[0:00] Let's get ready. We have been getting ready. What am I saying? Oh, the acapella is sweet at times and music is, yeah, music is sweet at times.
[0:17] The Lord is good. He knows what he's doing. He's got it all in his hands. Well, I don't know about you guys, but this past week, because of last week's sermon, about not grumbling and stuff and going, yeah, and what do you think I did all week?
[0:37] Grumbled. Oh, my goodness. Grumbled all the time. In fact, so much so that my co-workers were saying, man, you sure are grumbling this week. And I'm going, oh, Lord, so much I've got to learn, so much I've got to implant in my heart and keep it there and not waver and remember why it's happening and you're trying to draw these things out of me. Well, today's message is going to be a little different, I should say, in the fact of what passage has been chosen to deliver it.
[1:13] So as we unfold it, at times it can get confusing. It can maybe get a little, what is he, where's he going with this or something, but bear with me as we do unfold it all and just see how it all comes together in the end. So I look forward to it and I enjoyed studying for it and it was definitely challenging for me because there were things I came across and I'm going, I do not know how this fits and prayed about it and stuff and finally you get an answer and yeah, again, we hope that it all comes together. So we will be looking at 2 Kings chapter 6 and just a little story in there, verse 1 through 7. In your pew Bible, it's page 312. If you have my Bible, then it's page 618 and I turned it there so we're good. But first, before we get into the reading of God's Word, there's a story of a husband, wait, Hank, back up here. Just wanted so that I can preface this. Sherry's and our anniversary was yesterday, 40 years of marriage. And to my wonderful, beautiful bride and she puts up with a lot and she's a true saint. Anyway, with that in mind, here's the story. The story is about a husband and a wife who just happened to be married for 40 years. And they're driving that evening, going out on a date, going to go out to dinner and stuff and they're sitting there or they're driving along and the wife turns to the husband and says, you know, it used to be long, I mean, that we used to sit right next to each other. And we used to hold hands. Of course, this is back in the day, you got to remember when they had, what, the bench seats and the front seat. So you got to think of that. We sat right next to each other. You used to put your right arm around me because you learned how to drive with your left. Oh, it was just grand. And oh, those were beautiful, wonderful days. What happened to us?
[3:23] He looks at her and he says, I never moved. And that does have to do with our story today. It has no correlation with Sherry and I. So if there's any resemblance to that, no, I'm not the one who moved.
[3:43] Anyway, so again, before we get into our story today, our passage, our scripture, it seems like it's an unusual, unusual, seemingly innocuous story, but man, is it powerful and has a deep, deep meaning.
[4:02] And it's just so exciting to bring it. I want to bring attention to you some key players that are in the story. So I'm going to give those to you first so that as you're reading it, you can follow along what, how this will play out, shall we say. So key players, Elisha. Okay. We're talking about the prophet Elisha. He is a representation of God in this story. Okay. The sons of the prophets, those are students and disciples of Elisha, and they represent you and me, students, disciples of the Lord. Okay.
[4:41] Now there's a weird thing in here, an axe head. Okay. We'll see how this works, but it represents the power of the Holy Spirit. All right. And then we have the axe handle. And if you're looking for the axe handle in there, it's not in your passage, but it's, uh, you can kind of know that that's what's attached to the axe handle. I mean, the axe head is, you got to have a handle, right? So the axe handle implied represents our flesh. All right. And then there's that good old stick again, just like last week, we had the tree. Uh, this week we have a stick and just like last week, it was the tree represented the cross. The stick also represents the cross. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and read. If you could please stand for the reading of God's word, second Kings chapter six, verse one through seven.
[5:40] Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, behold, now the place before you where we are living is too limited for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and each of us take from there a beam and let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live. So he said, go. Then one said, please be willing to go with your servants. And he answered, I shall go. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was selling a beam, the axe head fell into the water and he cried out and said, alas, my master, for it was borrowed. Then the man of God said, where did it fall? And when he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. He said, take it up for yourself. So he put out his hand and took it. So reads the word of God. Let's pray.
[6:49] Father, again, one more time, and we can't ask enough that we would be having open hearts, open minds, that we would just be excited to hear about your word, be so receptive to it too, that not just be hearers of the word, but be doers and that we would apply it. Father, this is a strange story, but you have such a meaning, deep meaning for us. I just ask that we would have that revelation, that we would be able to understand it. We need your wisdom.
