Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Pastor Ed with a question for you to consider. Let me ask you this. Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Have you received the power of the Holy Spirit upon your life? Because for many of you, your life is still you. It is still you. It still centers around you. You've taken Christianity as a system of belief and you’ve added it to your life. You’ve added a little bit of the principles to your marriage.

No, you haven’t surrendered your marriage. That's why you’re still struggling. You haven’t surrendered your role as wife or your role as husband under the Lord. That's why you’re still struggling. That's why you’re still fighting. That's why you have unlimited sessions with your counselor because you haven’t surrendered to the Lord under the power of the Holy Spirit. The answer is right before you. That's why you’re still in pornography. That's why you still lie. That's why you still steal. Because it's you.

And you know, that's not Christianity. That's religion. That's dabbling and creating a god in your own image. Christianity is a person, the person and work of Jesus Christ. And He didn't just die to save you; He died to use you for His kingdom. Surrendered. You haven't accepted, perhaps, the fact that you belong to God and you need His power to live a life that's dynamic and powerful. So today is so exciting because I’m going to introduce to you the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the power of God to help you press through what you are currently facing and to get through day by day, abiding in Him.

Guest (Male): It's great to have you with us today for Abounding Grace. We're just getting started in the book of Acts. There are many wondrous events occurring in this book, from the giving of the Holy Spirit, the ascension of Christ, to the many adventures of the apostle Paul. Well, today Pastor Ed Taylor's message will help you better understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the power of God to help us to live a life that looks like Jesus and be His witness. I think you'll be encouraged by just how easy it is to receive this.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles, would you, to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, we’re going to pick up where we left off in verse 4 in a Bible study I’ve entitled "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit." Notice with me Acts chapter 1, verse 4. "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, you have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

"Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know the seasons or times which the Father has put in His own authority. But,' verse 8, 'you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'"

Jesus, just prior, had told the disciples that they were to go into all the world and make disciples, preaching the gospel. But before they were to go, they’re given this command to wait. Anyone that has ever waited for anything knows how difficult waiting is. We desire things now. We want to accomplish things now. And you can get the sense of, man, God has given us a mission, so we’re ready to go. But before they were to go, they were to wait.

It’s true for you and I. Before we are to go and do anything for God, we are to wait. In this case, they were given this very specific promise to wait for what would come upon them not many days from now. They didn’t know what it was, except that it was a promise, a promise of power. They didn’t know how it was going to come. They didn’t know when it was going to come, except for a few days.

But I do know this, and let me just say this for those of you waiting presently right now. When the Holy Spirit comes, they would know. You don’t have to have it all written out for you. You don’t have to have all the details. I mean, I think of all the waiting that is in the room today. Let me just say this. When God comes through, you will know. It will be abundantly clear when God comes through. The waiting is over and God’s promise is fulfilled, just like we see here.

Now, if I was to ask you the question, do you want limited power or unlimited power? Which one would you choose? I hope it's unlimited. I hear a little bit of limited in there. Is it all unlimited? Of course, it's a silly question. Let me ask it a different way. If I said to you today, do you want limited money or unlimited money? What would you say? Of course. We want unlimited, that which would bless and encourage us. We want an unlimited supply.

It's true in our lives, whether we vocalize it or not. We want an unlimited supply of the power of God. Imagine that. The power of Creator God, the resurrection power is available to you in unlimited form if you'll just ask Him, if you’ll just yield to Him, and you’ll just surrender to Him. For those of you that said unlimited, I wonder how many of you are the type of person that likes to drive your car or truck or SUV on empty?

Anybody drive their car on empty or below empty? Are you one of those people that says, "I know I can get 35 more miles before I have to." I know the light is on, but I can just keep going. Or now with the electric cars, you know, "I know I can push this battery as long as I want." And you live on fumes. That's how you drive. You drive on fumes. Thank you for laughing at that because I want you to consider how many believers live their life on fumes.

