Breath of Life

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. So today we're beginning our series on the Holy Spirit. And the thing about the Holy Spirit, it's one of those things or those discussions that is often, you know, where do I go with this, right? The Holy Spirit is probably the most misunderstood, most neglected, and sometimes misinterpreted and misrepresented person of the Godhead.

If you're new to church, we believe in a one God, three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we hear a lot about the Father and His love. And we hear about the Son and His grace to us and how He offered Himself on the cross. But with the Holy Spirit, that's one of those things that kind of, hmm, where do I go with this? And how do I talk about this?

And, but it's vital. The Holy Spirit is the most important person in the Godhead as far as the life and mission of the church is concerned. And where the church is going and the Christian life individually. So we are embarking on this four-week series on the Holy Spirit. And I'm going to challenge you that you need to be here every week.

Today I'm going to give you a basic introduction of who the Holy Spirit is. And then we're going to go deeper in how He works and spiritual gifts. You know, God has given you each spiritual gifts. And He wants to empower those spiritual gifts through the power of the Holy Spirit. He wants to endow you to be able to do service and be on mission for God in this world.

So, so I challenge you to be here. Do not miss a week so that you, so that we can be, because I really believe this is something that our church needs to lean into and lean heavily into as we are on mission in our community. If you'll turn with me to Acts 19, 1 and 2. Our scripture today is, is based in Acts 19. And this is our theme verse.

And I think it's interesting how we see this. This is Paul here. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took a road. And if, if, let me just go back for a minute and give you some context for Acts. Those of you that may be new to, to the Bible and to Christianity and things like that.

This is, this is the account that continues with the church after Jesus has gone and left the church to, on mission and the Great Commission and what have you. So you've got Luke who wrote Acts. And so he wrote, you, you, when you go from Luke, Luke 1 or, or the book of Luke. So you're actually coming into Acts. You're getting the second part of the story, the launch of the church.

It says, and it's a narrative of how the church formed and how, how it grew and how the Holy Spirit was involved. Because we see a lot about the Holy Spirit taking his role here. And it says in Acts 19, 1 and 2, it says, While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived in Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they answered, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

And what's interesting is this is true for even the church today. There's a lot of people that have never heard of the Holy Spirit or maybe they've heard of him, but they don't really know how he operates. And Luke has given us a description here of a narrative separating the two. Like you believed, but do you know the Holy Spirit? And perhaps people have lack of knowledge of the Holy Spirit because maybe the Holy Spirit has been misrepresented.

Maybe you've had a bad experience. I know I've had some bad experiences. And we're going to try to despookify the Holy Spirit so that we understand it better. And yeah, despookify it because I think a lot of people are kind of like, okay, because we have maybe there's somebody on TV in a white suit that made you think, well, if that's the Holy Spirit, then I don't want anything to do with it, right? Or you've heard of a Christian tradition that says you have to stop wearing makeup if you believe in the Holy Spirit, right?

And that's not God at all, you know? So we all have different thoughts and ideas of the Holy Spirit. And then there's probably some of you that grew up in a tradition where it never even occurred to you that the Holy Spirit was actually active today and in the church today. So for the next four weeks, we're going to explain that. We're going to take the biblical route.

We're going to take the biblical route and we're going to lean in to who the Holy Spirit is and how he activates in the church today. So who is the Holy Spirit? If we really want, if the Holy Spirit is something we need in our life, first of all, we need to know his nature. We need to know about him. And we need to look at his name.

And there's two translations in English for Holy Spirit, English translations. Obviously, the Holy Spirit. And then there's an older translation called the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. That's how we used to say it.

Holy Ghost. Got to get the Holy Ghost, right? And I remember being in a college class, in a New Testament college class, and they were talking about the subject of the Holy Spirit. And this wasn't a Christian school. This was a secular school.

It was just a New Testament studies, textual criticism class that I was taking. And I mentioned the Holy Ghost. And then the whole, like, half the class started laughing. The Holy Ghost? You mean a ghost?