[7:31] Holy Spirit, you're the author of this writing. And so we ask you to be our teacher this morning. We look forward to it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated.
[7:45] Sons of the prophet, students. They're at a school in a dorm. Students are being added. It's growing.
[8:00] They're running out of room. New people every day are coming to the school to learn about God's word. Exciting times. But because there's so much growth, the living space has been used up, and now they need more space.
[8:20] So they decide, hey, you know what? Let's go before the master and ask them if it's okay that we build greater living space, more places to dwell. And that's always a good idea to do is before any building project, before anything.
[8:40] Building means anything that you're doing in your life, growing anything in your life, doing anything, that you're building something, so to speak. But it's a good idea before doing that, you go to the master and ask him if it's okay first. Instead of just going out and doing it on your own.
[8:59] It's what happens when you go out to go do it on your own. Psalms 127.1 says, Those who build do so in vain apart from the Lord. I think it's a pretty important thing to take to heart that if we try to do something without the Lord's okie-dokie on it, that we're doing it in vain because it's not going to work so well in the end.
[9:24] Okay? So ask God if it's okay to build. And in our story, Elisha says, Sure, go ahead. Go do it. You betcha.
[9:35] So they're about ready to go down. And then one of the students says, What? What's he say? And please, let's see, verse 3, Then one said, Please be willing to go with your servants.
[9:52] Again, another important part. You know, and because the master replies, I shall go. But another important part. Invite the Lord to go with you too.
[10:04] Not just to get his okie-dokie on it. Not that he won't. Not that he's not. But recognize that he wants to come along beside you. He wants to come with you. He wants to be part of it.
[10:15] And invite him to that. He wants to be invited. There's several stories of those examples in Scripture. And if you're wondering, look them up.
[10:26] These are the things that there's a few things I'm going to challenge you on. I mean, if there's things that I say today, and you're going, That just doesn't seem right. Or I wonder if that's true. I hope you write it down. I hope you, when you go home, you actually take the time to look them up and say, Is that true?
[10:43] I want to be a Berean and look stuff up. Okay? Because I'm fallible. I can get things wrong. I can misinterpret something. But anyway, so that's why the Lord wants to come and join you.
[10:58] All right? Look it up. There's some passages about that. Okay, so he gets invited and he says, I'll go do that too. I'll come along. All right, so they get to the river.
[11:12] They're chopping along. They're making great progress. Things are getting done. They have the power. The axe is sharp. Trees are falling.
[11:24] Then the axe head flies off. Oh, what in the world is going on there? We're going to pause our story here for just a second because we also need to now define a few more, further define what the axe head is because it's the power of the Holy Spirit.
[11:46] All right? And see if you can see this. All right? So, first of all, an axe head is made. It's a sharpened tool that helps men get things done.
[11:57] The Holy Spirit is our helper. Correct? We are helped by using the power of the Holy Spirit. All right?
[12:08] Zechariah 4, 6 says, Not by your might or your power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. All right.
[12:18] You see the correlation. See how that can work out. The wood handle. All right? Wood. This is interesting. Wood. When cut from the tree, it's dead. That took me aback when I read that.
[12:33] And it's like, oh, that's true. When you remove the wood from a tree, now that piece of wood is dead. All right? So, it's a corruptible material.
[12:45] Or it refers to our flesh. It's corruptible. All right? 1 Corinthians 3 says, Works of the flesh are wood, hay, and stubble.
[12:57] So, when you're working with the flesh or works of the flesh, wood, hay, and stubble. So, to re-paraphrase the Zechariah 4, 6, that not by the handle of your strength will things get done, but by my spirit, the axe head.
[13:16] Okay? You guys tracking with me? You following? All right. But the axe head fell off. The power of the Holy Spirit has been separated.
[13:27] Is that possible? You've lost the cutting edge. Your dolin' ministry. The axe head's been separated from you. I know that when that has happened to me, and that I'm tempted to say, you know, when I don't feel the power anymore, when I don't feel so close to the Lord anymore, I feel separation going on, I know I'm tempted to say that I can handle it.
[13:55] I can handle my marriage. I can handle my kids. I can handle my job. I can make my own life decisions. But it doesn't cut it.
[14:08] What's neat is when this happened, when the axe head flew off, instead of acting like that, our student in the story, he did the right thing.
[14:20] What did he do? He cried out. In other words, he prayed. He confessed what had happened. And he did it immediately. He shouted out, I lost it.
