All right. Hey everybody, welcome to Valley Creek. We are so glad you are here with us today. And today we are finishing our series called Holy Spirit: We Invite You In. For the last few weeks we've been talking about who is the Holy Spirit, what does He do, what does it look like to have a relationship with Him. And today we're bringing it all to a close, but here's what we're going to do, we're finishing up this series and then we're going to do part B of this series in the fall. You see, this series is a really important series in the life of our church. And we've spent most of the time in this series talking about what the Holy Spirit does in us and in the fall we're going to talk about what the Holy Spirit does through us. We need a little bit of time to just stop to absorb, to apply that which God has been sharing with us so we can activate it in our lives. And so next week, I've got a really exciting announcement for you that I hope you'll be here for and then we're going to start our summer series called 60 Days: Songs of Life.

But what I want to do today is I want to start as we wrap up this part of the series with a story from Scripture that has really grabbed me over the last couple years that I've really been praying for our church. You see, in 1 Samuel chapter 19, Saul, the current king of Israel is trying to kill David, the anointed next generation, upcoming king of Israel. And when Saul hears about where David is, he gets some of his men and he sends them to go kill David. And it says, "So Saul sent men to capture David. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also prophesied." So catch it, some guys are coming to kill David and they run into a group of prophets.

And when they get into the atmosphere of the group of prophets, the atmosphere is so powerful with the Spirit of God that the Spirit goes off of the prophets right on to Saul's men, changes their minds, changes their direction and they also start prophesying. Now, when Saul hears about this he's furious and he sends a second group of people to kill David. And when the second group of men get around the prophets, guess what happens, the atmosphere is so powerful that the Spirit comes on them, they change their mind, their direction, they start prophesying. Saul hears about it, he's furious, he sends a third group of men to do it. They get into the atmosphere of the prophets, they start prophesying, they change their direction. Finally Saul says, I'll do it myself. And he goes to kill David. And when Saul whose heart is bent on death and destruction gets into the atmosphere of the prophets prophesying, the Spirit comes on him, he starts prophesying and it changes his direction.

You see, this is what it looks like to be a people who steward and cultivate the Holy Spirit in our lives. The group of prophets were so submitted and surrendered to the Spirit that it literally created an open heaven that when other people got into that atmosphere it changed them. And there's four things that we know about these prophets. The first thing is they were fully submitted and surrendered to the Spirit. They were completely surrendered to whatever the Spirit asked them to do, wherever the Spirit asked them to go, whatever the Spirit asked them to say. Their whole life was not about the flesh, it was about the Spirit. Second thing we know is that they had a level of personal holiness. These are prophets, these aren't just regular people. They've got this holiness. They're set apart. They think different, talk different, act different, live different. They don't live according to the flesh, they walk according to the Spirit. Then they're prophets, so we know that the primary voice in their life that they're listening to is God's. Prophets hear from God and speak to people, so they don't care what Saul says, what the world says, what everyone else says, they're listening to what God says.

And then we see uncommon unity. They were so unified together that they didn't care about their opinions, or their preferences, or their offenses or their issues. Why? Because the Spirit of God was uniting them together. This is what this series has been about. This is what a movement of hope looks like. This is what I've been praying for our church that we would be people who so cultivate and steward the Spirit of the Living God in our lives personally and then corporately as a family that we literally create an open heaven atmosphere that when other people get into it, it literally changes them because the Spirit is released into their lives.

My prayer for us is that we would be like these prophets, that we would be submitted and surrendered to the Spirit. That we would have a level of growing personal holiness, not interested in the flesh or sin or the things of this world, but the things of God. That we would be prophets, that we would hear from God and his voice would be the primary voice in our life, not the news, not social media, not the world, not your friends but God. And then we would have an uncommon unity or we say we don't care about our preferences, we don't care about our opinions, we're going to let go of those offenses because this matters more. You see, this is an Old Testament prophetic picture of what was going to come for the people of God. This is what the prophets prophesied about and longed for. This is when Moses said, I wish God would put his Spirit on all people and they would all prophesy. This is Joel prophesying saying, even on my servants, I will pour out my spirit. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Like this is what the Old Testament heroes of the faith long for and it is the normal Christian life available for us. The question is how much do we want it.

