.
You know, I mean, I was sitting there,
Raul was talking about how his wife, you
know, when he gets home, you know, tells
him it's lousy.
And I was thinking, boy, I wish my
wife had that much tact.
And, uh, because she doesn't wait till we
get home.
One Sunday, I'm standing, people are coming out.
It's one of those nice Sundays, you know,
where it all came down the way that
you were hoping it would come down.
And the people are coming out and just
telling me how they appreciate the message and
stuff.
And my wife is standing next to me
and this woman comes up to her and
says to her, you know, it just must
be wonderful to have him for a husband.
And, you know, and I'm listening to this
while I'm, you know, this little conversation and
think, ah, she needs to hear this, you
know, and how, uh.
She says to this lady, I mean, coming
out of church, in line, right after church,
you ought to wash his underwear for a
week.
Man, I'd take going home and saying it's
lousy any day.
I'm sitting there, wait a minute.
And, of course, I got to enter in
by saying, well, if you'd let me, if
I didn't have to wear them a whole
week, it wouldn't be so bad.
But, uh, anyway,
another time she's getting ready for a conference
and is really concerned about what she was
going to share.
So I just kind of said, well, which
one of my sermons would you like to
borrow?
She says, neither.
You know, I, well, you don't know how
good you've got it.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for this few days
together.
It's been, it's been fun, it's been refreshing.
And, Lord, we thank you for your love
for us.
The joy we have in you.
Serving you, loving you, worshiping you.
Father, we thank you for your love for
us.
How you love your servants, how you care
for them.
You watch out.
And, Lord, we ask that as we just
continue this morning, you would minister to us
and speak to us.
Father, we ask it in Jesus' name.
What I want to do is just as
a, as kind of in the thing, is
look at the relationship between Jesus and the
Holy Spirit.
The reason that I want to do this
is in Corinthians, Paul tells us about Jesus
in a couple places.
One, that he is the second man.
Another, that he's the last Adam.
And that there as Jesus came into the
world, he came in really to reflect to
us the quality of life that was forfeited
in Adam and to reveal once again humanity
to us as it was really designed and
meant to be lived.
Peter tells us that he was our example.
Paul tells us we are to be imitators
of Christ.
And that, and when you look at his
life and his relationship with the Holy Spirit,
I'm going to give you a number of
scriptures as we're kind of running through, and
I hope that in it we'll realize the
phenomenal relationship that there was between the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit through
the life of Jesus on a continuous basis.
In Luke chapter 1, I'll just, you can
write them down, you can try to run
along with me, but I want to, when
at the very beginning obviously of Jesus' life,
when there Gabriel is speaking to Mary, in
verse 31 of Luke 1, it says, And
behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call
his name Jesus.
And he shall be great, and shall be
called the Son of the Highest.
And the Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of his father David.
And he shall reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall
this be seen?
I know not a man.
The angel answered, he said unto her, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also the Holy Thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son
of God.
But the first thing that we see about
Jesus even in his coming into the world
is that first of all, Jesus was born
of the Holy Spirit.
When there in his life, not only physically,
but in every sense of the word, it
was absolutely imperative that the Holy Spirit give
him the life and that he was born
of the Spirit of God.
And the very first thing that we see
about him is that number one, he was
born of the Spirit.
And not only, of course, was Jesus someone
that was born of the Spirit, but we
find in Hebrews chapter 9, in verse 14,
a beautiful verse that just simply says about
Jesus that he offered himself to God through
the eternal Spirit without spot, without blemish.
That there was something that not only was
Jesus born of the Spirit, but he also,
through the Holy Spirit, he offered his humanity
to God's deity through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was the one through whom
not only Jesus was born, but he was
also the one through whom Jesus offered himself
to God.
He was the one through whom the relationship,
while Jesus was here on earth, it was
through the ministry and the work of the
Holy Spirit that that relationship was not only
born of, but also was being sustained by.
At the time that that happened, it tells
us in Hebrews chapter 10, that in verse
5 it says, Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offerings thou
wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared
me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, I come in the volume
of the book it is written of me,
to do thy will, O God.
And here we have, it says about Jesus,
this is from back in Psalm 40, but
it says when he came into the world,
he said, Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings
for sin thou hast had no desire, but
a body thou hast prepared me.
Then said I, Lo, it is written of
me in the volume of the book to
do thy will.
And so there, at the very birth of
Jesus, when he was born to the Spirit,
when he came into this world, not when
he was 5 or 10 or 15 or
20 or 30, but at the very initiation
of his life here on this planet, and
here as a person, as a human being,
he turned and when he came into the
world, he looked and God said, God, sacrifice
and offerings and burnt offerings for sin thou
hast had no pleasure or desire.
He's saying, God, you don't want my time
or my energy or my effort.
You don't want my little money, a little
involvement.
What you want, you've prepared a body for
me, and it is written in the book
for me to do your will.
And Jesus was somebody that his life was
offered to God through the eternal Spirit from
the day he came.
He was somebody born to the Spirit.
He was somebody that he was offered to
God through the Holy Spirit.
And there as he grew, it's interesting, there's
a verse about Jesus, very always interested me,
but it says that he learned obedience.
And to me, of course, the way that
I interpret that is, uh-oh, that means
sometime he must have been disobedient.
If you've got to teach somebody obedience, the
subtle thing about that is that maybe they
must be disobedient somewhere.
But the amazing thing about Jesus is that
when he became a man, and he humbled
himself, and he took upon himself the form
of a servant, and he took on this
human flesh, and he stepped from his glory,
and for his 33 years of humiliation, in
effect, there he had to do something now
as a man that he had never ever
done before as God.
And he had to learn something that every
man everywhere has to learn if they're going
to truly be a man.
And that is that not only are they
born of the Spirit, not only are they
offered to God through the Spirit, but they
obey the Spirit.
Something he'd never done as God before was
obeyed.
Now, though, if he was truly going to
be an example to us, and if he
was truly going to reveal to us what
men are like, what men think about themselves,
what they think about God, what they think
about others, what they think about anything, it
is going to be typified through a life
of obedience to God.