[14:32] Can we do that? Or do we try to hide it? Like I said, oh, I've got it. I've got it handled. I'll just hide it. Nobody needs to know.
[14:42] It's okay. I don't want somebody to notice that I'm not in tight with the Lord anymore. But, okay, this guy did it right.
[14:54] I've lost it. How did this happen? How did he lose it? Okay.
[15:05] Have you ever had a tool that had a handle on it? Hey, let's take an axe as an example. That sounds good. Have you ever been swinging away?
[15:16] All right, how about a hammer for the ladies? Because I'm sure you're not swinging an axe. I shouldn't be prejudiced like that. If you did, great. But anyway, so you've got a tool with a handle on it.
[15:27] You do different projects with it and stuff. And you start noticing that it's becoming a little loose. Right? It starts, what's happening? This is a little loose. Well, that's what transpires when we are about ready to lose the power of the Holy Spirit.
[15:45] Our relationship becomes loose. It's no longer tight. Okay? It's due to my carelessness that it's become loose over time. It didn't happen just by accident.
[15:58] It's because I didn't take care of the relationship. And we say to ourselves, oh, it's becoming loose. And it's like, I'll fix it later. Just one more project. Just one more thing.
[16:09] Then I'll tighten up that relationship. Then I'll tighten it up with God. So, what are those things that are, just give an example of a few things out there of what could be things that loosen your relationship.
[16:24] Well, you have less devotion time. Churches become hit or miss for your attendance. Maybe you're starting to watch stuff on TV you never did before.
[16:37] We've got such a plethora of channels to choose from and things that entice us. Things that we never would have looked at before. I just wonder. I hear everybody at work talking about this.
[16:48] I wonder what this program's all about. And you start watching it and it's like, ooh, offensive in the beginning. It's like, whoa, what is this stuff? But our flesh is intrigued. Then we, just one more episode.
[17:00] Dude, just watch that. Pretty soon we're sucked into it. We've let our relationship loosen up. We're starting to draw away from it.
[17:10] Okay? How about a prolonged illness? That'll do it to you. Prolonged illness. Yeah. What do you got to do to keep that tightened up? How about unrepented sin?
[17:23] You know? If you're not, if the Holy Spirit is convicting you of a sin and you're not repenting of it, what do you think's going to happen? That relationship's going to loosen up.
[17:35] And how about even more, unforgiven sin that was done to you. Somebody's done you wrong. It's like, they've done me wrong and they don't deserve my forgiveness.
[17:47] They don't deserve to be loved. They, I'm grubble, grubble, grubble. Back to that again. Anyway. So you've lost it. Now what?
[17:59] All right. After we cry out to God and confess what happened, or what happened, he knows what to do. So after we cry out, and verse five, second part of it, alas, my master, for it was borrowed, we cry out, we confess.
[18:15] All right. So what happens now? That he knows, the father knows what to do with it. First of all, notice that he didn't condemn the servant.
[18:28] He didn't go, you lousy person. Why did you let that axe head get, or the axe, the hand, why did you let it get loose? You must have known it was loose and you did nothing about it.
[18:40] No, no condemnation. But what does he do? He says, where did it fall? Where did it fall?
[18:52] Where did you lose it? What were you doing? I know what you were doing, but where did you lose it? Show me the place. And then he says, let's, what's he say here?
[19:08] Verse five here. And he cried out and said, the last author, verse six. Then the man of God said, where did it fall? And when he showed him the place, so when he showed him the place, that means that the master went along with him.
[19:23] So one more time, the master comes along. He doesn't just leave you. Well, go to where you were and go, you know, fish around in the water for it and find it.
[19:34] It's up to you to go do it. No, the master went with him. So God comes along beside us one more time. He doesn't just leave us alone. He comes with us.
[19:46] Go back to that place. You know, when I, when I think of, when I hear that, when I first read this and it said that I've lost it and go back to where you lost it, I, just, what came to my mind was the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation where God has the, or Jesus has the, what's the word?
[20:12] The who, what? Admonishment. Thank you. I kept asking him this morning. What's that word? Oh. He has an admonishment to the church of Ephesus because what was the one thing he said that he had against them?
[20:25] Is that they had left their first love. they, they became separated from their first love. And what did Jesus say to do at that when, about how to fix that?
[20:40] He said, go back. Remember. Repent. And do what you did before. So that passage just came to mind and that I think that it fits in here.
