Pastor Gail – Opening Prayer
1. Good morning. You look really good. It’s great to see you today. Amen, and it’s always so good when we can come together, just take a moment out of our week, just to stop and concentrate on the Lord, Amen. To set the tone for the week. Then our days get so busy, so filled with so many things, but it always seems on Sunday, if we just stop for a moment, we take the opportunity to say to the Lord, ‘Crown the week. Be Lord over this week.’ Because all our lives, He’s faithful. So, we’re beginning service today, by together thanking Him, for how faithful He is. Amen. Would you stand.
2. All my life He’s been faithful. We’re not. Would you like to take your bibles. If you don’t have one, there are bible on the seats around you. We’re trying to encourage people to use a paper Bible rather than your phone. Like people are losing an understanding of the bigger picture of the Bible, so, we encourage you to use paper Bibles.
3. We have just a short passage today, 2 Corinthians 13:14, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Can we just pray together now? Welcome the Lord today and say ‘Thank You Lord, You’re already here.’ Let’s just pray together now.
4. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the awesome privilege to be with the family of God today, to celebrate how great You are, how amazing You are, Lord, that Father You are always with us, Lord. You are faithful Lord, oh God, I thank You for the privilege of being able to worship You Lord and no other God today, as we say crown this day, crown this week, Lord, that God you’ve already gone ahead into our days and Lord You are there with us and we just give You all the praise and the thanksgiving in the name of Jesus, Amen.
5. I like Corinthians 13:12, right above. Look what it says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” You don’t have to kiss if you don’t want to. But don’t you at least greet someone, wave to them, give them a hug this morning, and tell them how glad you are to see them this morning, Amen. He is faithful, He is so faithful. It is so good to know that we have a Lord that is with us that is a way-maker, One that will open the doors that the enemy will try to close, but God can open and will open what no man can close and we can keep our eyes on Him. I need a way-maker. I need Him all the time. How about you? Amen.
Pastor Gail – Main Message
1. How blessed we are and every once in a while, we like to remind people, if you don’t have money for gas or food, let us know, we want to help you. We want to be a church that is always able to help, ready and willing. The church is a hospital, people are healed inside and out. The church is a life saving station. The church is a rescue center. We want to be that, and be that in our community, Amen.
2. Next week, I’m sorry we don’t have them up today, but we’ll show pictures of the baptism last Sunday. It was so cool. It was just wonderful. We had Benjamin with us today. It was so good to see young people getting baptized. Praise God. So, be with us next week so that you can see the photos. And we had a great time of fellowship.
3. So, I’m excited about this new series we’re getting ready to enter into. I want to introduce you, in case you don’t know Him, I want to introduce to my friend, the Holy Spirit. Because I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, I met Him very early as a little girl. And I remember knowing that my friend, the Holy Spirit, He, in the night when there was all kinds of chaos going on in my home, I would just speak to Him, and my friend, would just bless me and let me know that He was there.
4. So, from now until Christmas, each week we’re going to be talking about my friend, and I’m hoping that each one of you will say, I’m learning more about ‘my’ friend, ‘your’ friend, the Holy Spirit. In English we call Him, the Paraclete, and in Greek He is ‘Paraklitos’. I don’t know about you, but I have never seen Him. I don’t think you have actually seen Him, but He has intelligence, He has feelings, and too often, we try to measure the Holy Spirit, by human standards. And we cannot, we will never know who He is, when we try to measure Him by our understanding. But I want to tell you, He is real.
5. And so, today I want to introduce a little bit, why it is important to study the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit. How would you feel that I thought you were something abstract. That you were impersonal, that you had no feelings, well it is the same with the Holy Spirit. He’s very personal and when we think He has no feelings, we can actually hurt, the Bible says, “We grieve the Holy Spirit.” He is very personal, and we cannot worship God in fulness, if we do not recognize that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, the third part of the Godhead.
6. Too often in the church world, we call Him an it. Where I grew up in America, we can point at people like this, with our index finger, and it wasn’t considered rude. And I didn’t know, it must have been when I went to England sometime, and somebody said to me, ‘Don’t do that, it’s so rude.’ And I think sometimes that some kind of the way we approach the Holy Spirit, we’re kind of rude about Him, He is not an ‘it.’ He is a person. He is part of the Trinity. We need to think of Him as a divine person.