And through the Spirit, specifically, and the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew chapter 3, at Jesus' baptism, it
says in Matthew 3, 17 there, that, in
fact, you know, one of the interesting things
to me is how that when John, you
know, there is, as Jesus comes out to
John, and John, knowing who he is, realizing
that he is standing there in the presence
of the second person, the triune God in,
now standing before him, and he's out there
to be baptized, he says, I shouldn't baptize
you.
He says, it's up to be so for
now.
He says, because I am here to fulfill
all righteousness.
I am here in my humiliation, not to
play man at times, but to be one
at all times.
And one thing that all men do is
they completely identify with God in any and
every way that they can.
He said, John, be about your business, baptize
me.
And there is, you know, it's something that
as John is standing there realizing who he
is in glory, but now Jesus is there
standing in his humanity and says, no, this
is the way it will be.
And as Jesus comes up out of the
water, the heavens are open, the Spirit of
God descends upon him as a dove, and
the Father says, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased.
And you know, one of the most interesting
things about that is so far we don't
have anything recorded about Jesus and what he
did.
He hadn't preached a sermon, healed the sick,
raised the dead, cast out a demon.
He had done nothing whatsoever ministry-wise at
all, and yet God says what he is
pleases me.
And what was it?
He was born of the Spirit.
He was offered to God through the Spirit.
He was obedient to the Spirit.
He was fulfilling everything.
It wasn't the size of his ministry or
the greatness of it.
It wasn't anything that he had done that
the Father says, that's what pleases me.
It's the fact that God had somebody that
was entirely his, that he could do whatever
he wanted to, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, through him.
He'd never had anybody like that since Adam
walked away and said, no, thank you.
But now he had somebody that once again
through the Spirit, he was born of the
Spirit, you know, walked in the Spirit, submitted
to the Spirit, and he loved it.
And he enjoyed it.
And God says, this is so pleasing to
me to have a vessel like this, to
have a tool like this, to have a
relationship like this with somebody here on earth.
And, you know, there is, as we realize,
it isn't what we do that pleases God,
it's what we are.
So often we think that if we do
a lot of things that please God, then
somehow or another there is a merit of
all that, we will become pleasing to God
in what we are.
It's never that way.
It's what we are.
Later on, Jesus in John 8, 29, He
says, I do only always those things that
please the Father.
So what He did please is God.
But what He did please God was because
what He was pleased God.
He was God's tool.
He knew what it was to walk in
the life and in the power of the
Spirit.
And, you know, one of the most interesting
things is the very first thing that happens
there is the Spirit of God is there,
of course, already He was born of the
Spirit.
He'd walked in the Spirit.
He'd submitted to the Spirit for 30 years
so far.
But now at the initiation of what He
was going to do, after what He had
already been for 30 years, now it's like
this could do something.
And the interesting thing, the very first thing
that happens is Jesus finds Himself in the
wilderness where He was tempted to the devil
for 40 days.
But the interesting thing about that, we oftentimes
think that the devil came along to try
to thwart the ministry of Jesus before it
got going.
That wasn't what happened at all.
Because Luke 4, 1 begins by saying, Being
filled with the Spirit was led by the
Spirit in the wilderness where He was tempted
to the devil for 40 days.
Here we have Jesus not only born of
the Spirit, offered to God through the Spirit,
pleasing to God because of the Spirit.
Now we have Him filled with the Spirit
and led or more literally driven by the
Spirit.
That here under the office and the authority
of the Holy Spirit, there is we have
the second person that God had now humbled
Himself down, becoming lower than the angels.
As a man He did what any and
all men ought to always do and that
is submit to the Holy Spirit because He
runs His life.
And therefore being filled with the Spirit, He
was driven by the Spirit.
And this to me is one of the
most beautiful and wonderful things that happens in
the ministry of Jesus.
It was like as far as the Holy
Spirit was concerned before we go out and
we do anything with humanity.
It was like the Holy Spirit had a
piece of business that He wanted to settle
with the devil that had laid dormant ever
since the garden.
Because He drove now there that He had
another body that was His.
He had a second Adam.
He had another man.
The only other one that He really had
like this since they'd made the first one.
And now here's the second one.
The first piece of business, unlike though being
there in a paradise in the comforts and
the beauty of the garden, He sends Him
out and He drives Him into the wilderness
and He lets Him deplete in energy and
everything for 40 days.
Let's Him come to the exhaustion, not where
He's even high and up and on the
pinnacle and enjoying all the blessings of God.
He takes Him out in barrenness and in
emptiness and hunger and stars Him as God
sits Him out there.
Letting the devil sit there and watch the
whole thing as He gets emaciated and He
physically begins to deteriorate and His body begins
to send all of its impulses toward something.
And then there is the devil is setting
up.
This is His piece of business.
I mean this is the Holy Spirit's piece
of business with the devil.
And then the devil comes.
If ever he's got a shot at Him,
now's it.
If ever there's a contest that if there's
ever anything to do, now He shows up
on the scene after God lets Him sit
and rot for 40 days.
And at the end of that, after He
was tempted all the way through it says,
but He comes to Him.
Now at the end of this, and He
says to Him in His tragedy, because in
the King James it says, if you're God.
As if there's a question, as if there's
anything going on between the devil and Jesus
like, gee, I've heard rumors.
I wonder if you might be the one
who created all of us and everything else.
He knew exactly who He was talking to,
literally because you're God.
He knew exactly who He was talking to
when He was talking to Jesus there out
in the wilderness.
And He turned to Him and said, because
you're God, He says, turn this stone to
bread.
Do it.
And there is the Holy Spirit, I mean
the devil was trying to get Jesus to
behave as God.
To use His deity to get through this
trial and through this struggle.
And you know one of the most beautiful
responses that I don't think we've ever sometimes
really stopped to realize, but the response that
Jesus had when He came right back to
the devil and He looked at Him and
He says, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God.
As if to look at Him and say,
listen, there's a couple things I want to
make quite clear.