They see how far they can go on their own, seeing how far they can go living in compromise, seeing how far they can go avoiding the word of God. I am not naive enough. I know some of you didn’t even open your Bible this week. You’re living on fumes. You didn’t open your Bible for a month. You might even be dabbling in things religious and you’re just really not taking the things of God seriously. You’re living on fumes when God has everything available to you.

But you choose to live on the edge, try to make it happen, try—well, I’ve made it this far. Yeah, you’re going to make it this far until you don’t on the grace of God and the goodness of God, until you crash and burn. God has touched our hearts, church, and inspired us. For most of us listening right now, we have been born again of the Spirit. We are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

New life, new direction, new hope, new strength, new power—everything. Everything is a brand new vista of unlimited potential of what God wants to accomplish in your life. And here we are, still dabbling in things in our own strength, our own methods, our own plans. Pastors today are executing programs and plans that they purchased to run their church. They figured it out. Some expert told them what to do. They bought it, they figured it out, and they’re giving it to the church today.

Instead of teaching the Bible, instead of praying, instead of fellowshiping, they’re executing plans and programs. Christians do the same thing. They go out and they work the plan and they work the rules. And here you are saved, still holding onto yourself, unwilling to surrender. You trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. You read Psalm 32, and you're like, oh yeah, I’m so glad, God, You don’t mark my iniquities anymore.

But that's where you've stopped. You’re so grateful for forgiveness, but your life in Christ just seems to be dull, dry—some of you might even describe it as boring. Let me ask you this. Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Have you received the power of the Holy Spirit upon your life? Because for many of you, your life is still you. It is still you. It still centers around you. You’ve taken Christianity as a system of belief and you’ve kind of added it to your life.

You’ve added a little bit of the principles to your marriage. No, you haven’t surrendered your marriage. That's why you’re still struggling. You haven’t surrendered your role as wife or your role as husband under the Lord. That's why you’re still struggling. That's why you’re still fighting. That's why you have unlimited sessions with your counselor because you haven’t surrendered to the Lord under the power of the Holy Spirit. The answer is right before you.

You have to understand, as we launch off into the book of Acts, we are still pre-church, if you will. We’re still pre-church. We’re going to get to the birth of the church in chapter 2. We’re still reading about a group of people that are reeling from life's circumstances. They spent three years following Jesus, my best friend. He gets arrested, He gets beaten, He gets crucified, He’s buried, they abandon Him. We’re still pre-church here. He rose again from the dead.

We learn He’s with them for 40 days. Now He’s assembled with them and now He’s giving them direction. You’ve just got to put yourself in their shoes. This is overwhelming. The last month in their life has been overwhelming, unbelievable, a whole host of emotions. And now the future is before them. You’re going to reach the world. I mean, imagine that. Some of you maybe have never left Colorado. Some of you have never left the United States.

And God says, look, I’m going to use you. I’m going to use this little church here on the corner of Hampton-Biscay. You’re going to reach the entire world. No airplanes, no cars, no internet—nothing. They just have a promise on top of everything else. And that's where they are. They’re together with Jesus where they need to be. Now, if you’re taking notes, I want to show you a few things before we get into the text that are super important.

Number one, there are four things in the Bible that God tells us He doesn't want us to be ignorant about. Four very important things that God wants us to know, study, and understand. For us as a church, as we teach through the Bible verse by verse, we cover it all in the way that God wants it, in the way that God presented it. Number one, God does not want us to be ignorant of His heart for Israel. God is not done with Israel. He is not done.

Contrary to a whole segment of the church today that says God is done with Israel, God is not done with Israel. Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11, specifically Romans 11, verse 25. He says, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery." The mystery he refers to in those chapters is God’s dealing with the nation of Israel. You can read them. We studied them in Romans. Those studies are available. You can see God’s heart for the nation of Israel.

Number two, God does not want us to be ignorant of the rapture of the church. He doesn't want us to be ignorant of His coming. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13. He says, "For I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as those who have no hope." And that whole chapter gets into the rapture of the church as it relates to those who have died and gone on to be with the Lord and those that are still here waiting.

