Holy Spirit Come

In the morning, uh, we we’ve had a wonderful time to come together in the presence of the Lord. And we were able to show and and kind of learn what does it mean to be unveiled? What does it mean to shine the light instead of keeping it hidden in the darkness to be unveiled, to show the glory of God? What does that look like? And so tonight, I want to kind of illustrate and and share with you from the word of God how to share how to shine the light of God more more boldly, how to be more of the presence of God in your darkened world in in the darkened place that the Lord has um put you in and placed you in. So, if you’re taking notes for tonight’s message, tonight’s message is simply called Holy Spirit come. Holy Spirit come. Let’s quickly read. Genesis 1:2 says this. The earth was formless and empty and the darkness covered the deep waters and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Here we read that from the beginning when there was no form when everything was empty that the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. What does this mean? That the Holy Spirit has been present since the beginning and he’s been hovering ready to move. Notice here that the scripture does not say that the Holy Spirit waited for for perfection before the Holy Spirit moved. It says that the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water. There was no form. There was there was complete emptiness. It was chaos. Which tells me that the Holy Spirit is not afraid of chaos. In fact, he did not wait for perfection. and he was hovering over chaos. And maybe you came in this evening and you feel like there’s a lot of things in your life that is chaos, that is chaotic. Can I encourage you? That is the perfect environment to allow the Holy Spirit to come and dwell over. The Holy Spirit doesn’t wait for you to have it all together. In fact, he fills what is empty and brings order to what is chaotic. The Holy Spirit came when the earth was formless and empty. My question is, do you have room in your soul? Do you have room in your life, in your spirit to allow the spirit of God to fill you? We say, “The Holy Spirit come, Holy Spirit fill my life.” But the question is, are we making room for the Holy Spirit to move in our lives? And sometimes we come up with these excuses and tell God, Lord, I’m not ready yet. I I need to get these things in order. I have to get my life perfect. And and can I tell you that God is not afraid of your chaotic life. God is not afraid of your mess. In fact, you cannot have a message without a mess. You cannot have a testimony without a test. God is not scared and wondering, okay, I’m waiting for you to get it all together. In fact, if if that was the case, then what was the need of God? The reason why we have dependence on God is to acknowledge, Lord, if I do everything on my own, I’ll mess it all up. But Lord, I am acknowledging my dependence and my devotion and my surrender to you completely because you are the one that’s able to make order out of this chaos. And so the Holy Spirit here, we read from the beginning, was ready and hovering over chaos. Ephesians 5:18 says this, “Don’t be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life, but instead be filled.” fil. Everybody say filled. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. So here we can see that you can be filled with something. Some choose to be filled with wine and that’s going to cause destruction. That’s going to ruin your life. But the Bible clearly says instead of being filled with wine, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Church, here is my warning to you tonight. I want you to write this down. This is my this is my warning to you that there is a difference between feeling God and being filled with God. I’m going to say that again. There is a difference between feeling God and being filled with God. What does that mean? that not everyone who feels God means that they are filled with God. How many of us have ever come to a church service, we feel the goosebumps, we feel the presence of the Lord so strong in this place and then we go back into our cars and it’s back to the chaos. It’s back to everything. And we forget all that the Lord had just done a few minutes ago in the midst of his presence, in the midst of the church service and and all that is gone away. stayed in the church and instead we are going back to our everyday life forgetting what we are filled with. My question is are you are you living your life by just a feeling of God or are you being filled with God? You can write this down. God is not looking for a visitation. He’s looking for a habitation. What’s the difference? The difference is and pastor I’m sure you know working at a prison I’m sure you know this that people can come visit right they can come visit for a short period and then they leave but what does it mean to have a habitation habitation means I’m coming and I am living with you I am being with you every every time that you’re you’re you’re walking every place that you go I am with you wherever you go some of us treat the Holy Spirit as if It’s hey you belong in church the four confines of the church. So on Sunday mornings that’s when I’m going to in introduce myself to the Holy Spirit. Okay Lord be let me be filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay. And then we go back to our everyday Monday through Saturday type of living and we forget everything that we had just learned on Sunday. He’s looking for a habitation. Are we inviting the Holy Spirit in everything that we do? Are we saying Lord I need you. I need you. I need you in every aspect of my life. Well, I need you in everything that I do. Someone once asked, “Do you need the Holy Spirit to go to heaven?” I said, “You need the Holy Spirit to go to Walmart.” Come on, somebody. You need the Holy Spirit when you’re in traffic, right? When someone cuts you off and decides, like I said this morning, to give you some other finger, not the Holy finger, right? You need the Holy Spirit to direct you in everything that you do. Let’s not just be worried about what what’s the what’s the qualifications to get me to heaven. Let’s just say how do I bring heaven here on earth in everything that I do. Am I inviting the Holy Spirit in every part of my life? So I want us to understand this. A few