Yes, I am God.
But at the same time, I also want
you to realize, I don't need to be
God to meet you.
All I need to do is be a
man filled with the Spirit of God.
All I need to do is be somebody
that's born of the Spirit, filled with the
Spirit, led, guided, offered.
And then God, the Holy Spirit, resident within
me, He'll be sufficient in every issue.
And all I need to do is be
a man filled with the Spirit.
He'll take care of me through all of
the trials, all of the struggles.
And you know I think that one of
the first things that the Holy Spirit wants
to do when He calls anybody into ministry,
isn't anything unique that He did with Jesus?
It's a pattern.
And whether it's 40 days or it's 10
years or it's 50 years or whatever it
is, while He takes somebody out there and
He wants to settle a piece of business,
say, are you mine?
Are you somebody that under the pressure or
under the trials, it'll hit you later on,
you're going to succumb to it.
Or when the devil offers you this or
that later on, as heavy as all of
those things are, whose are you going to
be?
And some of us, early on in the
ministry, we go through a lot of things
and there's a lot of barren valleys and
there's a lot of wildernesses.
But so often, it's nothing other than the
Holy Spirit wanting to bring us through something
and wanting to really find out whose are
we anyway?
What are we in it for anyway?
Who's called us?
Who's empowered us?
Under who is it that we serve?
And there is Jesus in the midst of
the whole thing.
It's His life.
He could turn back to the devil and
look at him there and say, I don't
need it anymore.
And there was something that the Holy Spirit,
He wanted this settled before anything else.
He knew what it was, that the drop
of a hat back in a garden and
all of the pleasures, all the comforts, in
paradise, nothing less than that.
At the drop of a hat, the devil
would come in and say, hey, follow me.
And just, off they went.
And now it's something where now the Holy
Spirit's got another body and He sends Him
out there into the wilderness and He says,
we've got one thing to settle.
And you know the beautiful thing there is
Jesus settled it.
There was never again, as the devil came
to want to tempt Him, that business was
over.
That was settled.
I think a lot of times because we
avoid those wilderness experiences, we have great trials
later on in the ministry because we've never
truly settled that business.
The devil had nothing more to say to
Jesus in terms of trying to afford Him
because he'd already lined up at his best.
And I think one of the greatest hours
of blessing in our life so often is
in the wilderness because there we can settle
some things that later on won't necessarily come
back to haunt us if we truly settle
them.
But if we avoid them and we maneuver
our way around the trials, then later on
they'll come back because the enemy's still got
something he can entice us with or draw
us away with or bring us down.
But here as Jesus then comes out of
the wilderness in Luke chapter 4, goes on
to tell us in verse 14.
It says, And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit unto Galilee, where there went
out a fame of Him through all of
the region round about.
Here we have somebody born of the Spirit,
offered to God through the Spirit, submissive or
obedient to the Spirit.
Now we have somebody who lives in the
power of the Holy Spirit.
And there as He comes out from this
wilderness experience, He comes out in power.
He comes out there with the dominance, the
reign, the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.
They're being executed within His life and fame
begins to go out from Him round about
the countryside.
Verse 16, And He came to Nazareth where
He had been brought up.
And as His custom was, He went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and He
stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto Him the book
of the prophet Isaiah.
And when He had opened the book, He
found a place wherein it is written, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because
He has anointed Me to preach the gospel
to the poor.
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering
the sight of the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord.
And He closed the book and He gave
it again unto the minister and sat down
in the eyes of all them that were
in the synagogue were fastened upon Him.
And He began to say unto them, This
day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eyes.
Here we have born, fed, filled and led
and guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
And now as He initiates His public ministry,
He walks into the synagogue, He opens up
to Isaiah and He says, The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon Me because He
has anointed Me.
And then He proceeded to say what the
Spirit of God had anointed Him and was
going to be doing through Him for the
next three years.
He says this is what you're going to
expect to see the Holy Spirit doing in
and through and round about my ministry for
the next three years.
He said I'll lay it out.
Here's the program, here's the outline of what
He will be doing through this body submitted
to Him.
Born of Him, filled, guided, empowered by Him.
He says now you can watch Him do
these things for me for the next three
years.
He is going to be preaching the gospel
to the poor.
He will be sending me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach the deliverance to the captives,
recovering the sight of the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord.
He'll do this.
You know the thing that is so important
I think sometimes to realize is how entirely
Jesus lived as a man.
And one of the things that is typical
as a man is a man is somebody
that is in the image of God.
And an image of God is simply a
reflection of who God is.
That they allow God to completely rule and
reign within their whole lives.
In every situation by the power and the
life and the dynamic of the Holy Spirit.
In John 17, as Jesus came down towards
the last hours of His ministry, as He
came before the Father, He says, Father, glorify
Thou me with the glory that I had
with Thee before the world began.
And He says, I have done the works
that You have given Me to do.
I have said the works that Thou has
given Me.
I said the words that You have given
Me to say I have done the works
that Thou has given Me to do.
And He says, I have fulfilled all of
the things that You have laid out for
Me to do.
And He says, as You have given those
unto Me whom You will, Thine they were,
You gave them to Me.
And He goes on, He says, of those
that Thou has given Me, I have not
lost any, except the son of perdition, that's
which might be fulfilled, because that was already
laid out for us.
I've done everything You've always wanted Me to
do.
Every moment of every day.
It has always been Your words, Your work.
My key has been to live in submission
to You and to Your life and to
Your power.
You have been leading Me and guiding Me
just like You wanted to do any and
every man around that would ever trust You
and let You empower.
Empower their life the way that life was
designed to be.
I've been a good example, Father.
And there is eternity.
It was something, you know, one of the
amazing things to me about Jesus in John
5.30, when the Pharisees are coming to
Him and they're asking Him, who do You
think You are and what right do You
have to do this and say all this
stuff and where do You get Your credentials
and where is Your authority?
He then turned, in one of the most
amazing verses, Jesus said, I can on my
own self.
But as I hear, I respond and my
response is always right because I seek not
my own will but the will of Him
that sent me.