7. And when He becomes personal, a person, a being with intelligence and feelings, He’s part of God, He is God. We will begin to say, ‘How can I know Him more, how can He have more of me.’ And I think as we understand this more, it will cause us to be more humble about the Godhead, that we need not ourselves, as much as we need the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
8. When we began the service today, we read this Scripture, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” I think we can see from this Scripture, that He is not just a power of influence, but look it says, “Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” I like that. And that is how I first came to understand Him. I was never alone. When I met Him, I had fellowship with Him, because He lived with me and in me.
9. The doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit, is questioned in many ways, and I know this is, more like teaching today rather than preaching, but we need to introduce this. I think this is one of those Biblical subjects, sort of like the end times. It is very hard to present. A lot of people have their own ideas and they’re not open to try to understand more, but we want to look at the Word of God, and see what the sound doctrine of the Bible says about, ‘Who is the Holy Spirit.’
10. Another reason in this local church we want to look at the Holy Spirit and study Him, we believe He is alive and working in the earth today. Amen. And we believe that He wants to flood the world with showers of blessings. He wants to bring healing. He wants to bring victories and breakthroughs in our lives. And the more we know Him, the more we will expect that, because He is wanting to give those things to us.
11. In this day in which we live, which is a crazy chaotic time, we absolutely must have the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our world. Now, this is a little doctrinal, but in Greek, the word for Holy Spirit is, ‘Άγιο Πνεύμα’ (Agio Pnevma), which is Spirit and Wind. Now in Hebrew, it’s ‘Ruach’, and that’s the word we see in Genesis 1, in the beginning of Genesis, “The Spirit that hovered over the waters.” The Holy Spirit was there at the very beginning. This is a little extra. Interestingly, Ruach in Hebrew, is a feminine word, I think it fits females really well, don’t you? We just blow blessings everywhere.
12. In addition, John in the New Testament, uses the word ‘Paraclete’ as One who exhorts, who encourages, He comforts, He helps. The One who makes appeals on someone’s behalf. He has many additions to define who He is. And we can relate to that even as humans, we can understand that, like I’m Gail, I’m a woman, I’m a mother, I’m a pastor, I’m nice, these kind of describe who we are, which is the same with Holy Spirit. But the difference is that with the Holy Spirit, these additional definitions, they can cover about every nuance of our experiences in our everyday life.
13. One of His names that I love so much is, ‘Comforter.’ How many ever need a comforter? Yeah, absolutely! We need a comforter and someone, guess what? Well, I was married, everybody knows that. He was a nice guy, but I promise, there were times (by the way in case you didn’t know, he’s passed away, so I’m not saying anything bad about him), but I would ask him for comfort, and do you know what he would say, ‘Oh, it’s OK, just get on with it.’ Haven’t you had your friends say that to you? They say, ‘It’s OK just get on with it.’ But the Holy Spirit, you know, often when I tell Him I need comfort, and sometimes, I don’t even tell Him, and He doesn’t say a word. He just comes, because He’s already there, He’s always inside me, and I sense His presence. You’re not alone. You’re not alone. And He doesn’t even cut short the comfort to make it quick, get over it quick. No. He just stays there.
14. He is so wonderful, the Comforter. Another name for Him is, the ‘Advocate.’ He’ll go to court for you, I like that, He’ll fight for us to win the battle. When we are in front of a courtroom of people, not a real courtroom, well it could be a real courtroom, but people are accusing you, He’ll fight for you. He will help you in your hour of need. And not only that, He’s just there all the time to fill your life with joy overflowing, joy unspeakable, amazing grace, Amen.
15. The Trinity, we must remember, the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. When God made the world, the Holy Spirit was the creative hand of God. God spoke, Jesus was there, He was the Word God said, Jesus spoke and the Holy Spirit did the creative work. I like the picture of creation, because remember it says in Genesis, that the Spirit brooded, was kind of over the waters, but it was chaotic. A big mess, until God spoke. And when God spoke, order began to come. In Genesis 1:26 it says, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” God never said, You guys, you young guys, God never said ‘I’m going to make man in my own image.’ God said “Let us,” we have the Trinity working for us, with us, through us.
16. Psalm 33:6 says, “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” The Word, which is Jesus and the Spirit, they worked together to bring the cosmos out of chaos. Why is it important to know this? Very simply, it just means He has power. He was able to do all that. I wasn’t there. But when I read what a mess it was, it amazes me that this big ball that we live on, suddenly, the Lord said, ‘Order must come.’ And the Holy Spirit had the power with God the Father and Jesus the Son, Amen. What a beautiful thing. Did you ever stop to think? This was a crazy messed up thing, and I do believe, and I hope you do too. Sometimes we discount scientists, but this really was just a big ball, messy ball. But God wanted a place for His creation to live and know the beauty of who He was.