weeks ago, we celebrated Christmas. And Christmas showed us that God is with us. Emmanuel, God is with us. And in a few months, we’re going to celebrate Easter. What does Easter show us? Easter shows that God is for us. Amen. That God defeated death. He defeated sin. He reigns on. He is for us, right? We serve a victorious God. And then after Easter, there is something called Pentecost. We all we’re Pentecostal believers. Amen. Yes. Pentecost. What does that mean? Pentecost shows us that God is with us. That God is with us. God is not only not only for us, not only that that God is with us, but God is in us. Now we are able to invite the Holy Spirit in our lives. Pentecost shows us that God is filling us and we have the power of the Holy Spirit. Watch this. Habach 2:14 says this, “For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with the awareness of the glory of the Lord.” As the waters filled the sea, think about how much water is on this entire planet. so much water that the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord. How many of us have been living our lives without the awareness that the spirit of God is at work? How many of us are too busy making our plans to work and we are not allowing the Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit, can I invite you into my plans? Can I invite you into my career? Can I invite you into what I’m thinking that I’m going to do for the rest of my life for 5 to 10 years? Can I invite you, Lord? Let me be aware of your presence. How many of us have ever, you know, gone and and driven by a a homeless person and we’re like, “Okay, we’ll just keep going with our day.” And we’re not aware. Maybe we’re allowing the Holy Spirit to move into our hearts and the Holy Spirit and say, “Hey, instead of driving by, why don’t you stop and ask them, how can you pray for them?” Instead of being so busy about your own priority, instead of being busy about what you want to do, are we aware of what the glory of the Lord, how it’s hovering around us? My brother, uh, he’s about four years younger than me. He was, um, welcoming the the birth of his first son a couple of months ago. It’s been about seven months now, I think. And so whenever they were at the hospital, um they uh were talking in the hallway. Him and and the doctor were just talking in the hallway about the plan for uh the baby’s birth. And while they’re talking, there is a large person that kind of just walks by them. And so as my brother is talking to the doctor, uh he kind of looks back at the person that’s walking past him and he turns to the doctor. He says, “Is that who I think it is?” And the doctor said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” And he the doctor says, “That’s Dak Prescott, the the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. In fact, he’s a few rooms down from you and they’re expecting a baby right now and their their their baby’s about to be delivered.” And so my brother Shane was like, “Wow, he he walked past me and I was not aware of the presence of the person that was standing next to me. I was not aware of the the celebrity that was walking past me. Let’s take it beyond just being a celebrity. How many of us are in church right now and we are not aware of the glory and the majesty of the Lord that we serve? How many of us are not aware that we serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? And yet here we are. And like I said, I didn’t turn around during worship, so I I didn’t see how people were worshiping. But here’s how I assume that people were worshiping. Who else is worthy? There is no Okay, let me look at my watch. No one. Only you, G. I’m very hungry. I wonder what I’m going to have for dinner. Who else is worthy? Oh, yeah. I have work on Monday. I have to do these things. Who else is worthy? Oh, yeah. I forgot to send that email. Let me send that email. Uh, there is no Okay, are my kids paying attention and listening? Okay. No one only. And And we’re not giving our full attention and devotion to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. When we understand the magnitude of the God that we serve, that will reflect in how we worship God. I don’t know about you, but I do not serve a small God. I don’t just serve a casual God. I serve an intentional God that deserves an intentional worship. I don’t care who’s on the stage. I don’t care who’s leading worship. It could be someone singing completely off key. Guess what? They’re not singing for me. I’m going to be joining them in worship. Because guess what? If you are bored of worshiping God here on earth, I have bad news for you. Heaven is not the place for you. I I hate to burst your bubble. If you hate worshiping, you are definitely going to hate going to heaven. You know why? Because in heaven, what it says that we are going to be circling the throne room and singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is to come. And can I tell you that we are going to be worshiping God for eternity. It’s not just a moment that we fill on the calendar, but Lord, I pray that in my in my everyday walk that I’m bringing the presence of God with me wherever I go. Do you understand the power that you have that you have the authority? Even when you walk into a prison and everything’s chaotic, you are an ambassador of the prince of peace. Meaning, every step that I go, every step that I take, I’m bringing peace with me. Amen. And sometimes we’re allowing the environment around us to dictate how we will feel rather than us saying, “I will not accept this. I’m going to allow the presence of the Lord to overcome this place.” Do you understand the power of the Holy Spirit? The power of the Holy Spirit allows us to do supernatural things beyond our own ability. The power of the Holy Spirit allows God to bring the super to our natural to make things supernatural. You understand this? The power of the Holy Spirit allows God to bring the extra to our ordinary to make it extraordinary. Just the power power of the Holy Spirit. And some of us are just so casual in the presence of the Lord. Oh, it’s ICPF meeting. I have nothing better to do on Saturday night. So, I might as well just come into the presence of God. I might just come to the meeting. No, I want you to think this out of your mind. Just to get all these plans out of your mind. Think about this. That