He said, if you imagine here, here we
have the second person, the triune God had
never lied.
But in His humiliation, as He came to
show man what it is like to live
as a man, that if you're going to
truly be a man, you're somebody, you're born
of the Spirit, you're filled with the Spirit,
you're led by the Spirit, you're guided by
the Spirit, you're empowered by the Spirit, you're
anointed by the Spirit, your whole life is
typified by the Holy Spirit giving you that
relationship with God day in and day out
as you're living under His office because that's
what a man is.
But there as He looked at Himself and
He had taken on that humanity, it just
wasn't kind of a little earth suit where
behind it He lived in His own power.
That's what the devil tried to get Him
to do because if Jesus had to use
His own power to get out of the
trial that He was in in the wilderness,
what would we have when we're in the
trial?
Because we're not God.
And so He could sit there and in
effect divest Himself of His own authority or
of His own deity, live in His humility
and His humanity and find that the sufficiency
of the Holy Spirit was as sufficient as
His own deity was if He relied on
Him.
That He could sit there and live in
complete submission in every trial and to find
the sufficiency of God in all of life.
And He did that for us.
One of the great tragedies, interestingly about, that
I just was told a little while back,
is that how that there's a, I think
it's from the positive confession theology group, but
how that Jesus, that He wasn't God when
He died.
Is that right?
Is that what they're...
That His deity wasn't there or something when
He died.
You know, the interesting thing to me, in
John 17, when Jesus there is praying to
the Father, He says, Father, I have glorified
Thee on earth.
And He says, Now glorify Thou Me with
the glory that I had with Thee before
the world began.
The whole 33 years of the life of
Jesus Christ, He lived there glorifying His Father,
honoring His Father.
And the one clear picture that we have
of Jesus, all by Himself in effect, in
His deity, in His glory, in His awesomeness,
was on the cross.
When there, the Father stepped back and He
says, Here He is.
Here's God, the second person, the triune Godhead.
Here's the creator of heaven and earth.
Not only proving that He can create the
world, but He can recreate it through His
own blood and His forgiveness of sins.
He wasn't...
His deity hadn't left Him.
It was the ultimate reflection of all that
it was, is now the Father said, Alright,
He's been glorifying Me for the last 33
years.
Now, I'm going to glorify Him and let
you see something of what He is really
like.
But there is...
Jesus lived His life in the power and
in the ministry of the Holy Spirit every
moment of every day.
It's interesting in Acts chapter 1.
It's all the way from Bethlehem to the
Mount of Olives.
It never changes.
Acts chapter 1 in the form of treatise
have I made, O Theophilus, of all that
Jesus both began to do and to teach
until the day at which He was taken
up after that He, through the Holy Ghost,
had given commandments unto the apostles whom He
had chosen.
Here we have not only born of the
Spirit, but the very last thing that He's
doing before He's taken up is through the
power of the Holy Spirit giving them commandments.
But the whole explanation of His life was
not His own deity of which He would
never rob God whatsoever to live in His
power.
No, as Paul makes it quite clear, who
being in the form of God and thought
it not robbery to be equal with God,
He could have commanded and demanded and expressed
His equality any moment.
As the one who in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God, the same was
in the beginning with God, and by Him
were all things made.
And without Him was not anything made that
was made.
He didn't come, though, in that.
It's like He divested Himself by act of
His own will.
That's what blew John's mind when he's looking
at Him and realizing who He is.
I know who You are.
You should be baptizing me.
And he says, because I'm here not only
to show you who God is, but I'm
also here to show you who man is
and what men are like if they really
want to experience true humanity.
And there as he lived his life, it
was totally in the ministry and in the
power of the Holy Spirit.
He goes on in John chapter 14 with
his disciples, and he is sharing them, of
course, one of the most beautiful chapters in
the Bible.
Here as the disciples, all confused and frustrated,
all they know is tomorrow there's leaders leaving
them, and one of them is going to
deny them, one is going to betray them.
All of them, like sheep, are going to
scatter each into their own, and they can't
understand what in the world is going on,
and there's more commotion in their life than
they've ever known.
And with that, Jesus turns and He says,
Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God.
I believe also in Me.
In My Father's house were many mansions, but
not so I said.
I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you,
and I will come again and receive you
unto Myself, that where I am you may
be also.
And whether I go you know, and the
way you know.
Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know
where you're going.
How can we know the way?
Jesus turns and He says, I'm the way,
and I'm the truth.
And there He said, that I'm the way
back to God, and I'm the truth.
There's only been one person never in the
history of the world who can say that.
We can say, I know truth, I believe
truth, I believe truth, I teach truth, I
subscribe to it.
But Jesus can say, I am truth.
I'm the absolute exposition and declaration of the
truth about God, the truth about man, the
truth about life, the truth about anything, I'm
the way, I'm the truth.
He says, just trust Me.
Just center your life around Me.
Let Me be the one through whom it
revolves around.
Study Me, know Me, evaluate Me.
Look at Me from cover to core.
You'll find more and more life all the
way through it.
If you had known Me, you should also
have known My Father, and should henceforth have
known Him.
Henceforth, you have known Him, and try it
again.
He says, henceforth, you know Him, you've seen
Him.
And then Philip speaks up, and he says,
show us the Father.
That'll be sufficient.
Jesus, we don't know what's going on.
We don't understand You at all.
And He says, just show us the Father.
That will be sufficient.
And Jesus looks and He says, have I
been so long with you?
And yet, thou hast not known Me.
You don't understand Me at all, do you?
You don't know what makes Me tick.
You don't really know how I was born,
how all of this ministry that's happened in
and through and around about Me, you're trying
to attribute it to Me.
And He says, but you've seen Me.
You've seen the Father.
And He says, now you know Him.
And He says, you've seen Him.
And, you know, that's one of the most
amazing things about Jesus Christ is that we,
in one sense, He's somebody that we don't
know anything about, and in another sense, He's
one that we know everything about.
But He was somebody that always only revealed
the Father.