Because when the Spirit of God is in your life, there is an open heaven. Come on, when Jesus was baptized it said the heaven was tore open and the Spirit descended down. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, heaven was released then we now get to cultivate and steward that reality. When people get into our atmosphere, it can change them in Jesus' name. And in a season where it feels like spiritual warfare is picking up against the people of God, the greatest way we fight our battles is this, because these men were a group of prophets with the Spirit of God they protected the next generation from dying, from a demonic man. And if we're serious about protecting our children in the next generation, then we've got to start stewarding his Spirit in our lives.

And the thing that maybe gets me the most about this whole story is that in 1 Samuel 10 when Saul is anointed king, he runs into most likely the same group of prophets. The Spirit comes on him, changes who he is, he starts prophesying and yet he didn't steward that encounter. He didn't steward the relationship with the Holy Spirit in his life. And he rejected the Spirit, started walking in the flesh, started living in a demonic way and look at what it says, "Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him." That's a terrifying verse. Saul says I would rather the flesh than the Spirit. And he had every chance to repent and he didn't. Now, compare that to David when David becomes king, and David messes up pretty bad. Look at David's response, "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." What David says when he messes up is, oh God, don't take your Spirit from me.

What I want more than anything else is you. See, the question I've been asking you in the series is basically this, who runs your life? Who's in charge? Who's the leader of your life? Who decides where you go, and what you do, and what you say and how you respond, what's good and bad, right and wrong? I mean look at this verse, it says, "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship. And by him, the Spirit, we cry Abba Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." In other words, it's the Holy Spirit that turns our heart to God, that keeps our hearts soft and tender and interested in the things of God.

And I love that it says, those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. So if you're not led by the Spirit then it's one of two things, you're either not a son or daughter of God because you haven't put your faith yet in Jesus or you have but you're living like a spiritual orphan and being led according to the flesh. Because the sons of God live free because they're led by the Spirit not by themselves. It's the spirit that turns our heart to God. That's why the last verse in the Old Testament says, "I will turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the hearts of the sons to the father." It's the Spirit that turns our heart and keeps it turned toward God who's leading your life. And not only have I really been asking you who's leading your life, I've really been asking you what are you hungry for.

I've used the word hunger and humility and desperation in probably every message in this entire series. Like right now, what are you hungry for in your life? I love what Jesus says when he says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled." In other words, you will always be filled by whatever you're hungry for. And eventually you will be consumed by whatever you are filled with. You will always be filled by whatever you're hungry for and eventually you'll be consumed by whatever you're filled with. And so whatever you hunger for, you'll go and get that in your life and when that gets in your life eventually it consumes you from the inside out. So the question is, are you hungry and thirsty for the things of God or the things of the world? Because eventually they will fill you and consume you from the inside out. And I love that it says, filled not forced.

That's why it's Spirit-filled, not Spirit-forced because the Spirit doesn't force Himself into our lives, He waits for us to say I'm hungry for you and so I've created some space, will you come and fill this. In fact, this is why Jesus says, "So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened." He goes on to say, "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" We read the ask-seek-knock passage and we think it's about getting our prayer requests filled for our lives.

And while there's an element of that that's true, really the heartbeat of what Jesus is saying is what are you asking for? What are you seeking? What door are you knocking on? Because whatever you're asking for you'll receive, whatever you're seeking you're going to find in this world. And whatever door you're knocking on, eventually it will be opened. Is it the right thing? Because His heart is, are you asking, seeking and knocking for the Holy Spirit? What are you hungry for? What are you desperate for? That's why we invited you every day for this five-week series to just, Holy Spirit, I invite you in. Why? Because He comes where He's wanted and the Father promises to give Him to us. And here's the thing, you can have as much of God as you want. There is no limit. It's like an unending buffet. You can keep going back up for the best of stuff as many times as you want.

