Friendship with the Holy Spirit

Now this morning I want to speak to you about friendship with the Holy Spirit. Catherine Kuhlman said the following, Christian today operates very little in the Holy Spirit because of their ignorance concerning the Holy Spirit himself. Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 17 he says the Holy Spirit who is about to come the world cannot receive him because it neither knows him. Apostle Paul goes to one church and he says have you guys got the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they're like we have not even heard about the Holy Spirit and they were quote-unquote Christians. I believe there's four types of ways Christians can relate to the Holy Spirit. The first one is the foggy way. The foggy way is like Holy Spirit is something like Jesus yeah two thousand years ago died on the cross, Messiah saved me from my sins. God the Father loves everybody, sits on the throne. Holy Spirit is just like atmosphere, power, falling on the floor, running with the flags, yelling, screaming, weird crazy stuff. You don't want to get too close to that because you will be weird. Foggy. Some people have that view of the Holy Spirit. Let me just make something clear. The Holy Spirit is wild, he's not weird. People he uses can be weird. The Holy Spirit is not weird. I can be weird, you can be weird. The Holy Spirit is not. But the Holy Spirit is wild. He is not just a little, he's just a powerful God and God doesn't want us to be foggy, unclear about him. The second view that some people relate to the Holy Spirit and that is this, is that they are familiar. Somebody say familiar. Familiar with the Holy Spirit meaning they grew up in a church where they heard the teaching on the Holy Spirit. They maybe have read a little bit about the doctrine. They have studied the Christian foundations and they are familiar with the Holy Spirit and maybe you are in that place. In fact I was. I grew up in a very strict Pentecostal church. I mean Pentecostal, when I say Pentecostal not like some of you think Pentecostal. We had women and men seated separately. And the way we knew that you were Christian is if you didn't wear makeup, earrings and no like extra lashes and your nails weren't painted. Long skirt and a long covering. And my idea of the Holy Spirit really was very loud Pentecostal prayers. I'm talking about like no music, no drums, no smoke machine. You get on your knees and like very, very, very, very loud. It's like something is possessing you. But he was very powerful. Like I remember when people would, I was like 13 year old, get on my knees and like everybody's praying very, very, very loud. And I'm like I don't understand what's happening. But he's like feels powerful. So I would close my eyes and just start repenting. And so that was, I'm like that's the Holy Spirit. He comes on people, they yell uncontrollably and they experience this amazing connection to God. And this was amazing. Then I come to the United States with 13 and a half. My uncle, when we started the church, he says you know these guys are 13. So I was about 13 years of age. He says we need to get them all filled with the Holy Spirit, which I knew what that mean. We all need to speak in tongues. So 13 and a half, 14, we get in a circle kids. One assignment. We're gonna pray for you and y'all gonna speak in tongues. Why? Because before you get your license we need to speak in tongues. Now out of all the teenagers, I was the most behaved one. Not to be proud or arrogant or self-righteous. But I really thought I was better than them. So guess who got the Holy Ghost last? Me. Everybody starts speaking in tongues instantly. All the people that I thought they don't even deserve Holy Spirit. And the one that was worthy and qualified for six months I couldn't get tongues. Then I finally got tongues. Saturday 2 p.m at the balcony of my parents house because see for those six months while everybody spoke in tongues, kept going to the pool, Holy Ghost passed me by. So I had to now press, press in fast and pray. And what came easy, it's always been my journey. What came easy for other people took me some time. And on Saturday 2 p.m balcony of my parents house, first time I uttered some syllables came out of my mouth. It felt so good but also so scary. Because like something just came out. I called my pastor and said is this what it feels like? He's like exactly go back and keep on praying. And that Sunday I remember I came to Sunday I was like yes I got it. Open my mouth. And there I thought that's it. I got the certificate. I got the degree. I reached my ceiling. I got the Holy Ghost. That's it. I arrived. The fact that I was addicted to pornography and still struggled with many things and nothing else really changed in my life because the Holy Spirit wasn't a person to me. He was more like a force, a feeling, an experience speaking in tongues. That was what that was. I was familiar but I didn't have fellowship until 13 years later. 13 years later speaking in tongues for all those 13 years. I hit a rock bottom in the ministry. Nothing morally bad. It's just the sameness in the youth group. We would see 20-30 kids. No breakthrough. We would go for actually a year and a half without water baptizing anybody. I remember one time we went actually for eight months without seeing one new person and one new person getting saved. Our youth service was this, this, and this. On the breakthrough Sunday, breakthrough Wednesday, we had this row. When it was a really big revival, it was three people right here. Everything else was empty. In fact the pulpit was always right here for 13 years. The reason why is because there was no need to put it right here because nobody came ever to this side. And that was like this for 10 years until something happened personally to me. The Holy Spirit went from someone that I was familiar with. He became a person to me. Now how did that happen? I traveled to the Ukraine. Me and my wife decided to give our savings, all of our savings away so God can give breakthrough in our ministry. I wasn't trying to buy a blessing. I really felt that that's what I needed to do. And it was painful process, but it was what needed. Came to this pastor in the Ukraine who was seeing 600 people getting saved every single Sunday. And I'm from America, young guy that's like, hey could you pray for me while I want power, miracles, and big church. He said, you don't need that. I was like, trust me, I do. He's like, you need to know the Holy Spirit. I was like, oh yeah, I speak in tongues. He's like, no, you don't get it. You need to know the Holy Spirit. I was like, I