It was His whole life.
In John 12, 44, one of the most
amazing verses, it says that Jesus cried, and
He says, He that believeth on Me, believeth
not on Me, but on Him that sent
Me.
Imagine that.
You spend years trying to lead somebody to
Jesus Christ, and now they finally come to
Jesus Christ.
By the way, you really don't believe in
Him.
You believe in the Father.
You see, because you don't know Me, you
know Him through Me.
And it's something, you know, He says that
when you come into a living relationship with
Me, it is My ministry and My joy
to introduce you to Him.
And that's who you've been seeing every moment
of every day.
He that has seen Me has seen the
Father.
It's always been Him.
Through the life and the dynamic and the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Preaching, teaching, healing, walking, loving, ministering.
You know, everything that's happened every moment of
every day, the Father expressed Himself by the
person and the power of the Holy Spirit
through the Son.
Believe us now, not that I am in
the Father and the Father in Me.
The words that I speak unto you, I
speak not of myself, but the Father that
dwelleth in Me, He does the words.
He says, what's always been has just been
the Father in Me, through Me.
Believe Me that I am in the Father
and the Father in Me, or else believe
Me for the very works sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on Me, the works that I do
shall he do also and greater works than
he do, because I go unto My Father.
And now Jesus says one of the most
amazing things.
He says, the life that you've seen Me
live.
He said, you can live it too.
As He is looking there, He says, if
you adopt an attitude towards Me like I
have towards Him.
He that believeth on Me, like I believe
on Him.
If you will give Me that place in
your life, like I have given Him place
in My life.
The works that He has done through Me,
I'll do through you and greater.
Incidentally, as you're probably aware, that's not greater
in quality, but it is in quantity.
At that time, there was one physical, visible
body through which an invisible God was living.
But as others adopted the same attitude towards
a living God by the power and the
life of the Holy Spirit that this one
had, He could then say, as you have
that same moral relationship with Me that I
have with Him, the life that has come
from Him to me will go to you.
And there will be more people running around
doing the ministry, comforting, healing broken hearts, seeing
people's lives come together.
He says, you will see these things happen
because I go to My Father.
In verse 16, it says, I will pray
the Father that He shall send you another
Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.
Even the Spirit of truth in the world
cannot receive because it is He.
Neither knoweth Him, but you know Him.
For He dwelleth with you and He shall
be in you.
Now as Jesus is beginning to explain what's
been making Him tick to the disciples, as
He shares with them, He says, when I
get to the Father, I'm going to ask
Him that He will give you another Comforter.
And as you're no doubt aware, that's another
of the same type that He's expressing there,
that He may abide with you forever.
And He says, even the Spirit of truth
in the world cannot receive because it's He.
Neither knoweth Him, but now He says to
them an amazing thing.
He says, but you know Him.
We know Him.
The Psalms of the Lord, we know Him.
Never introduced Him to us.
He says, you know Him because He's been
with you.
But He shall be in you.
And there as He continues, He goes on
and He says in verse 18, He says,
I won't leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.
And you know, this is one of the
most amazing verses to me that there is
in the Bible.
And one of the things that is personally
a great blessing to me throughout history, we've
tried to figure out the Trinity.
And the only thing that really gives me
great comfort is the Trinity can't figure out
the Trinity either.
Really.
Here Jesus on one hand said, I won't
leave you comfortless.
I'll pray to the Father that He will
send you another comforter, even the Spirit of
truth in the world can't receive.
Neither see Him, nor know Him.
But you know Him.
Has been with you, shall be in you.
I won't leave you comfortless.
I'm coming again.
One breath, He says, the Holy Spirit, He
will come to you.
I won't leave you comfortless.
I'm coming.
Now wait a minute.
Who's coming?
Who do I put on the placemat?
Who's invited to dinner?
The thing is, is that we don't understand
is that they don't have a problem with
that.
We do.
And the reason we do is we have
something that's foreign to them.
It's called ego.
A need for a self-identity.
Who we are.
What we do.
How we do it.
Why we do it.
And so we have something, all of our
own self, separate from anything and everybody else,
but something to the one and three and
the three and one, having the slightest concern
of because they're the embodiment of love.
And love doesn't think of itself but an
interest in itself.
It is something that they're, all that it
does is as others.
And that's where they're always wrapped up in.
They're concerned.
You know, in terms of, you know, I
think sometimes if you really listen to us
when we pray a lot, the way that
we pray is so interesting because we'll start
off, you have a picture there of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
you know, round in us, something else.
There as we start to pray, Dear Father,
Oh, that's me.
Now I just thank you, dear Lord Jesus.
Oh, you're on.
You know, and how that, you know, for
the wonderful worth of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, that's me.
You know, and how that we, as we
get in our prayers, we go back and
forth all around.
They aren't interested.
They don't care about that.
It is, oh, my turn.
I'm on.
This is me.
They don't have that problem because they don't
have ego.
They didn't fall.
And what we fell from and what was
created through the fall is this thing that
says we want to know who you are
all by yourself.
Oftentimes, wouldn't it be wonderful if there was
just a chapter, a bunch of verses in
the Bible where Jesus would have just laid
it out?
It's all there in the Bible, but it
would have been so nice if Jesus would
have just said, listen, I want to make
something absolutely, perfectly clear.
I am the second person to try and
God and the creator of heaven and earth.
The I am, you know, that I am.
Timeless, eternal, ever-present God.
I am the only one there that is
the redeemer of the whole world.
And, you know, I mean, again, it's all
there, but you got to go and get
it in because it's just subtle here and
there.
But there is, it wouldn't be wonderful if
there's just one thing and anybody else that
comes up wants to, you know, lift them
up to my height or lower them down
to your height.
It wants to take away from my glory
and not worship me or fall down or
anything else.
You know, and the whole thing is there
as he could lay it out.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if he just had
a verse, a chapter in the Bible that's
made absolutely clear?
You can find it there.
It's all there somewhere.
And how many cults could have just been
taken care of?
But you see, it would have violated his
nature because, you see, Jesus really didn't like
talking by himself.