I mean come on, look at this, "That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." I don't even know what that means, but it means there's more of God available for you. That if I'm really hungry for more of God, I can have more of Him. In fact, there are very few things that are included in all four gospels. If you've ever read them, you discover there are very few things -- a lot of things are in three, a lot of things are in two, some things are in one, very few things that are in all four gospels. But one of the things that is literally in all four of the gospels is this, "I baptize you with water but Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." In all four gospels, it says that Jesus will come to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. That's how important this concept is. To baptize means to immerse, submerge, subdue. Like it's like a ship that's been sunk in the ocean. Water is all around it and water is inside of it.

And so what this is telling us is that Jesus has come to literally immerse you in the Spirit, to fill you until you overflow. He doesn't want you to have just a little bit of God, he wants you to have all of God. In fact, this is why, right, when Jesus comes back, the resurrected Jesus, he sees the disciples and with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." This is their moment of salvation, we've talked about this in the series. You put your faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of you. They have the Holy Spirit. This is John chapter 20. And yet in Acts 1 which happens after, Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, says to the same group of people, "Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Wait a second, in John 20 they've already got the Holy Spirit. Why do they need to wait to be baptized with the Holy Spirit if they've already received it?

Because yes they had the Holy Spirit in them, but Jesus wanted the Holy Spirit to be upon them. Yes, they had received some of the Holy Spirit but Jesus wanted to give them more, he wanted to baptize them, immerse them, so the Holy Spirit was in them and upon them like a ship sunk in the water. See remember, the Holy Spirit is in me for my good, he's upon me for your good. The Holy Spirit is in me for my sake but he is upon me for your sake. He's in me for character, the fruits of the Spirit. He comes upon me for the gifts of the spirit. And when the Spirit is in me, it's about the rule and reign of God in here. When he's upon me it's about bringing the rule and reign of God out there. The problem is most of us want to see the rule and reign of God out there, not so much in here.

And that's why this order matters. Character, receive the Holy Spirit first. Then be baptized, immersed with power so you can release the rule and reign of God out there. Are you with me on that? See, there's more of God to receive. You can have as much of God as you want and God can come where He already is. Most of us don't think about it like this. You're like, I already got the Holy Spirit, I'm good. Well man, the Holy Spirit can come where the Holy Spirit already is. Like check this out, "As soon as Jesus, God, was baptized he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened and as he saw the Spirit of God, God descending like a dove and lighting on him, and a voice from heaven said, 'This is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.'" God came to where God already was. So God can come to where He already is.

In fact in Acts chapter 4, it says, "After they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." This is Acts 4. In John 20 they received the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2 they're full of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 4 they're filled again. How is that possible? Because God can come where He already is. The question is how much of God do you want? What are you hungry for? What are you asking, seeking and knocking? What's the desperation of your soul? What's the cry of your heart? Are you saying, God, I want more of this thing or God, I want more of you? And I know some of you are probably sitting here and you're like, I'm good, I got some God, I received the Holy Spirit, put my faith in Jesus, I'm good. Okay. But are you baptized, filled, overflowing with the Spirit?

Let me ask you four questions for you to determine it. First one is just this, are you full of joy? Like is there genuine joy in your life right now? I'm not talking about personal happiness. I'm not talking about circumstantial contentment. I'm not talking about enjoying sin, the pleasures of the flesh. I'm talking about genuine joy. Because all throughout the Bible, one of the primary indicators of people walking in the Spirit is a life of joy. At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, "I praise you Father." Joy is one of the primary indicators that you are walking in the fullness of the Spirit. Is there joy in your life? Second question is this is, are you connected and united to the body of Christ? If you want to know if you're really walking in the fullness of the Spirit, are you connected and united to the body of Christ? Because that's what the Spirit does.