before time was created, God knew that you would be in this room in your pew for such a time as this. You could have been born any other time, but God had you living here for a reason. God has you um on on here for on a sun Saturday night for a reason. And so we’re we’re saying, “Okay, Lord, what is your intent in intention with me? What what is your desire for me? What is your plan, your purpose for my life? Lord, don’t let me just be casual, but Lord, let me be intentional about every day that I live my life.” When I guaranteed our next breath, the question that I have to ask you is, if you were to die right now and you were to get before the Lord, would God be pleased with the way you just worshiped 10 minutes ago? If that was the last opportunity you’re able to give God worship, would God be satisfied? Would God be exalted in the way you’re worshiping? This is something that I want us to think about. that when we have the power of the Holy Spirit, it should affect everything that we do, the way we move, the way we breathe. So, who is the Holy Spirit? Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is considered the spirit of the Trinity. He is also known as the advocate, the Comforter, the counselor. He’s referred to a Holy Spirit. Some refer to him as the Holy Ghost. Some refer him to the spirit of God. Some know the Holy Spirit as a teacher. So now that we know who the Holy Spirit is, what does the Holy Spirit do? Galatians chapter 5 16- 25. Galatians chapter 5 16-2. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants you to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. How many have ever felt that fight between your flesh and the spirit? Your your spirit wants to get into the word. Your spirit wants to read. I I my dad whenever we were growing up, my dad brought this and brought this up to my attention and I was uh I could never stop seeing it. It’s so funny that only during, you know, we’d be watching TV in the nighttime. We’re laughing and we’re, you know, having a good time and then when dad calls us for family prayer in the evening, right? Let’s read the Bible. Let’s start praying every time without fail. When we start praying, Lord, thank you so much for giving us this wonderful day that you’ve added to our life and you just start yawning. Has anybody ever felt this way like during it’s always during family prayer all of a sudden we have this spirit of sleepiness over our lives all of a sudden, right? We’re we’re trying to stay awake. We’re trying to pray and sometimes we fall into heavenly peace. we fall to to sleep, right? And we’re trying to see this competition of these bold forces, right? My spirit wants to pray. My spirit wants to be with the Lord, but yet my flesh wants me to be distracted. And so many things are flooding through my mind and and I’m not able to concentrate on what the Lord has for me. So these two forces are constantly fighting each other. Let’s read the next verse. So you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the spirit, you are no longer under the obligation of the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger. How many has an anger problem? Don’t raise your I’m just don’t raise your hand here in this place. Selfish ambition, dissension, division, enginess, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like this. Let me tell you again as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. I want us to analyze our life right now. Are there anything that was being described that we are participating willingly or unwillingly? they will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed their passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified him there. Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. One of the most often overlooked fruits of the spirit is self-control. Many of us are quick to blame others for our behavior. I’ll show you this. I’ll give you an example. Pastor Steve, you don’t understand. My wife makes me so mad. She always wants to irritate me. She always wants to push my buttons. Pastor Steve, you don’t understand. My wife wants me to get mad. She makes me so mad all the time. My response is, “Wait, your wife makes you bad.” Who’s in control of your emotions? You or your wife? When you say some situation or someone makes you mad or makes you irritated, kids, oh, my mom makes me so mad. My dad makes me so angry. Who makes you do all these things? You can’t blame someone else for your behavior, for your feelings. We have to take ownership. We have to take self-control over our feelings. No one can make you do anything. You are in control over your own feelings and your own behaviors. And so, we have to take those thoughts, those things under the subjection of the Holy Spirit. There’s some sometimes, my goodness, my kids want to test every fruit known to man. And I have to remind myself, Lord, help me with these fruits of the spirit. Sometimes, if I’m honest with myself, my behavior produces a sour fruit rather than a sweet fruit. Right? The presence of the Lord should be able to take these sinful things, sinful behaviors, sinful patterns out of our lives. Many of times, listen to my heart, especially us Pentecostal Malle believers, we say, “Come to Terry meeting. Come to fasting and prayer. I want us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And we are waiting for the infilling of the Holy Spirit in the evidence of speaking in tongues, right? And we’re waiting for the drum beat to get faster. We’re clapping our hands a little faster. We’re getting a little louder. And we are so all of a sudden we’re speaking in tonesues. There’s nothing wrong with speaking in tonesues, but listen to me when I say this. God is not impressed with you speaking in tongues and yet gossiping in malleum or English. I know the conviction of the Holy Spirit right here. How many of us have been guilty? We’re praying, we’re fasting, we’re we’re believing, we’re being filled with the Holy Spirit. The spirit of God is moving so strong in this place. And then as soon as we get in the car and he need that money didn’t give me a handshake or praise the Lord. He didn’t even say hi to me. He said hi to everybody else. Can you believe what the pastor said? I can’t believe what that pastor You know what I heard about Mama? I don’t know if there’s any here, but did you