A ghost? They didn't get that. There was actually an old language that called it the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit. So at that point, I thought, wow, people really don't know about the Holy Spirit.

They don't know about the Holy Ghost. They don't know. But the interesting thing about the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost, these are not the best translations. The interesting thing is the early translators, those who translated it from the original language to English, really couldn't find the best word, the best English word that worked well within the context. So they used Holy Spirit, spirit, or ghost.

But if we look at the Hebrew word, there's two. There's a Hebrew word and there's a Greek word. The Hebrew in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New Testament, the Hebrew definition of the word is ruach. Ruach. I know that sounds funny.

It sounds like I'm trying to hock up something. And I know I'm sick today, but I'm not hocking up anything, right? That's how, it's ruach. And it means this. It means a wind, breath, a violent exultation, a blast of breath.

So in the original language, it means wind. It means wind. Look at Genesis 1 and 2. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.

The breath, the wind of God was hovering over the water. The wind of God. He spoke the breath of God and came forth, and the world leapt into existence by His very breath, by the very wind of God. And then in the New Testament, we see the word pneuma. Throughout the New Testament, any time it mentions the Holy Spirit, the original word is pneuma, which also means air, wind.

It means a current of air, a blast of breath, a strong breeze. So any time we're thinking of the Holy Spirit, we're thinking of it as wind. Wind. Not just a ghost, not just a spirit, not all that. It's wind.

In John 6, 63, it says, the words I have spoken to you are spirit, are wind, and they are life. So the spirit breathes life. It brings life. And the words that are spoken in Scripture that God has given us, we're not just following some kind of dead document, some old ancient text that doesn't have any, that's just stale and old and musty. We have life.

It has life. It breathes life. It's the wind of the word of God. So it's good to know that the very words written to us are actually life-giving. And your Christianity has life.

It's not just some religion. It's not just some kind of out there hope that doesn't have any substance. It's not just words on an ancient book. You have life. What we believe has life.

It's life. And we desperately need that life. And if you aren't experiencing the power, and you aren't experiencing the empowerment and the life-giving wind of God, you desperately need that in your Christian walk for mission and your life. And today I want to talk about that. I want to talk about some characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

Because if you desperately need this, you need to understand His characteristics and how He works. The first characteristic to a wind, to the Holy Spirit, wind, is wind is unseen. If you're following your notes, you can write that down. Wind is unseen. We feel the wind.

We know it's there. But we can't see it. And the interesting thing, it doesn't really frighten us. Because we know that it's just wind, right? I was at Lidl's yesterday evening, sitting in the parking lot while Miranda was going in to grab a few things.

And I was looking out the window at this little baby. She was probably six or seven months old. And the father was placing her in the shopping cart in the little buggy section at the top. And I watched the kid as she was giggling. She was just kind of giggling like this.

You know how little babies are. They just kind of glow and giggle. And I was looking at her. I said, her father must be cutting up with her, like making faces. And I looked at him.

He was very serious. He was just kind of sitting there. You know, I'm like, wow, how is this child, you know, so excited and giggling? And then I noticed the wind was hitting her. And every time the wind hit her, it was like, whee, whee, whee, whee, whee, whee.

And it was something she'd never experienced before, but it felt good, you know? It felt great. And the interesting thing is the Holy Spirit is a lot like that. The wind of God is like that. Sometimes you can't see it, but you can feel it.

And it's okay if it feels good. But we're told that it can't feel good, right? Because we can't trust our feelings, huh? But it's okay because the Holy Spirit, there's something good. There's something pleasant.

Wind is unseen. And it's funny how we're in church and God moves and God does something. And we're like, you know, you kind of get that feeling. And then you're like, I don't know about that. I better test that out, right?

I don't know what's going on there. And did you feel that? No, I didn't feel that, you know? I'm good, you know? But I want to tell you, I want you to open up to this because it's okay.