You see, if you're in church for any period of time, here's what you'll hear said or maybe you've said this yourself is, I just can't get connected. I just can't get connected. I can't find my people. It's just too hard to get connected. I just can't find people. I can't get connected, can't make it happen. And we say that in a way as if it's the other people's problem and if it's the church's problem. It's not other people and it's not the church, the problem is you and the Holy Spirit because you can't be connected to the body of Christ until you're first connected to the Spirit in yourself. I mean for we were all baptized by one into one, so it's the Holy Spirit that baptizes, immerses, submerges in and upon us through the Spirit into the body of Christ. So it's the Holy Spirit that connects us to each other. And so if you walk around all the time saying, I can't get connected, I can't find my people, people are not the problem and the church is not the problem, the problem is your relationship with the Holy Spirit.

And He might connect you at a part of the body of Christ that you didn't want to be, around other people you don't necessarily know or like or act like or look like or feel like, you can relate with. But guess what, the best friends in your life will be the people around you in the parts of the body where God has connected you. Not your high school buddies. I'm just saying there are better supernatural relationships that God wants to give you. And you say, yeah, but this person doesn't look like me or they're 30 years older than me or they're 20 years younger than me or they're this or they're that. What if you just trusted the Holy Spirit to put you in the body where He wanted you to be? And then this blows up that whole argument of me and Jesus, like I just got me and Jesus. Well, just so you're clear, Jesus gave you the Holy Spirit to baptize you into the body, so if I'm actually walking in the fullness of the Spirit I will be connected and united because I don't want to tear down the very thing I'm connected to, okay?

Third question is do you have dreams and vision in your life? Do you have any sense of dreams and vision right now? In the last days God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people." Are you a part of all people? Then this is you. Your sons and daughters -- are you a son or a daughter of someone? Yes. This is you. Will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. The Holy Spirit in our life releases vision and dreams. If you want to know if you're really walking in the Spirit, do you have a vision for your life? I'm not talking about a five-year business plan, talking about like a vision of who you want to become, trusting the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you every step of the way. And are you dreaming about anything where Jesus is at the center of it? Not dreaming about having a side hustle or working as little as you can to make as much money as you can or retiring on the beach early.

That is a worldly dream. I'm talking about a dream where Jesus is the king and the center of your life. And if you're just getting through life and just grinding it out, then you have to ask yourself, am I really walking in the Spirit because he says this is what it looks like to live a Spirit-filled life. And then the last question is, are you are you under the oppression of the spirit of fear? In the last season, look at how much fear just ruled our world. But look at what the Bible says, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind." This is not three unique spirits. You're like, oh my gosh, who's the three new spirits? I'm just trying to learn the one. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of power, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

I've given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions. No power of the enemy will overcome you. Love, he has poured out his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. Romans 5:5, "And a sound mind, the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." I think we could all use a little bit more of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Don't you think? You see, I think one of the things that has really been operating in this season is a spirit of apathy. And the spirit of apathy basically says like, I've got a little bit of God, I'm good. Can I just tell you, apathy is sin? Whatever is not from faith is sin.

Apathy is I'm good, whatever, it doesn't really matter, based on what you can see. Why bother, who cares, it's not going to make a difference anyways. Faith is doing it with all of your heart regardless of what you can see. And so can I ask you a really honest question like are you just cruising in apathy? Because apathy is sin and it's not the spirit that you've been given. It's a spirit of the world, a spirit from the pit of hell that wants to steal, kill and destroy your life. And at some point you have to wake up and say, I have to stop living my life by what I can see, I need to start living my life by what I believe. Close your eyes and trust the Spirit. Close your eyes, trust the Spirit because we walk by --

Faith.

Not by --

Sight.

Right, so I don't need to look at nothing. In fact, the more I look at it the less I'm probably going to do it.

And the problem I think for so many of us in this last season is we've just fallen in love with the world. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of the sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world." When we fall in love with the world, we fall out of love with God. And flesh and worldly passions and pride consumes us. How many times have I used the word pride in the series? Have you been listening? Like pay attention to those things, grab it, because there's this shot and this hit that God's trying to bring into our lives to bring down the towers of pride that we've erected in our own lives. And what happens is the world is the ultimate counterfeit.