hear what I heard? Right. And we’re we’re gossiping. We’re talking about all these other things and we’re we’re doing all these things. We’re maybe venting to our spouse. Do you know who’s listening to all of these things? Our kids in the back seat. Wait, wait, wait. We’re giving a mixed signal to our kids. We’re speaking in tongues and we’re being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Five minutes ago in church, we took Holy Communion. We said the benediction. And as soon as we get in the car, we are all of a sudden gossiping about different people, talking against our pastors, doing all of these things. And yet we’re expecting our kids to be respectful to their parents. And yet the kids are not seeing the parents being respectful to their own pastor or their own leadership. I know I would not get any amens during that part. No, it’s okay. Don’t say amen for the sake of say amen. No, no, no, no. Yeah. And you know what the kids are saying and like I said, this is my own um observations. I remember being in in in um church and I was raised for the majority of my life in the American church, but for two years in in the maybe when I was 12 or 13, I was uh we were going to a Malle church in the Dallas area. And I remember one day that they were announcing that there’s going to be a committee meeting. There’s going to be a general body meeting. And all the kids got excited about this general body meeting. And the kids are whispering to themselves, “Oh my goodness, this is going to be great. You got to come to church next week. It’s going to be the general body meeting.” I was so confused. Like, why are they so excited about a general body meeting? I mean, it’s a committee meeting until I attended the general body meeting the next week. I came the next week. I’m wondering I I’m a naive, you know, innocent person. I’m not raised in this kind of environment. And then I saw all the fruits and there there’s all of the sudden yelling and there’s divisiveness. Mind you, this is my first exposure to a general body meeting. And the cops were being called during the general body meeting because there was in I say intense fellowship in the body of Christ. People were trying to like lay hands on each other forcefully. And I’m like, “Oh my goodness, what’s going This is This is better than WWE on TV. I mean, we’re we’re watching Smackdown right here in church. What are we showing our kids? I know Arizona, you we don’t deal with any of these problems. I’m talking about the people in Dallas. Okay, the people in Dallas. What are we what are we showing our kids? What kind of example are we showing? Are we trying to fight for positions just to have a title on our on our name? Honestly, I want us to ask ourselves this. Why are we fighting for earthly titles when we should be saying, “I’m going to be fighting against the prince of darkness?” Because there is an enemy that’s trying to steal, kill, and destroy this next generation, and I’m not going to allow the enemy to come in as a thief in the night to distract or to destroy my family. What are the things that we are fighting for? Instead, we are wasting our time fighting his flesh and blood, but we we’re really ignoring the real enemy against the church. I want us to understand that we cannot say that we are being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, but at the same time, we’re being filled with our own ego. Our actions are fueling our behaviors. I know this is a convicting message, but I want us to understand that if we want to see a better generation from the next generation of the church, then there has to be some things that need to be shaken up. There has to be some things that need to be cleaned up. No longer can we do church as ordinary. We need to start saying enough is enough. I am tired of seeing the enemy wreak havoc in families. I’m tired of seeing the enemy wreak havoc in churches. From this day forward, I’m going to take a stand of holiness. I’m going to take a stand of purity. And I’m going to allow the Holy Spirit to dictate every part of my life. And the way I move and the way I breathe and the way I talk to my wife in every aspect. Oh, Pastor Steve, you don’t understand. Oh, my my my dad had this way of showing anger. When he got angry, he used to hit my mom, and that’s the only way I was raised. So, now I’m going to hit my wife. No, no, no. You have the authority to break every generational curse. The the generational curse does not have to be passed on to you or your next generation. You have the authority through the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit. We can use the power of the Holy Spirit either as an excuse or as a a method to change radically the way we live our lives, the way we are moving, the way we are acting. People of God, listen. I am very fearful that when the Lord comes back for his bride, the bride is going to be too busy fighting against each other. How many medical professionals do we have here? Any medical? We have one, two, couple of medical. Okay, I’m going to ask you a question. I want you to answer. Okay. There is a there is um a specific word when the body attacks itself. What is it called? Autoimmune disease. When the body attacks itself. Isn’t that so funny that the body of Christ, we are attacking our own body as the body of Christ. We’re attacking ourselves. We have uh the autoimmune disease of the body of Christ. And the enemy is just sitting back and he’s enjoy he’s probably eating his popcorn, watching all the divisiveness, all the politics, all these different things. Remember, okay, I came from Dallas. I’m just pause. I came from Dallas. I know nothing about what’s going on. So, if you feel like someone has been telling me about your behaviors or different things that no one told me anything, that’s the Holy Spirit convicting you. You have to deal with that with the Holy Spirit. Okay? I know nothing about what’s going on. So, I just want to put that statement right there. Okay? I I say this to every motherly church that I go to. I don’t know anything what’s going on. Okay? But the whole I feel like the enemy is sitting back and he’s saying, “Watch this. I’m going to start sewing seeds of dissension and divisiveness.” And we are doing the enemy’s job for him. And we’re blaming the enemy when we’re the ones fighting against each other. the