Because God, when He moves, you feel it. You experience it. When God moves, you experience it. And my prayer is that you have an experience with God today. And you have an experience with God here on out as you come into worship and you come into fellowship with other saints experiencing God.

And my prayer for you is that you have that Holy Spirit moment where you go, woo-hoo, God. I want you to have a woo-hoo, God moment, right? I want you to have that. In John 14 through 16, Jesus is having a conversation with His disciples. We know it as the Last Supper.

But did you realize that a majority of that conversation was about the Holy Spirit? Why? Because He would be going away soon. This was the Thursday before His crucifixion. And He knew He would be leaving them.

But He wasn't going to leave them alone. So He wanted to talk about a helper that was coming in His place to guide them, to counsel them, to lead them into all understanding. And in John 14, verses 16 and 17, He says this, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate. Some versions call Him the counselor, the helper. I will give you another helper.

I will give you another counselor to help you. And then be with you forever. So I'm not leaving you alone. You need this. I'm not going to be here to show you and teach you and help you and guide you.

But I'm going to send someone, I'm going to send this person to you, and they will guide you into all understanding. And it's not a scary thing, because He's going to help you. And He's the Spirit of truth. And the world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. It cannot accept Him.

Why can the world accept Him? Because the world desires to see before they believe. I remember working in construction when I was a teenager, and there was this guy that worked with me, and he was just, you know, just a big old redneck. But, you know, just curse every other word, this and that. And anytime you talk about God in a conversation, I don't believe it.

I don't believe it. I said, why don't you believe? Because I don't believe anything I can't see. And then in another conversation, he talked about getting whacked with a limb in his backyard or something like that. And he says, that's my mom's spirit.

I know it is. I'm like, okay, you don't see that, but you believe that, but you can't believe the Holy Spirit, or you can't believe God. And that's the thing, because the world cannot conceptualize. They don't know Him. So they reject Him because they don't have the knowledge to figure Him out.

But he says, but you know Him. Because you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. They don't know Him, but you know Him because He lives within you. And you know Him, although you can't see Him. And that's why many of you come here week after week.

You come here and you have an experience with God. You can't see Him, but you know Him. And it brings you back because you have to have more. And some of you come out of your week, and you're just dry. And you come in here and you experience something.

You can't see it, right? But you know it brings wind in your sails after a hard week to get you back up, to empower you, to get you motivated. And you know that something's in here. You know that something's happening in the worship. You know that something's happening while you're listening to the message.