That's the one thing about all of them.
You know, it's like Jesus loved to glorify
the Father and he said, I'm going to
tell you about the Holy Spirit because when
he comes, he's not going to talk about
himself either.
He'll glorify me.
He says, so anything you want to know
about the Father, I'll be glad to tell
you anything you want to know about the
Holy Spirit, I'll tell you about him.
But I'm not too interested in talking about
myself.
But however, anything you do want to know
about me, he'll tell you because he loves
to glorify me.
He's all wrapped up in who I am.
He'll tell you the Father's.
And it's the Father's joy that when I'm
baptized, this is my beloved Son.
And so he loves to glorify thee.
He loves the Holy Spirit.
He loves to do those things.
But you can never pin any one of
them down.
It won't do it.
Because that's love.
And that's the way they are.
But here Jesus said, I won't leave you
to come to this outcome.
And in a little while, the world will
see me no more, but you'll see me
and because I live, you'll live also.
He said a little while when I'm glorifying.
He says in a little while, the world
isn't going to see me anymore.
But you will.
You're going to go on seeing me long
after I'm gone.
You're going to go on experiencing me day
in and day out.
Just like I've experienced the Father having seen
Him.
I've seen Him every moment of every day.
As He lived in the power and the
life of the Holy Spirit.
Seeing Him so well that He could do
His works and share His words and live
in His life and live in His power
expressing Him completely day in and day out.
He says in a little while, He says
the life that I live, you'll live too.
Because I'm going to give it to you.
It'll be yours.
And at that day, He says you're going
to know the most wonderful, thrilling thing in
all the world.
I'm in the Father.
You're in me.
He said that day, the thing that was
forfeited in the garden, in sin, it'll be
back again.
We'll share our life.
We'll share our fellowship.
We'll walk together.
What was robbed from God and ripped away
from Him, we'll have it back.
John 15, verse 26.
He says, But when the Comforter has come,
whom I will send to you from the
Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeded
from the Father, He shall testify of me.
And you shall bear witness because you've been
with me from the beginning.
Here He says now when the Holy Spirit
comes, who I'll send to the Father, He
says, which proceeded from the Father, He will
testify of me.
And you also will bear witness because you've
been with me from the beginning.
He says, when the Holy Spirit comes, He's
going to talk about me.
He'll do that.
He loves to do it.
And He says, and you'll bear witness.
You'll know exactly who He is.
You'll know exactly who He's talking about because
you've been with me for three years and
the voice that you hear from Him won't
be anything different than what you've heard from
me.
He isn't some weird thing aura that moves
in and through and round and about and
you can't get your grasp on Him and
know who He is and what He is.
He's the explanation of me.
If you know me, you'll know Him.
You'll bear witness of Him right away when
He comes along because you've walked with me
for three years.
You know my life.
It's just that when He comes, it'll be
without my body, but it'll be with His
life.
You'll recognize Him right away.
You won't have any trouble.
Same life.
Same everything.
Verse 5, chapter 16, But now I go
my way to Him that sent me and
none of you asked of me whither goest
thou.
But because I have said these things, sorrows
filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It's expedient for you that I go away,
for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you.
But if I depart, I will send him
unto you.
Here He says, He says, I'm telling you
how to go away.
And He says, when I tell you this,
He says, sorrows fill your heart.
He says, but nevertheless, I tell you, it's
expedient that I go away.
You see, because if I don't go away,
He says, what's important now is, you see,
I've got to leave so I can get
out of this body and come back and
get in yours.
Because in the midst of that, there was
one life that had a right relationship with
God, that they had walked close to, very
close to, for the last three years.
The only thing is, though, is He wasn't
in them.
Peter was still Peter.
John was still John.
Oh, they could rub shoulders and feel security
and feel a sense of presence and sufficiency
and love coming from.
But at the same time, it's like Jesus
saying, you've enjoyed these last three years, you
wait till I get out of my body
and into yours.
You wait until the life that I've shared,
you know, that's come from me now begins
to go in you.
But the most beautiful thing is Jesus said
to the woman at the well, as He
shared with her, He says, the water that
I shall give you shall be as a
well springing up unto everlasting life.
And He says, when we get in, we'll
begin to flow through, as you just have
the same relationship that He's had.
Verse 13, albeit when He, the Spirit of
truth has come, He'll guide you into all
truth.
He won't speak of Himself, but whatsoever He
shall hear, that shall He speak and He
will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me for He shall receive
of mine and shall show it to you
all things that the Father has of mine.
Therefore said I, that He shall take of
mine and He'll show it to you.
He said when He comes, He'll lead you
into all truth.
It's interesting, thy word is truth.
The Spirit will never violate the truth, the
word of God.
He'll lead you into it.
And He'll lead you into the thrill and
the power and the blessing and the flow
of it.
It's unending.
And He says, He'll lead you into it.
He says, He'll glorify me.
By the way, He says, whatsoever He shall
hear, He says, He's just like me.
When He comes, He'll just have the joy
of passing on life to you.
And He says, all things that the Father
has of mine, all mine is yours.
I wouldn't leave you with anything less to
live than I have.
You know, as Jesus shared with the disciples
at the end, He says, as the Father
has sent me, even so send I you.
We use that scripture all the time on
being sent.
We emphasize time to go out, go, missions.
It's not what He had to say at
all.
In the context of it, He said, in
the same manner in which the Father sent
me, that have I sent you.
I won't ever send you off into the
wilderness or into the ministry or out to
serve me with anything less than I came.
If I had to come being born in
the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, empowered by
the Spirit, led by the Spirit, driven by
the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, I wouldn't
offer you anything less to go do my
work and my bidding for me.
So with everything that I've been given, it's
yours.
And you know, as He says, the last
day, the great day of the feast, Jesus
stood aloud and He cried, and He says,
if any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink.
And out of his innermost being will gush
forth torrents of living water.
That this faith, he of the Spirit, oh,
I missed the most critical part of that
whole verse.
Because it says, he that believeth on me
as the Scripture has said.