autoimmune disease of the body of Christ. We’re fighting. Let’s start saying, you know what? Let’s put that fighting energy towards one enemy. Let’s start putting all of our energy to fight against who’s going after this next generation. Like I said, the enemy is coming to steal, kill, and destroy. So, we read, we talked about who the Holy Spirit is, what does the Holy Spirit do, and I want to also kind of Oh, sorry. Yes, we talked about what the Holy Spirit does. And I want us to kind of illustrate a few more things before I I finish. The Holy Spirit guides us away from sin. The Holy Spirit helps us fight against our flesh. it. The Holy Spirit fills us with fruit that reveals God’s nature inside of us. But what grieves the Holy Spirit? Have we ever thought about what am I doing? Anything that’s grieving the Holy Spirit? What grieves the Holy Spirit? Harboring hate or bitterness? There’s maybe some people here that even within your own family, some of your brothers or sisters, cousins, even within your own family, there’s been a lot of dissension. And you haven’t talked to some family members in years because there’s been divisiveness. You’ve been holding on to bitterness. You’ve been holding on to that offense. You’ve been holding on to what they did against you. Can I tell you that you holding on to this bitterness is not doing anything for them. It’s not doing anything for you. It’s eating you alive. This is grieving the Holy Spirit. And I wonder if the Holy Spirit’s trying to flow in your life, but because we are harboring such animosity against our fellow brothers or sisters, literally our brothers or sisters, if we’re harboring so much offense towards anybody that’s done us any wrong, the Holy Spirit’s probably in heaven saying, “I’m trying to fill your life, but there is so much garbage that’s in the way. But tonight is a night of freedom where we can say Lord what I listen to what I’m saying. What I’m saying is not an excuse to say what they did was right. They may have done something very evil. They may have done something wrong against you. But can I tell you that God ultimately has the final say. God is a God of conviction. God is a God of justice. God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond all you could ever think or imagine. Have you ever given it to God? Say, “Lord, instead of me holding on to this anger, instead of me holding on to this offense, Lord, I’m going to cast it at the foot of the cross. I’m going to allow you to take care of this.” Because many of us hold on to offense and we’re holding on to all these things and what it’s doing, the enemy is using it to eat and steal our joy, to steal our pain, to steal our peace. Another thing that gives the Holy Spirit is walking in disobedience. Walking in disobedience. What are some things that the Holy Spirit, you know, that the spirit of God has commanded you, convicted you to take an a step of action, but because maybe you’re fearful, maybe you’re scared of the unknown, you have yet to step out into faith, whatever, whatever the Lord is asking, whatever the Holy Spirit is asking you, partial obedience is still disobedience. Lord, can I just partially obey you? Can I do not everything that you ask, maybe just one step of what you asked me? and and God is saying, “I’m asking you to completely put your trust in me.” What what step of faith has the Lord been asking you, and you are being too timid, too shy, too afraid? I get it. Understand quickly. I’m going to share this very quick testimony. I was serving on staff at an American church for about 14 years. Seven of those years, I was a youth pastor. When I started uh my role as a youth pastor, I inherited a group of nine students. And I was like, “Okay, great. This is my youth ministry. I’m going to uh love them. I’m going to show them Christ. I’m going to help guide their their walk with Christ.” And then the Lord, you know, showed me, hey, instead of looking at just these nine students as your youth ministry, I want you to look at your city. How would you pastor your city? How would you be the youth pastor over your entire city? So then my mind shifted and said, “Okay, I need to start being more intentional about reaching my entire city for Jesus.” So then I started doing more events that was geared towards the city. And by God’s grace, we were able to grow our youth, just our youth ministry. This is ages from 12 to 18. We were able to grow our youth ministry from nine students to over 300 students in seven years. I’m not saying this to pat myself on the back or anything. Listen to what I’m saying. The the ministry was exploding. It was growing very fast. And so me and my wife, we built a brand new house in 2018. We signed on the dotted line. We signed a 30-year mortgage for this beautiful house. March 2018. One month after we had signed, the Lord asked me this question. Steve, do you enjoy your comfort being a youth pastor or are you ready to pursue my calling on your life and see everything that I have for you? Number one, I did not like this question because what it required was for me to surrender everything that I have and follow him to the unknown. The Lord asked me, “How much do you trust me? Do you trust me a lot or just a little? Do you preach about trust or do you really live out trust? Pastors are the worst. We preach a lot of things, but when you look at the way we live our life, maybe a lot of things that we don’t practice what we preach, but now the the Lord is asking me, I want you to start putting your money where your mouth is. Let’s let’s see if you really believe me. Let’s see if you really trust me. And during this season, my wife and I, we’ve been married for five years at this point. And how many know that in our Mala culture? Immediately after we getting married, the first question that people want to ask, morning any good news for us? And we know what the code word for good news is, right? We understand. And I remember my my own mother-in-law was asking after the honeymoon, good news, mom, we just got married two weeks ago. Relax. We’re trying to live our life. So after year one, people are asking, you know, good news on day. We everything’s going to be okay. We’re we doing everything in God’s time. Year two comes along. Okay. No kids. Okay. Interesting. And then year three comes along. Now there’s murmurings. Everybody’s