17. And so, Jesus, the Word, said let there be light, and the Holy Spirit activated the light. Amen, praise God. I think it’s a powerful thing to understand for our life. Speak the Word that Jesus said, this, the Bible, is His Word. All week long, I’ve been reading one verse to myself, “I am the God of the impossible.” I have an impossible situation in my life, I can’t fix it. I don’t have any answers. But that is the Word of God, that’s Jesus that’s His Words and I believe that those are living Words, because Jesus is alive. So, I’m believing as I said, ‘Jesus this is Your Word, Holy Spirit take this Word, and cause a miracle to come. Amen.’ That’s how they work together. That’s it, I give you this. Jesus spoke, and the Holy Spirit will activate it in your life.
18. John 14:15-16 says, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.” I think we live in very uncertain times, the days are filled with, if you watch a lot of news, you’re going to be anxious and it will be difficult to sleep. We can almost get a sense of weakness, to be able to face what is coming our way. Our hearts become troubled and we become afraid. And I think this is another reason why we study who the Paraclete is.
19. I’m just going to make a confession. Have you ever been troubled, where you find a spirit of depression was trying to get itself on you? It is interesting, in the last month, I have been consciously aware of a spirit of depression, trying to come on me. And those of you that have encountered it, you feel tired, you feel down, there’s no joy, everything is negative, there’s no answers. You just think that nothing is ever going to be OK again. And I love this Scripture, because it says, “Keep my commandments.” And I’ll have the Comforter to abide with me.
20. When that Spirit has tried to come on me this month, I have done my part, ‘Absolutely not, I’m going to say who You are God. I’m reading Your Word God. Lord, I know, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, in my life. I am more than a conqueror. I am more than a conqueror.’ And I have to say that, several times. And I get OK. But I believe it is the hour that we are living in, that we are going to do our part, keep His commandments, and as we do our part, to obey the Word of the Lord, we will understand that He was there all the time and He will help us. For this hour in which we live, all of the days we’re beginning to face, we are going to need the Holy Spirit like never before.
21. Your mind will tell you; you can never find the answer. But you can say, ‘I won’t, but I found Him. He has every answer I need.’ And we declare that, because we know Him. He wants to be a blessing in our lives and make us to be blessings. And not only that, we must remember, and I like this, the Holy Spirit who was there over the waters at the beginning, and caused things to come into order, what kind of power is that! What kind of power is that! And that power, Him, the Holy Spirit, lives in me. Hallelujah. How amazing is that.
22. And I think sometimes, I’m talking about me, I tell myself, that’s so stupid of you, I know that might sound stupid, sometimes my thoughts are stupid, ‘Why do I turn to myself to work out these impossible things when I have God, who created the heavens, the earth, the stars, the universe, He lives in me!’ He’s always there for us to turn to. ‘Help! Help!’ And He says, ‘I’m here, I’m here.’
23. There is nothing we cannot handle, when we have the Paraclete with us. If you read this whole section, you understand He’s with you always. Do you ever wish that you knew somebody high in government? Sometimes I do. But guess what, I have friends, in the highest places, of the universe, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there to talk to you when you’re lonely, and I know it’s true.
24. When I first moved to Greece, I didn’t speak a word of Greek, except ‘siopy (quiet)’ and ‘pasticcio’ and ‘baklava’. Those are the words I knew, and I felt lonely. But I just begin to talk to Him, and He was listening. He was always listening. He actually cared. There’s no one in a hopeless place when you have the Holy Spirit. God loves you and because He loves you, you’re never hopeless. The Holy Spirit who is God, is to work with you, to work things out with you and to help you.
25. I love this about the Lord, that He has created each one of us individually unique. I look around the room today, each one of you are uniquely beautiful in your own way. But none of you are my idol. I love you, but are not my idol. And the Lord is saying that ‘I want to be that One that you exalt above others.’ Love everyone, but so often we make idols here on earth. You know, beautiful football players, beautiful movie stars, we get our eyes down here, but the Lord is the One that wants to work in a world that’s all messed up, and make our lives beautiful.
26. If you listen much or read much, of interviews of famous people, often you’ll hear finally a little statement when they’re really honest, that they are tormented by self-doubt and that is part of being human. Because we’re not God.