[20:52] I know that one is lost and one is left. But if you could say, you know, the axe head left, the handle, or the handle left the axe head, that would be more accurate because the Holy Spirit doesn't leave us, we leave him.
[21:07] You know what I'm saying. Not that that relationship can ever be broken. I'm not saying that at all. But the power, that's what we have to remember that the axe head represents the power and the power can be separated from us because of our actions.
[21:23] So, remember, go back, repent, and do what you did before. So, what they do, they went back to the place where he had lost the power and then God did a marvelous thing.
[21:37] What is that? He, weird. He, second part of verse six there, he cut off a stick and threw it in there, into the river.
[21:49] He cut off a stick. I told you earlier, the stick represents the cross. So often when you see tree and even wood, even though it's a corruptible material, that sometimes the translations say wood, but if you look into the original Hebrew or the Greek that you could also put the word tree in there too.
[22:11] It's just how they chose to use which word they're going to use or stick, that it so often refers to the cross. So when you're reading scripture and you come across that, that'll just pop out at you now.
[22:25] And it's like, oh, wait, the cross is there. I see it. There's something there about it. I see it. What's it mean? What's going on here? So maybe you can put two and two together at that point.
[22:36] So it's kind of a neat way of knowing what the stick in this story, the stick, so represents the cross. And what did he do? He took, he cut off the stick.
[22:46] Now there's another interesting study on the, when, again, I see that and it says cut off the stick. Now I know this goes a little bit out of bounds of the story here.
[22:59] And again, I encourage you guys to look this up. But where do we also, where have we ever heard about something being cut off? How about the Messiah being cut off in the 62nd week?
[23:13] I forget which week it is. That part didn't matter, but he's being cut off. And what does all that mean? The prophecy of the coming of the Lord and stuff and the nation of Israel and the book of Daniel, that's where it's written.
[23:26] So just a little study you can do and just see how does that tie in here? What's happening here? So instead of delving into all that because that takes us in a different direction than what I believe the Lord wants us to go.
[23:40] So anyway, just a neat place to go to study. So he cut off a stick and he threw it in there. Threw it in where? In the water and what happened? Good old axe head floats.
[23:53] It's funny when you hear, you read other commentaries and stuff. They say that he took the stick and some say he fashioned it back into a handle, a wood handle, and that he fished around in the water and found the head and poked it in there and raised it up.
[24:12] Okay, if you want to believe that, go ahead. I think that would be a silly thing for Scripture to record something like that because how does that fit with all kinds of different analogies and stuff.
[24:29] But be that as it may, if that's how the Holy Spirit speaks to you and says that that works for you in your walk and stuff, go with it.
[24:41] But anyway, I'm just saying, I got some pretty crazy ideas out there and these commentaries do. And I know this sounds bad, but be cautious of commentaries out there, just like you should be cautious of me, of what I'm saying.
[24:58] Check it out for yourself. Don't just read it and take it as gospel truth. So, man, do that. You want to really drive that point home.
[25:09] So, he cuts off the stick, speaking of the cross, and throws it into the water. Now, remember, the servant has already confessed his sin, okay, of neglect and of letting the handle get loose.
[25:24] Now, it doesn't say that, but it definitely infers it because he cried out, all right? It was borrowed. It fell off. I've lost it.
[25:34] so what happened when the stick was thrown into the water? Well, applying the cross brought forgiveness and the ability to start anew, start afresh.
[25:51] It happened, let's apply the cross, forgiveness, and now it rises up and it's available to you again. And what does he tell them to do? After the axe head floats, he says, take it for yourself.
[26:08] Take it in yourself. Do this yourself. This part's on you. I did my part, now it's up to you to do your part. Reach out and grab a hold of it. Take a hold of it.
[26:18] Reach out. Don't be waiting for somebody else to do it. Don't be waiting for, anyway, you get the idea. The power is right in front of you.
[26:29] That power that you lost is right in front of you. Reach out and grab it. Do something. God wants us to be participants in our walk, in our growth, in our maturity.
[26:45] Okay? All right. So, there's the story and it ends there. All right? But there is more to the story. We're going to look at the Holy Spirit and his power in our life.
[27:00] There's three stages of the Holy Spirit working in your life. All right? You guys all know this. And just a refresher course.
[27:11] In John 16, before your salvation, that the Holy Spirit is with you. Okay? He's with you.