Out of his innermost being.
It's like Jesus saying, whoever adopts an attitude
towards me, believes on me the way that
somebody ought to believe on me.
He said the same thing is flowing through
my life.
The exact same power, the same life, as
we just come and just yield ourselves over
to the Spirit of God.
And as God sends you back to minister
on His behalf, He says to you, as
the Father sent me, so send on you.
Don't go with less.
But you also won't have any less to
deal with than He did either.
He had His trials, He had His temptations.
But He was honored to do it.
It was something that He could look and
say, all the wilderness you want to put
me through.
Because He could look there and realize that
His other self, the Holy Spirit, had been
ripped out of man once.
And that wounded them all.
And now when He came and He lived
as a man, He said, wound me so
that you may never be wounded again.
You've been driven out of man once, you'll
never be driven out of me.
I'm born of you.
And let me hunger, let me starve.
I'll live by what you say.
The words that proceed out of your mouth.
I'll honor you by life or by death.
And you know, when we go through the
wilderness and we go through that and we
come out, we'll stand.
We'll stand with authority.
We'll stand with conviction.
We'll stand with power.
And the words that we'll have will be
ones that God's same Holy Spirit will anoint
them.
Because we honor Him.
Don't be drawn into anything else but Him.
Born, led, filled, empowered by Him.
Let's pray.
Father, as we come before You, we thank
You for these days of refreshing and sharing.
But Lord, as wonderful it is to share
with one another, there's nothing more wonderful than
sharing with You your life.
And Jesus, I thank You that You come
to every one of us and by Your
Holy Spirit You want to share Your life
with us.
You don't just want to fill a room
here and have us express the worship and
the joy of sensing Your presence.
You've been with man for a long time.
You want to be in them, in power.
And Jesus, we come before You and we
ask that You as our model, that we
wouldn't do anything less than what You did.
Because Lord, if You said You couldn't do
anything, how much more could we?
And Lord, maybe some of us are tired
and we're exhausted, but it's good that we're
tired.
It's good that we're exhausted.
We've found that it's really been us for
You instead of You and us.
And Lord, we ask that You would just
take Your Word and settle it deep within
us.
You are our God and our Master.
And how we thank You for Your love.
Thank You that through the countless centuries You've
gone on loving and caring and just waiting
for someone to love and care You back.
And Lord, we just open up our hearts
to You and Your Holy Spirit.
We ask that You'd fill us afresh.
Lord, that You'd come upon us, that You
would anoint us.
It would never be us standing in pulpits
and just saying, here's what I'm here to
do for God.
But we could stand there and say, here's
what God's here to do for Himself.
I've just offered Him the body.
He's got the power.
I've just surrendered my physical visible being over
to an invisible God that wants to be
incarnate once again.
And I'm tired of what I do with
my own flesh and so it's His now.
And Lord, I just pray that we'd have
a new secret of our ministry and it'd
be a new power like never before.
And Lord, there would be an anointing and
a flow that would be a blessing to
You, first of all.
A blessing that in us, You'd talk to
us and we'd just turn and respond and
say, yes, Lord.
And that You would just have such a
flow that You could look at us and
say, I'm well pleased.
I like the way You've been born.
And I like the way You're filled.
And I like the way You live.
And You aren't enticed by every little tree
in the garden.
You live by me.
Lord, I just pray that You'd have Your
will and Your way within us even this
day.
For Jesus, we thank You for all You
want to give to us and we just
want to receive it now.
In Your wonderful name we pray, Amen.
You know, putting together the things that Don
has just shared with us were the things
that Gail shared with us the other night.
As Jesus said, As the Father has sent
Me, so send I You.
Realizing that that same Spirit that raised Him
from the dead dwells in us.
Going forth as Christ went forth, anointed and
empowered by the Spirit, as we also have
been born of the Spirit.
And again, coming to the 13th chapter of
John where Jesus made that remarkable statement, All
power is given unto Me in heaven.
And then took and girded Himself with a
towel and began to serve His disciples.
And Jesus said, I have set an example
for you.
Suddenly I began to realize that all of
the power of God has been directed toward
serving man.
So that power of God, and I realize
that I can't really serve man apart from
the power of God.
My ego won't let me do it.
You see, my natural bent is I want
men to serve me.
Jesus said, I didn't come to be ministered
to.
I came to minister.
I didn't come that man might serve me.
I came to serve man.
To give my life for them.
And I think that this perhaps is the
concept that God wants to impress upon our
hearts from this meeting, this year.
Power, the anointing, all that God is being
placed in us in order that we might
do what God would have us to do.
Serve our fellow men in His name.
So, we preach Christ Jesus the Lord and
ourselves, servants, for Jesus' sake.
Your servants.
If I am to follow the example that
He has set, that is the example of
serving men for His sake, for God's sake.
So, it's not easy.
Because chances are you're not going to get
the reward from men that you would like
to get.
But in reality, here is a double thing.
In reality, I am not serving men.
I am serving God.
But it is God's will that I serve
men.
But I must realize that it is as
a servant of God that I serve men.
Therefore, I do not look to men for
the reward of my service.
And that's where we make our mistake.
So often in thinking of serving men, I'm
looking to men for my reward and it
doesn't come and then I say, well, I
did all this for him and look what
he did.
After all I've done, look what he did.
But, in reality, I'm only serving men because
I'm serving God and that's what God requires
me to do as I serve Him.
And so, I look to God for my
reward.
So, whatever I do in word or deed,
I'm doing all for His sake, for His
glory.
Knowing that of the Lord, I shall receive
my rewards.
So, you've got to keep that concept straight
or you'll become discouraged when man doesn't give
you the feedback that you're looking for.
I'm only serving men because that's what God
requires me to do because I've submitted my
life to serve God.
So, basically, essentially, primarily, I'm serving God.
God, what would you have me to do?
I want to be your servant.
Go out and wash His feet.
Yes, Lord.
So, I get there and His feet are
filthy and they're stinky.
I don't want to wash His feet.