asking, “Man, is everything okay? You know, it’s been three years since you’ve been married.” I’m like, I know. Listen, we’re doing our part. We’re just waiting for the Lord to provide. And year four is coming along. Now, we’re not having any. We’re trying, but we’re not having any kids. And so, me and my wife, we say, “Okay, now we’ve been trying for four years. Let’s go and talk to some doctors. Let’s see what’s going on.” We end up going to this one doctor in Dallas. And I remember very specifically on her desk was a magazine. And on the front cover of this magazine, number one fertility doctor ranked in America. And it was the picture of the the doctor that we’re seeing. So I nudged my wife. I was like, “Blessie, this Dr. How is going to be the number one fertility? She’s definitely going to know the answer of what’s going on with us.” So they run all these different tests on me and Blessing. I mean, they poke and prodded everything. All these different tests on me and Blessing. Everything comes out normal. There’s no abnormal, you know, findings or anything like this. And the doctor is confused. The doctor’s like, “According to all these tests, according to all these reports, everything seems normal. I don’t have an explanation of why you’re not getting pregnant.” I didn’t like that answer. And so I said, “Okay, what’s our next step? We’ve been trying for four years. What’s our next step?” Okay, here’s what you can do. You can try fertility treatment. At this point, interest does not cover any fertility treatment. This is coming out of our own bicep. Okay? $5,000 for one round of treatment. My wife is giving herself injection with all these hormones and and we’re trying all these different things. This is all in the midst of us buying a brand new house, signing a 30-year mortgage, and then the Lord is asking me, Steve, do you like your comfort being on staff at a church, or are you ready to leave everything behind to pursue the full calling that I have on your life? And I remember, okay, we’re we’re going to try this fertility treatment. Let’s see what’s going on. The fertility treatment fails. And we go before the Lord broken, crying, literally crying before the Lord. And the Lord I I believe that the Lord spoke to both me and Blessie and said, “Steve, you guys have been trying in your own efforts to produce life. Are you ready to trust me and allow me to give you life in my own timing? I am the giver of life. This is what I felt the Holy Spirit is telling us. And so me and Blessing from that point on, we say, “Okay, you know what? We’re not going to try any more fertility treatments. If it’s God’s will, he’s going to allow everything to happen exactly the way he wants. And the same time, the Lord’s asking me to step away from my job. Do I know the next step? I have no idea what the next step is. The Lord did not call me to start another church. The Lord did not call me uh to apply for any jobs. The Lord just simply said, “I just want you to leave the job and I’ll give you your next step later.” How what kind of faith must you have to take this unknown step? I need some kind of reassurance. God, you have my back, right? And the Lord’s keep reminding me, either I’m God of all or I’m not God at all. And so it’s okay, God, if this is really your will. If you really want me to leave my job, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to number one tell my wife, my wife, bless you, for sure, is not going to go along with this. If she has any hesitation, then I know it’s not from you because Lord, you are not a God of confusion. You are a God of unity. So, I thought I had God. I was like, “My wife is definitely not going to go for this.” So, with fear and troubling, I go before my wife and I said, “Uh, Blessy, here’s what I feel like the Lord’s telling me. I feel like the Lord is telling me to leave my position at the church. I know the ministry is exploding. It’s growing. I know God’s doing a lot of great things, but I really believe that I’m supposed to leave my job.” And I’m expecting blessed to say, “Steve, do you understand? a month ago, we just signed a 30-year mortgage for a brand new house. Do you understand that we just paid $5,000 for this fertility? And I’m I’m expecting her to say all these reasons why I shouldn’t step off of my position at staff. I’m waiting for all these reasons not to leave my secure job. You know what Blessie had the audacity to say? Plus, he said, “Steve, I I trust that you hear from God. And if God is telling you to leave this job, then let’s go follow him to the unknown.” Then I went to the Lord and said, “Lord, that was not the answer I expected.” Okay, you know what, Lord? This is the second sign. If you’re really calling me to leave, then I’m going to tell my pastor. Definitely my pastor will not let me go. If my pastor has no agreement, then I’m definitely not going. So then I told my pastor, “Pastor, I feel like the Lord is telling me that my season here is done and I don’t know what the next season looks like, but I just feel like I have to step away from being on staff.” Most of the times when people are leaving staff of a church, there’s some kind of drama behind the scenes, you know, oh, maybe the pastors aren’t getting along or maybe there’s some kind of tent. There was no tension. Everything was great. The Lord just asked me to leave. My season was there. Done. And my pastor said, “Okay, give me three days to pray about it and I’ll get back to you.” On a Saturday morning on my off day, my pastor calls me said, “Steve, can you meet me at Starbucks?” And he talk to you. So, okay. So, I meet and at Starbucks. He said, “Steve, this morning during my prayer walk, the Holy Spirit convicted me and the Holy Spirit told me, if I do not release you and let you go and accomplish all that God has for your life, then God will not release what blessings he has over our ministry. So, I’m letting you go and I’m releasing you to accomplish all that God has for your life.” This was not the answer that I wanted. I have no excuses left to the Lord. Everything that I asked the Lord if for confirmation, he’s given me confirmation. And so I said, “Okay, God.” So I turned in my letter of res resignation. And I said, “Lord, I don’t know what else to do. I’m just trusting in you.” So I gave my resignation in April, May, June, two