The Holy Spirit is a Counselor, Comforter, Guide and Friend. What does the world want to do right now? The world wants to counsel you, the world wants to comfort you, the world wants to guide you, the world wants to be your friend. And God's saying, but I've given you my Spirit to lead you in a totally different direction than that. Are you with me on this? Okay. In Acts chapter 5, there's this really weird story of Ananias and Sapphira. If you've been reading with us through the Book of Acts, when you get to Acts 5 it like jumps off the page because the first four chapters are like amazing. Holy Spirit's poured out, great things are happening, people of God are moving forward. And in Acts chapter 5, it says, believers -- so these are believers -- who are selling possessions that they had and bringing the money to the apostles to be used for the ministry for the work of God. And this is a weird story, I'm just telling you up front. Ananias sells some property, gives it -- gives some of the money, holding some back intentionally to the disciples.

"And then Peter says to him, 'Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.' When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened." A couple hours later, his wife walks in and Peter says, tell me, is this the amount of money you received for the land? She says, yes, it is. He says, how is it that you have come to test the Spirit of God? And she falls down and dies. That's a verse guys. And you say, what is happening here? I got two things. One is I think God is reminding the people that there must be a sense of fear and trembling before the Spirit of the Living God.

That there must be honor and respect, submission and surrender that we need to live our lives working out our salvation with fear and trembling. You say, well wait, I thought we can boldly approach the throne of grace. Yes, you can boldly approach the throne of grace and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Both are in the Bible which are true. Yes. And so it's reminding us that there is a gravity to the Holy Spirit and then it's also reminding us that when I lie to the Holy Spirit I deceive myself. And when I lie to the Holy Spirit, I invite death into my life. You say, well wait a second, like what does it mean to lie to the Holy Spirit? To lie to the Holy Spirit is to say, I won't do this knowing full well you will. It's to say, I will do this knowing full well you won't.

It's to literally scheme ways of sinning without getting caught. It's to honor God with our lips, but with our hearts far from Him. It's this ongoing unrepentant willful sins, literally lying to the Holy Spirit. And what happens is the Bible would call this the kind -- this is kind of like what the Pharisees would look like. It's like they have a form of godliness but deny its power. They proclaim to know God but by their deeds they deny Him. And what it does is it causes you to live with this divided soul, this duality of heart. And that invites the kingdom of darkness into your life because you've now come into agreement with darkness. In fact, the primary way -- it says you have not lied to men but to God. Here's what I want you to catch, the big problem is that Ananias tried to trick the believers. So lying to the Holy Spirit is when we try to deceive other believers about the reality of where we actually are with God.

When I tell you I'm good but I know I'm not, and I tell you my marriage is great but we go home and tear each other down, and I tell you I love God but I know my heart is far from Him, I'm literally lying to the Holy Spirit. See, how are you lying to the Holy Spirit, I'm just telling it to a person. Everything we've talked about the Holy Spirit in you is true of the other person too. Like I am the temple of the Spirit of the Living God, and I am an ambassador of Christ, and I have been sent anointed by God into this world. And so if you lie to me about your spiritual realities, you're not lying to me, you're lying to the Holy Spirit in me because it's no longer I who live, it's Christ, the Holy Spirit who lives within me. And that's the whole point. The whole point is we don't believe the Holy Spirit reality in us based on I know that, based on how we treat each other as believers.

Because if I actually believed everything the bible says about the Holy Spirit in my life, it would dramatically change how I treat you because I would not try to deceive you because I know the Holy Spirit in you already knows the truth. We've got to move past this trying to create an external Christian facade with an internal worldly heart. That's what's happening here. That's what's happening here. And what happens is when you do that, hear me, here's the grace in this, you live with a divided heart and it will kill you. The amount of places in the Bible that talk about, you can't live both the spirit and the flesh, both the world and the kingdom, both Jesus and self, it's God trying to free you. This is Ananias' money. Peter is basically saying, bro, you could have kept the whole thing and you'd still be alive. You could have flat out just said, yeah, I'm a believer but I ain't giving none of my money to you people right now, and he'd still be alive.