[27:23] What's he doing? He's convicting you of your sin and he's pointing you to the Savior. He's pointing you to Jesus. Right?
[27:34] And that's why at some point you say, I'm a sinner. I can't wage sin as death. I need a Savior. Oh, just happens to have a Savior right here for you.
[27:48] Thank you, Jesus. All right. So, before salvation, he's with you. John 20 tells us that at the point of salvation, he now is in you.
[28:04] You receive the Holy Spirit and he comes to dwell in you. All right? So, here's the question. You have the Spirit, but does the Spirit have you?
[28:17] Totally different, isn't it? So, at your point of salvation, he dwells in you, so you've got him, but does he have you? Can he use you when he wants?
[28:30] Are you available? All right, the third stage, or the third thing that happens is described in Luke 24 and Acts 1 and 2, and that is when you desire to be used, that the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
[28:50] different than being in you, because now the coming upon you is the power of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling is one thing, the power coming on you is another, it's being filled with the Spirit, some people call it, that's the power, that's all that simply means, being filled with the Spirit, walking in the power of the Spirit.
[29:14] And this is something, because it is the power, this is something that we use up, right? And because we are human beings and stuff, we can, our relationship can not be so tight anymore, it's getting loose, and so we need that, the thought is that, or the idea is that you don't get just filled up one time, it's a continual filling, you have to be replenished all the time.
[29:43] If you're giving out, what do you got left? It's got to continue to come in, you're the conduit, it just passes right through you, but you need that constant power, so when you've cut it off, when you lost it, that's cut off, so you need to get back into that relationship so that the power flows again, so that's the stages of the Holy Spirit working in your life, now there's three ways of reaching out, remember, that the student was told to after the axe had floated, reach out and take it for yourself, so there's three ways of reaching out and taking a hold of the power of the Holy Spirit, there's three ways of being filled, so first one, reach out with hope, and what is hope?
[30:39] Hope is something that's coming soon, all right, different, it's an absolute expectation of future good, Acts 1, the disciples were told to wait for the Holy Spirit, so wait and pray for the promised Spirit wanted to come upon them, right, so they had to wait for it, but they also knew it was going to happen because of what Jesus had told them earlier, so it hasn't happened yet, but it's going to, we don't know when, but it's going to, but you got to wait on the Holy Spirit, it's in his timing, he decides when, okay, following that, so reach out with hope, second thing is reach out in faith, faith, right, so hope is coming soon, faith is, it's available now, are you going to grab a hold of it, it's right there in front of you, it's there, right, this is also taught by Jesus in Matthew 5, 6, it says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled, okay, guaranteed, right there, they will be,
[31:54] Luke 11, 13 says, if you being evil know how to give good gifts, how much more the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, to those who ask, so if we can give good gifts to our children, and we're evil, how much more the love of the Father when we ask for the power of the Holy Spirit, that's what he's talking about, when you ask for the Holy Spirit, you're asking for his power, so that we can do things in his power, and not get worn out in our own, and just go through the motions or whatever, but we need his power, we need the Holy Spirit's power, do we recognize that?
[32:43] Have you ever asked for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you and fill you? or do you just say, I'm open, if he wants to do something, he's got my address, yeah, we're good, but I'm open, you know, if he ever wants to do anything, no, we have to be a participant, reach out and take it in faith, that it's there, it's available right now, right?
[33:13] Do you really hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you really crave and desire to be filled?
[33:26] There's a story of, and I believe it is D.L. Moody, I didn't go back and double check my facts, but it's one of those preachers, and I believe it's D.L.
[33:39] Moody, but anyway, that he went, he was a, he traveled around preaching and stuff, and after one sermon, two little old ladies came up to him and said, you know, basically, you're preaching in your own power, you're not preaching with the, you're not spirit-filled, and what they meant by that, you're using your own words, you're using your own whatever, but we're not feeling the, we can tell that you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
[34:09] He took that to heart. He was devastated by that, so he went to his hotel room, and this was in New York, whenever that was, anyway, so he goes to his hotel room, and he cries out to God, and he says, I will not leave this room, I will not eat until you give me the Holy Spirit being filled, is what he meant, because you promised that how much more the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, I'm asking, I need the Holy Spirit, I cannot go and do your work, and spread your word, spread the good news, with, I can't do it on my own, it needs to have power, and the power of the Holy Spirit that cuts into people, and changes their lives, three days he did not come out, three days he stayed in there, didn't eat,
[35:15] I don't know if he drank, but, anyway, and then finally, on the third day, the Holy Spirit just flooded on him, so much so, he was just being so filled with the Holy Spirit, that he finally cried out, stop, I can't take anymore, if I take, if you give me anymore, I'm gonna die, that's how much, I mean, talk about, you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, do you want that to happen to you, do you long for that, I know I do, I'm gonna have to take a vacation, take three days off, maybe a week, I don't know, if you find me dead in my room, you don't know why, honey, you won't though, because the Lord is faithful, and he will give it to you, give you the power, fill you with the Holy Spirit when you ask, but do you really want to ask?