months after turning in my resignation. Me and Blessing get pregnant naturally. Two months. And the Lord is stirring up my faith. And the Lord is saying, “See what happens on the other side of obedience. You have been giving me too many excuses instead of giving me your complete surrender, your complete control. You have been giving me too many excuses. Here’s what happens on the other side of obedience. And so I said, “Okay, God. My life is yours. Whatever you ask from me, whatever you want for my life, it’s yours.” So I prayed and I said, “Okay, Lord, what is it that you want for my life?” And I felt like the Lord is telling me, “I want you to start an online conference for youth pastors. what I was able to do through your youth ministry. I want you to teach other youth pastors on how to grow their youth ministries. And I said, “Okay, God, but I mean, I don’t have any funding. I don’t know like where to go. This costs a lot of money. What you do? How do I do this?” And I just felt like the Lord told me, “You have everything you need. You have everything that you need. Just go into obedience.” So, with me, a word from God, and a credit card. That’s all that I had. I built out a website and I asked a couple of my youth pastor friends to speak a part of this conference and I was praying. I was like, “Okay, Lord, I’m going to launch this online conference for you.” By God’s grace, in 2019, we had,00 attendees from seven different countries. And I said, ‘Okay, God, I see what you’re doing. One of the attendees approaches me and he says, ‘Hey, Steve, I’m starting a youth ministry curriculum company and I saw what you did with a conference. What would it look like if we combine forces and do this conference together? I said, I would love that because I’d never want to do a conference by myself ever again. And so, we look at the calendar and we say, hey, March of 2020 looks like a great time to do an online conference. We start advertising. We didn’t realize that our conference that has already been advertised fell 2 weeks after the global shutdown. So everybody’s already at their house looking for something to do. And that next year the 2019 we had 1100 2020 we had over 6,400 people attend from 72 different countries. You cannot write a better script that I I can’t get any credit for this other than I’m just following what the Lord is telling me. So every year we’ve been holding this conference once a year and by God’s grace what I’m telling you I’m trying to stir your faith is since 2019 we’ve been able to reach over 30,000 youth pastors and youth leaders from over 150 different countries we’ve had you you name it Francis Chan different speakers you name all these big speakers they’ve they’ve spoken at this conference and you’re asking probably wondering Steve how did you afford them how do you get up I’m telling I’m telling you honest to God truth. I have no idea. God was providing and we were just walking faithfully and God is providing door after door after door after door. There is no way I’m smart enough to make any of this happen. But I do know that I have this faith that God is able to finish what he has started. And all that God asks from us is I want you just to be obedient to what I’m calling you to do. Allow me to figure out all the other details. Allow me to figure out all the other steps. Don’t worry about the details. I am the God of the details. I just need you to take the first step of faith. How many of us maybe tonight is the night that the Lord is getting your attention and making you realize there are some things that you have been afraid to take a step of faith on. And the Lord is renewing your faith. You feel something stirring inside of you. Maybe some old dreams, maybe some dead visions that God has given you. And maybe tonight is the night where God is resurrecting some dead things and saying you you you realize that I have not forgotten the vision that I’ve given you. I have not forgiven the plan. I’ve not forgotten the plan that I’ve given you. And some of us have to take the first step of faith and boldness. And we need to do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. I’m going to end off with this. And can I get the keyboard player to come up? Just just the keyboard player. It’s the last thing I’m going to say. The Holy Spirit also gives us discernment. Discernment. On April 16th, 1988, I know kids, you’re going to be like8s, that’s so long. And it wasn’t long ago. My parents were excited to welcome their firstborn son and my upper namachi came from India to welcome their first grandkid. And in the hospital, the doctors came to my father and said, “We have some very bad news. The umbilical cord has been wrapped around your son’s neck and he’s died three times already in the mother’s womb. This is too complicated of a case. So you have to decide which life do you want us to prioritize? Which life do you want us to save? The life of your wife or the life of your son. My dad being a strong man at that time said, “The Holy Spirit has promised me a family and I am not walking out of this hospital without my entire family.” At that moment, my mom said that she felt like she had to go to the restroom. And the doctor said, “That’s not a sign of the restroom. This is a sign for just one last opportunity for us to try to deliver this baby. It’s our last shot. And by God’s grace, the baby that was delivered is the man that you see that’s standing before you now. And my mom was able to walk away without any complications. And I’m here as a living testimony to show you that we have a faithful God. But the story does not stop there. One year to the day, we’re supposed to be celebrating my first birthday. But instead, the apartment that we live in catches on fire. Everything that my dad had saved up to that point coming, he moved from India just a few years prior, everything that my dad and my mom saved up for them, everything’s burned up in in the matter of moments, but God spared my life. When I should have been in that that apartment, God spared my life. And I’m standing before you to let you know that we serve a real God. And then at age at 14, every year at this point when I was growing up, I used to go to summer camp with my youth group. But for whatever reason, this particular year, I decided, you know what? Instead of going to summer