It's the deceit, the divided heart. Catch me, this is why some of you -- you've have heard me say this for years and you can't get your mind around it. It's better for you to just flat out say, I'm not interested in God than to have an external Christian facade and an internal worldly heart. Come on. This is why Jesus says, I wish you were hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm I'll spit you out of my mouth. Hot, your heart turned towards me. Cold, your heart is cold towards me. But if it's cold, eventually you get to the end of yourself and hit a breaking point and reach back out for God. When you're lukewarm and you're living like the world but you think you've got God, you've already convinced yourself that God doesn't work because you think you've tried it. But you're not, you're living law and grace, and spirit and flesh, and Jesus and self, and kingdom and world. And it doesn't work.

And what happens is the Holy Spirit starts to convict us and challenge us and try to lead us, when we don't want to hear it anymore we just kind of lock Him in the basement. We don't want to keep feeling what He's saying and doing in our lives so we kind of in a sense we harden our own heart, we want a callous around our heart because I don't want to feel it and I want to silence it. And then when people start to hurt us, we don't want to feel that either so we add some more hardness and some more callouses to our hearts. And we take this beautiful flesh heart that God has given us and we turn it back into stone. And if you just look at these last two years, look at how much the people of God have rejected the Holy Spirit, done what they've wanted to do, how they want to do it, locked Him in the basement and then look at how much we've been hurt by people and the world. Our hearts have gotten hard. And what happens is when that happens you eventually get offended at the people who try to soften your heart and God the only one who can.

Once your heart gets hard, I'm just telling you straight up, you will get super offended at me. Do you ever notice how people get so offended at spiritual leaders for trying to help soften their heart? That on the outside seeing it in someone else's life, it's really easy to see. You're like, man, they're just trying to help you, your campus pastor, your circle leader, your mentor, that spiritual leader in your life. I'm just trying to -- but when it's you and your heart is hard, oh man, you eventually get so offended at the person trying to soften your heart because you're like, I hardened it for a reason and now you're the problem. And the real problem is not actually directed at the spiritual leader, just to be clear, the real problem is you're directing it really at God. So if you're a spiritual leader and people ever get offended at you for trying to soften their heart, just understand it's not actually at you, it's actually at Him and He's trying to soften it.

Hear me, it's really hard to cut stone. And so my question for you all through the series is, are you cut to the heart like at all? Is there any level of woe is me or humility in response to the Lord? I mean the verse we started with, "When the people heard this, the gospel, a reminder that they were sinners in need of a savior, that Jesus came, the Son of God, perfect, laid down his life, was dead, buried, crucified, three days later rose again from the grave, they heard that and they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.'"

The normal response to the gospel is to be cut to the heart and then to repent, to be baptized and to receive the Holy Spirit in our life. And hear me, the greatest thing you can do for your children is to be cut to the heart. It's not select sports, it's not saving up a pile of money for them, it's not all the education, it's not all the thing. Be cut to the heart because the greatest thing you can do for your children and for the mission all who are far off from God, your destiny is to be cut to the heart and actually respond to it. So the question then is -- the question is then is what does it look like to be cut to the heart, just real quick, it's just humility and hunger and desperation and the dismantling of your own pride before the Lord and confession and repentance.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Can I ask you a really honest question? In this series, have you confessed any sin? Have you confessed any sin, any areas where your life is off, where you're missing the mark, where you're living according to the flesh, where you're doing the things of this world? Have you confessed any sin to anyone? Have you brought it out of the dark and into the light? And here's the paradox, confess your sins to each other. You actually have to know each other to be able to do this. This is why one bad choice after another leads us down a wrong road. And if you say, well I don't know anybody in here, what do I do? At least be humble enough to come up after service, prayer, all the people that are at the front, just confess your sins to them so that you might be healed because you're like, I'm cut to the heart and I'm tired of a heart of stone, I'm ready for a heart of flesh, because this divided duality in me is killing me. Can I just tell you? I have watched more people over the last, probably five years, go down in their life to the duality of soul more than anything else.