[36:08] now, this is, this part of the story is, or this part of the sermon is, I should go back to the story, there was a part in there, there's a little phrase in here that I looked at, and it's in verse five, and it's the end of verse five, at least in my translation, so when he says, alas my master, and then he says, for it was borrowed, and that just threw me for a loop, and it's like, what in the world does borrowed mean, you know, I don't, I'm not getting that one, I'll just skip over that, because, just weird translation or something, so I'm not even going to worry about that word, and the more I studied, the more I kept coming back to the word borrowed, and it's like, there's something about that word, I don't know what it is, but there's something there, be diligent, Mark, keep studying, keep studying, keep praying, keep asking, for a revelation, what does this mean, and I found that that word, borrowed, is what this entire passage hinges on, it's the key to understanding the passage, and it's like, when he showed me that, it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, all right, and you guys have been getting it all along, because I've been telling you about it, but this wasn't given to me earlier, but borrowed, it's a funny word, to be placed in here, and it means to ask for intently, so, when you go to borrow something, now, picture yourself back in this time, the nation of Israel wasn't real advanced tools, tools, and stuff, but I don't even know what you call all that, anyway, they weren't real advanced, so having an axe, the iron axe and stuff, that was a precious commodity back then, okay, so here, you've got the students, they need to build more housing, because everybody's coming, there's more and more people coming in, and so they needed a tool to cut down the trees, so this student, this particular student, he must have gone to somebody, and asked for intently, can I borrow that axe, well, you better not break it, you better bring it back to be clean, you better, you know, whatever is going on, but, so he probably had to, because of the circumstances, and the times, and everything, he probably had to beg for it, not that we need to beg for the Holy
[38:55] Spirit, but ask intently, he asked intently, just like our story of D.L. Moody, he asked intently, so that's the whole, that's how this, I mean, the meaning of the word borrowed, you can see now where it, at least it does to me, it makes sense to me, where this passage hinges on it, without that borrowing, without that asking intently for the Holy Spirit to come into our life, for the Holy Spirit to be upon us, to fill us with the power, we can't do anything, we can't fell trees, we can't do the work of the ministry, we can't do all these things, so again, that was huge to me, huge, huge, huge, all right, this all goes back to reaching out in faith, all right, now we got the third thing, I told you there's three things, we have reaching out in hope, reaching out in faith, and now here's the last thing, reaching out in love, man, we're gonna be done early today, that's all right, don't wanna fill your head up with too many things, ponder the things that you do have, so reach out in love, the Holy
[40:09] Spirit's ministry and work manifests itself through the loving of others, would you agree with that, say it again, the Holy Spirit's ministry and work, it manifests itself through loving others, he, what is his work, to confess you, or to convict you of your sin, and to draw you to the cross, draw you to Jesus, point you to Jesus, and what is that all about, all about love, right, so, that's his ministry, but it manifests itself in love, how does love play out in your life, okay, in your walk, okay, 1 Corinthians, we all know, 1 Corinthians 13, that's the love chapter, right, it's love is patient, love is kind, love is jealous, on and on, right, the love chapter, look it up, again, it's a wonderful thing to read, you read that and you just get moved, you get anointed, anointing oil flows over you, you just become at peace, or you go,
[41:27] I need to do that a little bit more, I need a little bit more power of that, Holy Spirit, please give me that, which brings us to the next thing, this is a, remember now, Jesus told the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them, go back to Jerusalem, now, what would you do if Jesus told you that, and remember what occurred in Jerusalem, that's where Jesus was arrested, right, hmm, that's where they betrayed him, that's where he got betrayed, that's where they, besides all of his life, you know, his ministry, that they ridiculed him, that they said all these things about him, but the main thing is that's where he got crucified, go back to where I was crucified, go back there, are you serious, that's a dangerous place to go, and I don't really much like those people either, oh, not only that, but you're to go back there, and that after you received the power, the infilling of the
[42:44] Holy Spirit, that you are to go into Jerusalem, and all of Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth, proclaiming God's love and forgiveness, what, no, all right Lord, you said do, we're going to go do it, they go there, and they wait, back to that waiting part, okay, or seeing more, a little bit more how that waiting part played out, so they're waiting, they waited ten days, prayed, during that time, for the Holy Spirit to come, anticipated, hoping, not hoping, because they were told it would happen, and then when it happened, when the tongues of fire, and the wind came in, and everything, and settled on, came upon them, what did they have?