You know, I do a lot of things
for God that I wouldn't do for man,
but I do them for man because I'm
doing them for God.
And the Lord has brought me up short
on this issue quite a few times because
I have found that serving man is at
times difficult because man is often inconsiderate.
And man doesn't even know what I'm doing
many times.
There's no opportunity for feedback.
He's not even aware that I'm picking up
his nasty cigarette butts from the sidewalk around
the church.
Filthy, habit, dirty, inconsiderate people throw a cigarette
butt down on the ground and then twist
their foot on it so it makes it
harder to get out of the pavement.
And as I've been picking up those cigarette
butts, complaining about this nasty, inconsiderate
person who threw it down, I've had the
Lord speak to me and say, why are
you doing it?
I said, Lord, I'm doing it for you.
I don't want your house to look messy
and trashy.
And He said, why are you grinding if
you're doing it for me?
And it brings me up short.
You see, God doesn't want you to complain
about your service to Him.
But your service to Him involves service to
man.
Thus, God doesn't want you complaining about your
service to man because that's what He's called
you to do as His servant.
But you've got to keep in mind the
fact you're serving the Lord.
Otherwise, it can wipe you out.
You can get discouraged.
If you don't keep the background, I'm serving
God.
Jesus said, I came not to do my
will but the will of Him who sent
me.
But what was the will of God who
sent Him?
That He go around ministering to the needs
of people.
Serving man.
So, as Don was speaking, the words that
Gail shared with us began to come back.
And the Spirit began to tie the whole
thing together.
This is what it's about.
As we go home, this is what it's
about.
We go home with the same authority and
power and all that Jesus had as a
man.
The potential is all there.
He came to set the example how God
would have man to live.
How God intended man to live.
Born of the Spirit and so, what are
we?
Born of the Spirit.
Born again by the Spirit.
If so, then this is how we are
to live in the Spirit and walk in
the Spirit.
Love in the Spirit.
Serve in the Spirit.
Give in the Spirit.
God help us.
There's a needy world out there that needs
to know what God is about.
They need to know the truth about God.
And as Paul said, teaching you and showing
you.
And some you'll be able to help by
teaching and there are others that will learn
by you showing by what you do.
They're both essential.
Teaching is essential but also manifesting that light
is essential.
Again, the role model.
Letting them see it in action in you.
May God be with you.
As you go back to your fields and
areas of ministry and
God help us that we not equate success
with numbers.
May God free us from the bondage to
numbers.
And I want to confess to you, God
freed me from the bondage to numbers before
He ever gave us numbers.
He first of all freed me from the
bondage to numbers.
I used to be bound by numbers.
We used to have a board up in
front that told how many we had there
that Sunday and last Sunday and a year
ago.
And I was in bondage to numbers.
And when God freed me from the bondage
to numbers where I no longer counted people
but I only counted opportunities to serve Christ
with whomever He sent.
Maybe God only wants me to minister to
a few this morning.
Doesn't matter.
I'm going to give myself to them to
share God's love, God's truth.
I'm here because this is where God has
appointed me to be at this time.
I'm doing this because this is what God
has appointed me to do at this time.
And I'm not looking, God help me, I'm
not looking for the reward from man.
But I am looking for that day when
I stand before Him and He says, Well
done, thou good and faithful servant.
Thou has been faithful in a few things.
Now enter into the joy of the Lord.
Doing things to be recognized by Him, that's
got to be the most important.
Not what does man think of me?
What does God think of me?
What does man think of that sermon?
No, what does God think of that sermon?
What does man think of my life?
No, what does God think of my life?
And if you live as unto the Lord,
you'll be successful.
And again, don't measure success in numbers.
You'll be successful.
Because in your heart you'll know, I've done
what God has called me to do.
I'm here because this is where God wants
me.
And if you can't feel that, then you
better get someplace else.
Make your calling and election sure.
I'm here because God wants me to be
here.
I'm doing this because God wants me to
do this.
I'm satisfied.
Because this is what God wants.
Father, we thank You for the opportunity that
we've had of being together these few days.
Time has gone so quickly.
As it usually does, Lord, when we're in
Your presence and doing Your work.
Thank You, Lord, that while we've been here,
Your Spirit has spoken to us through those
men that You have chosen to share this
year.
Lord, when we go from here and their
voices are no longer ringing in our ears,
may Your voice continue, Lord, to speak to
our hearts, guiding us, directing
us, Lord, in our service to You.
In Jesus' name.
Shall we stand?
Have Thine own way, Lord.
Have Thine own way.
Thou art the potter.
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will.
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Lay Your hand on the person.
Pray for him or for her and for
their ministries.
For the work of God's Spirit be wrought
in their lives.
The anointing and the blessing of God to
rest upon them and upon that ministry that
God has given to them.
That they might become effective in their service
to God.
That they might become fruitful and abound in
all things in Christ.
They might be enriched in their knowledge and
in their understanding of His will and His
purpose.
That they might walk in all pleasing unto
Him and before Him in love.
Serving the Lord with gladness of heart and
in joy.
In Jesus' name.
Lay Your hand on the person on the
other side of You now.
Pray for them.
Pray one for another.
Bear one another's burden.
So fulfill the law of Christ.
The ministry of God's Spirit.
They might be enlightened by the Spirit of
God.
All wisdom and understanding and the knowledge of
Him.
That they might increase more and more each
day.
In that fullness of Him.
Being filled with that knowledge and understanding of
the Spirit.
They might more fully comprehend the length, the
depth, the height of God's love.
Which passes our understanding.
They might be usable and remain usable.
They might bring forth fruit that the fruit
shall remain.
Abiding fruit for the glory of God and
His kingdom.
Should the Lord tarry, we have the opportunity
of gathering again.
There will be the glorious witness of what
God hath wrought.
Thank You for it.
In Jesus' name.
This is the end of SIDE 2 and
the end of this message.
For further information regarding tapes or a catalog,
please contact Chapel Tapes, PO Box 8000, Costa
Mesa, California, 92628.
And may the Lord richly bless you as
you study His Word.