God's stirring you, and He's moving you. And I remember, Back when we were meeting in the brewery, somebody came out one time, and they were, you know, we had a brewery over at Back Bay, we met there for worship before we moved into the school and started growing into the school, and I'll never forget that person coming out and looking at me, and whew, whew, whew, what's going on in there, you know, like, like, they didn't understand, it says, you know what, I don't, I don't know about all this church stuff, but something's going on in there, something's going on in that place, and I'm like, I know, that's God, man, that's the Holy Spirit working, and I knew it, you know, I knew it, and he says, you know, and that was a good message, too, that was a good message, too, and he's like cursing and talking, all that kind of stuff, and I'm like, well, just come on back and we'll work that stuff out of you as well, but I do remember that, it was, it was, just, just the amazing, you know, the stories I hear, the anointing that takes place in service, and the many of you that come back week after week, you have that same experience, and, and God is, although he's unseen, he is very present, and he's working, wind is also unpredictable, wind is unpredictable, it shifts directions at any time, it does what it wants to, we learned that in this past hurricane, didn't we, we had a city-wide evacuation almost, you know, like, or at least a lot of the area was evacuated, and we had, you know, news crews, and weathermen, and everybody telling us that we're going to get hammered, and then the storm switches, the wind switches, it moves away from us, right, and nothing happened, and people are complaining, this stinking weatherman, you know, they can't even predict the wind, because wind is unpredictable, that's why air traffic controllers in airports have these flags and socks to tell where the wind's going, which direction it's going, because it's unpredictable, it's unpredictable, and you need to know in order to guide the planes and air traffic control with the way it should go, and so wind is, is, is unpredictable, and we don't like unpredictable things, and God is an unpredictable God, and, but we like order, in fact, some of you are like, I hope God doesn't move today, because I got to get to lunch at 1230 to meet somebody, you know, because we like systems, we like it that begin at a certain time, and end at a certain time, but God is often unpredictable, and we don't know what he's doing all the time, but God, so, so we, we want to know, and, and, and God doesn't want us to know why, because he doesn't want us to worship the systems, he wants us to worship him, and people have built entire theologies, entire denominations, and, and, and theological constructs based on their experience, and their systematic experience of what happened, and we, we easily get wrapped up in those things, but God, but the Holy Spirit doesn't work like that, God doesn't work like that, wind is unpredictable, and while we can be absolutely sure certain things of God, there are absolutes that we can stand on, we all, we want to be open, I mean, Jesus never did things the same way when he healed people, he never healed people the same way, he, he healed three different blind men, and did them in completely different ways, one, he just said the word, you know, and he was, he could see, another one, he spat in the eye of the man, and then walked down the street with him, and as he walked down the street, his eyes became clearer, and then another time, he, he spat in the ground, and mixed up mud, and placed it in a guy's eyes, I mean, he never did, and it was unusual, and sometimes the spirit is unusual, and that's okay, it's okay to be open to the spirit being, and doing things in different ways, John 3, 8 says, Jesus answered, the wind blows wherever it pleases, the spirit blows, wind blows wherever it pleases, you hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from, or where it is going, so it is with everyone born of the spirit, it's not going to happen by getting our systems, and our predictable theologies right, we need the presence of God, and we need to be hungry for the presence of God in our lives, and however he does that, whichever way he does that, in unpredictable ways, we need to be open, and willing for God to pour into us, in unpredictable ways, thirdly, wind is powerful, wind is powerful, it generates power, it sells large ships, and it can destroy cities, it's powerful, I saw the footage on the news of Hurricane Michael when it went through the panhandle, after it went through the panhandle, and Mexico Beach, and their canals, and waterways, and I was absolutely taken away, how powerful wind, how powerful a storm can be, just entire houses wiped off of its foundations, pieces of property, couches, and chairs, and wooden pieces, and structures just thrown up against, against the side of the canal, just all kinds of things, just the power of wind, the power of a storm, horrific, it can, it can take out entire communities, it can take out entire cities, but the spirit of God, like the wind, is powerful, it could do, it could do powerfully, and many of you are going through some things that only the power of God, the, the, the absolute power of God can fix, nothing else can fix it, the power of God can fix it, and we, and we need not to relegate ourselves to trying to fix it ourselves, we need to lean in on the Holy Spirit, and what he can do for us, and, and how his power can work in our lives, Acts 1-8 says this, but you will receive, and this is what Jesus told him before he went away, but you will receive power, you will receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Charles Finney was a, um, an evangelist, he was a Presbyterian minister, and a lawyer, and a man of intellect and rationale, rationale, um, and he liked to study God within his own intellect, and he limited God often in his theology to what he could understand, and then one day he had an encounter with the Holy Spirit, and he wrote this in his account, he says, the Holy Ghost, back then they said the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit descended on me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression like a wave of electricity going through and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves, and waves of liquid love.

Man, I want some of that. You want some of that? Or I could, for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. Why did it seem like the very breath of God?

Because it was the breath of God. It was the wind of God. Um, wind is, is powerful. Wind is powerful. Wind is powerful.

And for some of you today, it is mission critical. It is mission It's critical that you have this power in your marriages, in your jobs, in your friendships, in your relationships, in your Christian walk. You need the Holy Spirit. Also, wind is refreshing. Wind is refreshing.