Thirdly, God does not want His church ignorant about Satan’s plans and strategies. Do you know there are people that say they’re Christians today and deny that the devil is real? They don’t want anything to do with him. Like, "no, I don’t believe in a real devil." Well, then you don’t believe in the Bible. Because as real as God is, God created the devil. He created this pristine angel who rebelled against Him.

In Satan’s plans and strategies in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11, it says, "Lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices." Don’t be ignorant of Satan and his strategies. Let me give you one strategy that hits every single one of you. The devil loves to mess with your mind. He loves to attack the mind. He loves to throw seeds of doubt, discouragement, and basically straight-up lies about God and lies about you so that you will doubt God. Because he knows that what you believe will dictate how you behave.

Number four, the last thing that God does not want us ignorant about is spiritual gifts in the work of the Spirit in our lives. He says in 1 Corinthians 12:1, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant." You could say God says, "I don’t want you to be ignorant about the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and how the Spirit works." I don’t want you ignorant of that.

Now, isn’t it interesting that the four things that the Bible specifically says He doesn't want us to be ignorant of, number one, are areas of ignorance in the church today, and number two, areas of arguments in the church today? That's how the devil loves to make you argue about things so that you’re moving off arguing about this, fighting over that, and you’re missing the clear part of the scriptures. God has a heart for Israel.

There are spiritual gifts ready that God wants to empower you and you have a special place in the body. Yeah, but, you know, I don’t think the spiritual gifts exist. Well, that's a problem. That's a problem. Because if the spiritual gifts don’t exist today—well, maybe some of them. Oh, so how do you decide which ones are here today? And you get caught up in all of your human thinking instead of yielding yourself to what the Bible clearly says.

God doesn't want us ignorant of spiritual gifts, the power, the presence, the person, the holiness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And so the topic of the Holy Spirit is this sharp debate, even over the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some will come and you’ll tell somebody about this in your family or friends. Oh, you don’t believe in that. Well, yeah, I do believe in that. As a matter of fact, the topic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you know where the phrase came from? Jesus.

He said to these believers, "you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit." Power will come upon you. Just like water baptism. Remember, He compares it to the baptism of John. Now, what John was doing when he was baptizing in the Jordan River is that he was taking full-grown adults and immersing them in water, just like we do. And here it's not the Jordan River; it's Aurora Water right here. We fill it from the hose outside right here in the sanctuary.

If not here, we used to go into the Aurora Reservoir and you can be baptized with the fishies out there. Water baptism symbolizes the forgiveness of sins. Some of you have so many sins we hold you down for a while, a little extra wash. But we bring you up. I can’t help but remember when I think of this, there was a sister many years ago truly, truly fearful of water, so much so she didn't take baths and rarely took showers in her life because she was very afraid of water.

But she received the command to be water baptized. So for a whole year, we prayed with her, prepped her, readied her, said it's going to be okay till the day finally came in the reservoir. I mean, it was a battle to the very end, each step that she took walking into the waters of baptism. And that woman, I think she was in her 60s back then, ended up obeying God, facing her fears, and she went down into the water. She trusted us. She trusted us with her life in the waters of baptism and her fears and her vulnerability.

These are things that God is calling you to do in the Spirit of God. Some of you have just attached Jesus to your life and called it Christianity. Some of you have just adopted a new vocabulary, adopted a new habit, perhaps, of reading the Bible or talking to God in prayer. And you haven't really submerged yourself, baptized by the Holy Spirit, allowing—how—you and I, we don’t baptize ourselves. What’s our response? We ask and surrender. You can think of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a power that comes through surrender, and it comes from God.

Guest (Male): Such an important point there as we close. This baptism of the Holy Spirit comes through surrender from God. You're listening to Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace and part of our series, "Be the Church," a study in Acts. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to Abounding Grace wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com.

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