I'm going to make you think I have this great external Christian façade, but inside I have this internal worldly heart. And having to put on the face and pretend, it destroys you from the inside out. So be honest. Some of the confession might even be, I actually am sinning and I like it. Here's the good news, that's actually confession. You're bringing something out of the darkness into the light and then you have to decide, Lord, will you help me then not like it? Guess what, the Holy Spirit's right there. So confession and repentance. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, change your mind, change your direction and actually change what you think, how you move, repent from dead works of faith towards God. Has there been any repentance in your life in this series? That's what it looks like to be cut to the heart, confession and repentance.

In fact, I love this verse that says, "Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned toward God." Repentance is not, oh yeah, it was good series. Oh good, yeah, good series. Just to be clear, that's the external Christian façade, far from an internal worldly heart. Because there's no way you should walk out being like, good series. If you're really cut to the heart, it's changing what you do and how you live. And that ain't easy because if you've been living like the world for a long time, it's hard sometimes to break out of that and prove by the way you're living that I'm now going in a different direction. One of my main jobs in your life as long as you're a part of this family is to pay attention and call attention to what God is doing.

If you've been here and you tracked and you're in the series and you know what we're like as a church, I think you could hear the tone difference in my voice every single week because I'm paying attention and calling attention to what God is doing, which is trying to soften His people's hearts and have them turn back to Him with confession and repentance and humility and hunger and desperation. If you were the only one in the series whose heart was cut to the heart, that matters. And if everyone else was cut to the heart and you weren't, that matters. And if you were cut to the heart, what are you going to do about it? And if you weren't, what are you going to do now?

The kindness of God leads us to repentance and He is trying to get our attention so we don't keep going down this road of death and darkness and destruction, but that we might live free in the fullness of the kingdom of life in Jesus' name. The Holy Spirit is a great -- maybe the best gift that has ever been given to you in your life. May you have a faith to receive it and may you genuinely invite Him in and let Him lead the way. So close your eyes with me.

Let me just ask you the question, what's the Holy Spirit been saying to you? Maybe today, maybe this series, maybe this season, come on, what's the Holy Spirit saying? How are you going to respond to it? What are you going to do with it? Come on, who leads your life? Maybe it's time to hand Him the keys and invite Him back into the driver's seat. What are you hungry for? God is so secure in Himself that if you just say, God, I'm not hungry for you like at all but would you make me, would you stir up a hunger inside me for You, He's not offended by that, He welcomes that.

And then is there anywhere that you're deceiving people and lying to the Holy Spirit, living with this duality of soul, this duality of heart, today the Holy Spirit wants to free you from that by bringing things out of the darkness into the light, that in Him there's no shame, there's no condemnation, there's no guilt. No matter what it has been, no matter where you have been, no matter how dark it may feel, the Holy Spirit heals and counsels and comforts and restores. Come on, if you've found yourself resistant in this series, it's hard to cut stone. So just tell the Lord that.

Jesus, would you soften my heart in a way that I don't seem to be able to anymore? That is a death to life supernatural power of God miracle, just so we're clear. I think for some of you that wanted this series to be super focused on the power of God, it is the power of God bringing stone to flesh, and death to life, and pride to humility. So Holy Spirit, we invite you in. We welcome you into this place. May we be a group of prophets, filled with the Spirit of the Living God, submitted and surrendered to you. May personal holiness begin to grow in our lives and may we be done with the things of this world. Would you be the primary voice that we listen to? We shut down condemnation and darkness and Satan and the world and the news and our friends, and we tune into You and we choose uncommon unity because it's You who unites us that's greater than anyone or anything that could divide us.

Holy Spirit, this is your church. This is your family. This is bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. We invite you in. We are sons of God, led by the Spirit of God. We testify that Jesus is our Lord and savior. Turn our hearts to the Father and make us soft in Jesus' name we pray, amen.