27. I wanted to throw this thought in for us today. Because I think that sometimes we beat ourselves up, when we have self-doubt. But we want to look really quickly that Jesus made some promises to us. Think about it. The disciples were left alone. Jesus has been crucified. Jesus had told them, “I’m going to leave you.” He was telling them that He was going to die. They were isolated, they were uncertain. And like many of you, many of you may have made sacrifices to follow Jesus. Maybe some people in your family don’t like you. They maybe cut you off. Some of the disciples had a fishing business, they left everything, they walked away to follow Jesus. They had allowed themselves to believe that Jesus was the One who was going to turn everything around. They had believed He was the Messiah. And sometimes we believe things and we begin to get self-doubt. Oh, I believe that, what’s wrong with me? It’s part of being human.
28. Sometimes we get into situations we think, Lord, I followed You, I believed You, but have You brought me to this place where things are bad. I think we feel as the disciples must have felt. But Jesus made a promise, He said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” (John 14:16).
29. We have a picture of the Trinity. Jesus knew that He was going to leave them pretty soon and go back to be with the Father, but He promised His disciples and it’s a promise to us today, ‘I’m going to send Someone to help you and be with you.’ The promise was that the Paraclete would be with them forever. Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit, He has been delivered on that promise by virtue, when we ask Jesus into our lives, we are the sons and daughters of the living God. We have access to the Paraclete.
30. It is the Spirit of God living in us, dwelling with us. Jesus made that promise to the first disciples. He’s going to leave; He’s going to die. We don’t understand this. Are we going to be alone? It was doubt. We can be in the same situations; Lord I’ve never been here before. Things are falling apart. Are You there? But Jesus promised us, “I’m going to send the Paraclete, the One that helps and is with you. And you can call on Him anytime.” He is ready and willing and able to help.
31. Unfortunately, many of us leave that in our head. But it’s got to be in our heart. There was a man called Colonel Thomas Schaefer, he was actually the highest-ranking official in Teheran, in the US embassy, and he was there when the embassy was overrun and they were taking prisoners. And if you’re a Colonel in the army, you’ve been trained a long time, and you understand how to fight battles, and be strong. However, he was taken prisoner, in a hostile nation and he wondered, ‘Will I ever see my family again?’ They put him in a little tiny cell, with nothing to read and nothing to do. And in that tiny cell, where he felt like he was about to lose his mind. He was reaching his limit. He suddenly spoke to himself, ‘I have faith in God, I believe in God.’ So, in that cell, he got down on his knees and prayed, ‘God, I need Your help. I can’t handle this.’ And in his writing, he says, ‘I got it, I got the help I needed. I survived those long seemingly endless days, while being in prison.’ Because the Holy Spirit, the Comforter was with him. ‘He gave me the strength I needed.’
32. I can’t completely explain the Holy Spirit. I can just share a little bit about Him. But what I do know, I know the Lord has promised that He would send the Holy Spirit, and He is here. And trusting in Him, is so encouraging to me as I face the future. I have no idea how long I’m going to live. I have no idea what’s going to happen in the war in Ukraine and Russia, or Israel and Palestine. I don’t know. I don’t know how near we are to when the Lord comes again and there’s going to be a lot of very difficult things happen. But whatever the future holds, I’m learning more and more not to worry about tomorrow. Because He lives in me. And He holds my hand and He surrounds me.
33. Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit and He has delivered on that promise. We are sons and daughters of the living God that never breaks His promise. And He never lies. God never lies. I will send you the Comforter. He will be with you and will help you anytime day or night. I want to introduce you to my Friend. The only question this morning as I call the prayer teams to come up forward. Do you want to, are you willing to follow faithfully. Sometimes, that is the hardest part of all. To say, ‘Yes Lord, even when it’s hard I want to follow You, because I know that You will always be there.’ Eva-Lena is playing a song that goes, ‘I surrender all.’ One of the verses says, ‘In His presence, daily live. I surrender all.’
34. I don’t have the answers and neither do you. But today, if you would invite the Holy Spirit, even me I know Him, but I invite Him in. I want to know Him more. He will give us the strength we need for each day. He will. I invite you to stand with me. He is amazing. I surrender all. Today, if you don’t know Jesus, we have these two ladies up here that will be more than happy to pray with you. And if you don’t understand the Holy Spirit, and you will never understand everything about Him, but you want to know that He is there, they will pray for that too for your understanding. The day you give your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes.
35. So, Lord, we pray today, right now, help us to understand that You are the comfort, You are our very present help in time of need. You will fight for us. Oh Lord, nothing can come our way that You and I cannot handle together. Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. Thank You Lord.