camp, let me go to summer school. Let me try to get some credits under my do my belt so I can graduate early. I can go to college. I thought I had my whole life planned out at 14. And I told my dad, “Dad, I know that you had paid the down payment to go to camp. I know that’s a last minute decision, but I feel like I should go to summer school instead of summer camp. And my dad said, “You know what, Steve? That’s so funny that you mentioned that because I was going to tell you, but I don’t feel like you should be going to summer camp this year.” And I was just afraid of how you would react. I just didn’t know how you’re going to take the news. But I feel peace in my spirit. You shouldn’t be going to summer camp this year. So that Sunday, we had a group of students in our Sunday school group and everybody’s excited about going to camp the very next day. And my youth pastor says, “Steve, I heard that you’re you’re not coming with us to summer camp. Is that true?” I said, “Yes, pastor, that’s true. I’m not going to summer camp with you. I’m going to take summer school instead.” And my pastor said, “But you’ve already paid the down payment. We’ve we already have a seat for you on the bus. Just miss one week of summer school. come with us to summer camp. It’s going to be fun and then you can make up all your work when we come back. I said, “Pastor, I know I I can’t do that. This is gonna be so much work. I can’t make up that much work, but you guys go have fun. And when you guys come back, we’ll talk about it. We’ll have fun.” Okay, Steve, if you change your mind, tomorrow morning, we’re leaving at 8:00. We’re leaving in the morning. So, if you want to come, you can still come tomorrow morning. We have a seat safely. It’s okay. The next morning, I go to school and I’m taking a summer uh computer course. This was before text messages, young kids. There was something called AOL Instant Messenger. I know I’m dating myself, okay? This was before text messaging. And someone sent me a chat request and and this was one of the friends that I went to school with. She knew that I was a Christian. She just didn’t know what church I went to. I don’t even know she was a I don’t even think she was a Christian. She probably assumed that all Christians went to the same church. I don’t know. She said, ‘Hey, Steve, I saw something on the news just now and I thought about you. Did you hear about this bus crash? I’m like, what are you bus What are you talking about bus crash? Oh, I just heard on the news that there was a group of students that was going to some summer camp or something like that and I know that you’re a Christian and maybe you know I don’t. So, I was like, I have no idea what you’re talking about. So then I go to our local news station in Dallas and I go to the website and the headlines when I when I read the headlines, my heart sank in the pits of my stomach. It says four teenagers, a bus driver die on the way to summer camp. And I started reading the name of the church and that was the church that I attended. You see the bus driver was awake for over 36 hours. And as he was driving, my friends, he fell asleep at the the wheel of the bus, the steering wheel. And as he fell asleep, he hit a pillar underneath the bridge. And I’m going to show you a picture of this very quickly. Four of my friends instantly died. 40 others were taking were was taken to uh seven different hospitals in the Dallas Fororth area, taken by helicopter. This was this made national news. ABC, NBC, CBS. I mean, every major news station was at our church that night covering this major story. You can go to the next picture. This was the picture that was taken from the helicopter that was circling that scene. And that night we had a a memorial service for the teenagers, my friends, the people that I saw 24 hours before this crash, no longer with us. And I was so mad before the Lord. I sat I remember sitting in one of the chairs and I was so angry. I said, “God, why did you allow my friends to die? I should have been on that bus, but yet I made the decision to go to summer school instead of summer camp.” And the Lord so clearly at the age of 14 spoke to me and said, “Steve, the plan and the purpose that I had for those two that for those four kids has been accomplished. But I never want you to forget that this is not the first or the second time that I’ve spared your life. The reason why you’re breathing, the reason why your heart is beating is because I still have a plan and a purpose for your life.” Young people, I want you to hear this. If you have a pulse, you have a purpose. If your heart is still beating, that means God is not done with you yet. If God woke you up another day, that means there’s another day to accomplish all that God has for you. And I want to encourage you, if God is for you, then who could be against you? I want to encourage you that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. So we need to stop allowing the enemy to whisper these lies of defeat over our lives. But instead we need to start proclaiming the word of truth over our life. You know what enemy? I am called to be more than a conqueror. And Lord I believe that if you are for me then who can be against me? Lord I know that with you all things are possible. And some of us have to have this boldness of faith knowing that if God is on our side, then what could be impossible with the God that we serve. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe some of us this evening has been coming to a realization that we have the form of godliness without having the heart of godliness. Maybe the Lord is convicting us of some behaviors that we have been allowing in our in our own life that has been grieving the Holy Spirit. And the last thing that I want to end off is how do we receive the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a gift that we should allow the the allow ourselves to open and receive the gifting of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to be longed for. The Holy Spirit wants to be welcomed. It is a gift to be discovered. The evidence of the Holy Spirit is not just speaking in tongues. It’s also displayed as witnessing boldly, prophesying, having visions, dreaming dreams, having insight, and discernment. Don’t be satisfied with just feeling God. But I have a hunger to be filled with God.