It's nice to open up the windows on a fall day when it's hot and muggy in the house, right? And the breeze comes through or roll down the window on a nice day and feel the breeze hit your face, just like that little child hitting your face and just, oh, it feels so good. It feels so good. It's refreshing. 1 Corinthians 2, 9 and 10 says, No eye has seen and no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

No eye, no ear, no one can conceive what God has for them, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. God has revealed it. And that's why I want you so badly to stick with this series through the next four weeks. And I promise you I have more voice the next few weeks so I can preach a little more. Don't mess out in one week because you need the Holy Spirit to be active in your life.

You need Him. He's like water as a Christian. He's like, you have to have Him in order to live out your life. And God wants to bring the winds back in yourselves. Maybe you're somebody who's living a stale Christian life.

I know at one time I was, and it wasn't going anywhere. And when I had an encounter with the Spirit, it gave me empowerment and energy and it gave me excited about the things of God and about others and about ministry. And you need that. God wants to energize, refresh, empower, and take you to the next level in your Christian walk. You need to lean in on the Holy Spirit.

You need to lean into the Holy Spirit. So today I say take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Breathe in the Holy Spirit. I love how the message says in Ephesians 4-3, Don't grieve God.

Don't break His heart. His Holy Spirit moving and breathing in you is the most intimate part of your life. That's the intimacy of God that you so desperately need. Making you fit for Him, Himself. Don't take such a gift for granted.

Don't take the gift for granted. So how do we do this, Pastor, today? Some of you, I'm glad you asked that. I'm glad you asked that because I'm going to tell you today how. How do we lean into the Holy Spirit?

How do we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit? First of all, let go of fear and misperceptions. Start with a blank page. Go to the Word of God. Don't even listen to me.

What I teach you. I want you to just be open and listen to God and see what He says about the Spirit and how the Spirit works in us and how He moves in. Let's just go straight right down the middle to the Word of God. And let's go all in and look at this. Proverbs 3-5 in the message, it says, Trust God from the bottom of your heart.

Don't try to figure out everything on your own. Trust God. He doesn't want to put you in some kind of weird hypnotic trance or something like that that you've seen before. He's not going to make you shake or convulse or do anything because some of you have those impressions. I had that background.

I watched people. It scared me when I was a kid when I watched these services because I grew up in a very Pentecostal tradition. In fact, our church is affiliated with the Pentecostal, two names, Pentecostal holiness. When you hear Pentecostal, you're like, yikes. And then you hear holiness.

You're like, okay, do I need to stop wearing makeup? You know? We are affiliated with them. But, obviously, we take a non-denominational approach, but we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and how he works. And we trust God and we open God up.

But we're not here to do anything weird. We're just here to be open to allow God to empower us and strengthen us and push us to the next level because we so desperately need him to work in our lives. And whatever your church background or whatever you've been taught, whatever you may have experienced in the past, let's just throw away all the presuppositions about what we think the Holy Spirit is. And then new number two, go all the way. Go all the way.

Go all the way. I don't know about you, but I want everything that God has to offer. I want everything. Don't be like, you know, I love God and I'm glad that he's a part of my life, but you know what? I'm going to put him over here and then I'm going to kind of live out.

No, no. Get into it. Go seven days a week. Man, I remember when I first gave my life to Christ. I don't get it, guys, because it just doesn't work just putting God in a particular area or box in our lives.

It doesn't work. So people are wondering, why isn't God doing this in my life? Why am I so stale? Why am I so dry? I'm a Christian.

I'm a believer. Why is God not doing more in my life? Because we've put him in a category. We've relegated him to a particular place in our lives. But I'm asking you today, you need to go all in.

Go all in. Open yourself up to what God... I remember when I first gave my life to Christ, I couldn't stay away from the church. I was seven days a week. I was trying to figure out what I could get involved in.

I wanted so... I was so excited about the things that God was doing. And you need to go 100% fully committed. And I guarantee you, when you do, when you open your lives up and go all in. In fact, I'll put some time limits on it for you.

Give him six months. Give him the next six months and go all in and allow him to do something in your life. God said, you will find me if you seek me. So we need to seek him. He'll empower your mission.