[43:31] Now they had the power, now they had the power, and then what did they do once they had the power? they started going out and preaching, telling the good news of love and forgiveness.
[43:49] Got a question for you. What's your Jerusalem? Who, what circumstance has crucified you, has attacked you, has done you wrong?
[44:07] I don't know. Is it a boss? Is it a parent? Is it a friend? Is it a pastor? Past church?
[44:20] Spouse? I can go on and on with the list. You know, right now, I'm asking that the Holy Spirit, been praying about this, that the Holy Spirit right now, in each one of your hearts, you who are listening online, that he's putting somebody in your heart, that has crucified you, so to speak.
[44:42] You know what I mean. I don't need to go into deep explanation of that. But somebody is coming to mind, and because we're forgetful people, maybe you should write it down.
[44:57] Write down that name. Don't let your spouse see, in case it's them. I'm just kidding. but put down the name, or at the very least, ask the Holy Spirit to remind you when you get home today or during the week or something.
[45:12] But anyway, so who has crucified you? Who is your Jerusalem? And then ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive them, to love them, and to forgive them.
[45:33] Can you do that? Man, when studying for this, there's a pastor in my past that I need to love and forgive.
[45:49] Done me wrong. Every time I talk about him, I resurrect the dead. I'm a necromancer. you're not supposed to be. I resurrect the sins in my mind, over and over and over, like it just happened yesterday, the freshness of it and stuff.
[46:06] Lord's saying, Mark, ask for my power to forgive because you're going to need that power. But you know what? It's going to take in the Holy Spirit's timing of when he's going to give you that power.
[46:22] He decides when because he may be doing something else or working on it in a different way or preparing you or however, whatever he's doing, but you need to wait on him.
[46:35] Wait in Jerusalem until the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Wait there. And then it's not out of action.
[46:46] I mean, it's not out of words. You don't go to the person, you're Jerusalem. You don't go to them and say, you know what, brother, I forgive you. They're going, for what?
[46:58] I didn't know I did anything wrong. That's usually the case. I didn't even know I did anything wrong to you. But anyway, so you don't go saying things like that to them.
[47:10] I forgive you, brother, and I never ask for forgiveness. Okay, whatever. But what do you do instead? Just love them. Love them instead. You have been forgiven.
[47:22] Love like you've been forgiven. Love that person. Call them on the phone. Send them a letter, something. Hey, you know what? I just appreciate, you know, if it's a boss, you know, I appreciate what you do for this company, or, you know, a pastor.
[47:44] I appreciate what you've, that you diligently tried to deliver the word of God. And be truthful.
[47:56] Don't be fake. People can read fakeness. But, so be truthful when you're going to love on them with words. Be genuine.
[48:09] And then forgive them. Forgive them for what they did to you. Right? all this so you reach out in hope, you reach out in faith, you reach out in love, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.
[48:32] Let's pray. Father, again, thank you for your word. thank you for this weird story in here that you know what you were doing.
[48:43] You put it in there to have those who seek to find out more about you and to realize that you don't do anything by mistake. So this story is in here for a reason.
[48:57] But you're also telling us that those who seek will find. Knock and the door will be open. Ask and you shall receive.
[49:09] So Father, we thank you that you have revealed your word this morning. I just ask also that we would take it to heart, that we wouldn't just close our Bibles, put away our notes, like we so often are guilty of doing, but we would meditate one more time on your word, on your message, and that we would apply it in our life, that we would truly, honestly cry out to you for the power, the indwelling, being filled with the Spirit.
[49:49] And if we've let our relationship become loose because of the different things that we've done, that we would repent of that, and again, restore the relationship.
[50:02] We love you best we know how, and thank you for your love for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
[50:12] Amen.