He'll renew your mind. He'll empower your calling. He will change your focus. You will experience a fullness in life that you have not yet experienced. Because that's what it's really about.

Life and life to the full. And the Holy Spirit activates us to a life in him. A full life in him. Your life can be radically changed for the good. Jeremiah 29, 13 says, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart.

Are you seeking God with your whole heart? Are you willing to open yourself up to God? And you're allowing your whole heart to be fully leaned in to what he has for you. Why do I want to find him? Because there's no better way to live.

There's no better way to live than the life full of the Spirit of God. So stop leaving. Stop going in halfway. Go all the way. And number three, develop an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Develop an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. Because the Father has a role. The Son has a role. The Holy Spirit also has a role. Has a powerful role to play in your life.

2 Corinthians 13, 14. And the message says, The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ. W The extravagant love of God. The intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. In KJV, New King James says, communion of the Holy Spirit.

So we have three different roles here. But here's my fear. That many of you will experience the love of the Father. That's a good thing, obviously. And you'll know the grace of God, of Jesus Christ, when He placed Himself on the cross.

But my fear is that many will never, never know the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And here's what you need to know. First of all, God, the Father loves me. The Father does love me. And some of you can't have a relationship with your Heavenly Father because maybe you've experienced an earthly relationship with a Father that wasn't good.

And you know what? The devil wants to use that relationship to keep you away from knowing God. Knowing Him as a loving Father. And he will use it with every inch of that situation. He will use it against you.

But God's love is so powerful. He valued you so much that He gave His Son. He was willing to give His Son. That's how much value He placed on you. The value of what you were worth meant that He had to give His Son for you.

He paid that in full. You need to know that. That's the Father's love for you. God's love for you is, He wants, He wants to know that you are loved. You are loved.

And then God, the Son, saves me. The Father loves me. God, the Son, saves me. He saved me by the grace of Jesus. Why do we talk so much about Jesus in our worship service?

Why are you so centered on Jesus? Because He saved us. Because He is the center of it all. The love of the Father was shown through Jesus Christ by Him giving Himself on the cross. So we know that He loves us.

The Father loves us. But it doesn't just stop there. It goes into the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit is with me. Is with me.

So Jesus, when He went back to sit at the right hand of the Father, when He left this earth and commissioned us with His service, with His mission for us in this world, He left us here. He left us here, but He didn't leave us alone. He left us with somebody who wanted a relationship with us. He wants an intimate relationship with us. Did you know the Holy Spirit actually wants an intimate relationship with you?

You need the breath of the Holy Spirit. You need the breath of God today. Do you hear me, church? Do you hear me? You need the breath of God today.

You need the breath of Jesus today. So I'm asking, as Alex plays, and let's all bow our heads, and let's just start seeking the Spirit for a minute. Let's just seek Him. Just allow Him to pour into you. Just reach for God right now.

The love of the Father. The grace of Jesus. And an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. Feel free to just pour your heart out to Jesus. Pour your heart out to the Holy Spirit.

Just open your heart. Expose yourself to Jesus. Expose yourself to the Holy Spirit. And that same spirit of worship and just soaking and seeking Him. If there's one of you here today that has not given your life to Christ.

Maybe you just walked in here just because it was something to do. Or maybe you felt an urge to come to church today for some reason. But you haven't made a decision for Jesus today. I invite you, I invite you to pray that the love of the Father and the grace of Jesus would surround you. Right now.

If you would just pray this with me. Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you died on the cross for my sin. God, I ask that you change my life and change my heart. Holy Spirit, come into my life.

Renew me from the inside out. I so desperately want it. And if you are a believer today. If you are somebody who has followed Christ. But you've just, it's been stale.

It's been stagnant. Let me ask you. Are you ready for a new, radical, life-changing Holy Spirit experience? Amen. I'm going to pray for you.

Lord, I just pray that the people here today. That they would experience you in a whole fresh new way. Not that you are any different of God, Lord Jesus. But you have the power to radically change us for the good. So I ask you to do that for us today.

Amen.