have a sermon series on the Holy Spirit. I know Holy Spirit. I've read the Good Morning Holy Spirit. I've read Cash Lunas in honor of the Holy Spirit. I've read the books. I know the Holy Spirit. I need the power, miracles, and big church. And he says, you don't understand. He says, you don't know the Holy Spirit. You only know about Him. I was pretty offended. The reason why is because here I am, emptied my savings account for somebody to tell me something I already know. And he prayed for me and he says, I'll pray that God will release miracles. He said, but my biggest prayer for you is this, is when you go back home, that you know the Holy Spirit. When I came home and I started to pray this prayer, I said, Lord, I want to know the Holy Spirit. Not just I want to speak in tongues more because I've been doing that, but I want to know who the Holy Spirit is. I want to know Him personal, not just about Him so I can preach, so I can know Him so He can change me, change the ministry. So what I started to do is, I would take a chair and put a chair in my prayer room. Again, this is for children. I was not necessarily super mature in that area. Put a chair and I put on the chair, Holy Spirit sits here. So I finished my prayer. I did my prayer. Praise God. Worship Jesus. Confess my sins. Speak in tongues. Sit on my chair, next chair. And I imagined, sanctified imagination, wasn't coming up with anything, but the Holy Spirit sits there. And I would take about three, four minutes every time and just talk to the Holy Spirit. Nothing super spiritual, also nothing super casual. Just talking to Him as a person. Now, a lot of that was in my head, but He was here. So I wasn't coming up with anything. It's in the Bible that He lives with us and He wants to talk with us. And I started to feel His presence, started to sense that He was talking back to me and through His scripture and all other stuff. And I started to have a fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I started to wake up in the morning and say, good morning, Holy Spirit. When I would get a little bit tense and my wife would get under my nerves and pull that last nerve that I thought I got delivered from, you know, I would say, Holy Spirit, help. And He gives me just a little bit of help to zip my mouth, muzzle my mouth and just kind of be nice to her. And I would start noticing that like my personally, I started to become a better husband to my wife. I started to just as a person, it didn't make me better than you. It just made me slightly better than me. Because the Holy Ghost is not there to make you better than me, but it's to make you better than you. He started to make me different. And what started to happen after that? I started to pray for the sick every single service. I would travel and pray for the sick. I went to Seattle. It was this second story, small youth group gathering. And I just normal thing, six months already. I'm praying every time. I give a call for salvation, invite the kids to get rocked by Jesus. And then before I dismiss everybody, I say, if you're sick, I'm going to pray for you. Now for six months, I didn't see one healing, but I still prayed. I was like, I'm just going to pray. Something's going to happen. So I prayed, nothing happened. A month later, a lady brings her son for prayer line deliverance here. And the lady goes to screening and she says, I was scheduled for a surgery. They had to replace something with my shoulder. It was deeply wounded, deeply scarred, injured. She said the next day I was scheduled for surgery. But I came to one of the meetings in upstairs room, somewhere in Kent. And a lad did this prayer for healing. I felt heat going through my shoulder. I went to surgery. They said, they found out that I absolutely don't need a surgery. My soldier is completely healed. So then this lady comes up and she tells me that. I was like, my jaw dropped. I was like, you what? What happened? You felt heat? Describe that to me. Because this is first time that somebody testified that when I prayed, something happened. Now I could tell you things that when I prayed, things got worse. So sometimes when people come up for prayers, they say, could you pray for me? I say, do you want things to get worse? Because my percentage of things getting worse is higher than things getting better. So I'm like, yeah, let's just keep that one headache instead of getting you three and stuff. Because I just didn't see a lot of results in prayer. I'll just be honest with you. I'm just being very honest with you. Just because I spoke in tongues, I didn't see the power flowing through the ministry. When this lady shared that story on Sunday, she brought her son for deliverance. But when she shared that, I was like, my God, God is alive. That night we went to Portland, seven people testified of healing. And since that day, I haven't seen one time when I pray for healing, somebody doesn't get healed in the service. Things just started to grow in the youth group. Things started to just take it to another level. We started to see kids. Actually, Louis was one of the first people that got saved. And he was working at Chico's Tacos. Two weeks later, he brought everybody from Chico's Tacos. People start getting saved. It was crazy. Every week we start seeing people saved. Louis is still to this day serving and married my cousin, Vicky. And a few years later, it was funny. He married my cousin or the way I say cousin or Chico's Tacos. All right, nevermind. And a few years later, the youth group started to grow. Now, I am not in any way going to attribute that this is just because of what I did. I think collectively, there's a lot of other components. I'm sharing my journey about the relationship with the Holy Spirit. The third thing that I mentioned is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. But the friendship with the Holy Spirit is slightly different. And something that I want to share with you today about the friendship of the Holy Spirit, and that is this. Friendship with the Holy Spirit is different than fellowship. Fellowship is this, you're talking to the Holy Spirit. You recognize he's a person. Friendship is when you obey the Holy Spirit. Do you remember how Jesus says in John chapter um one of the in John, Jesus says to his disciples, he says, you are my friends and you will think because we hang out together. Jesus says this thing that you should never say to your friends. You are my friends because you do what I say. Now, Ivan is my friend. Imagine me coming to Ivan and say, Ivan, you are my friend. Why? You always do what I say. Well, okay. Well, that's an interesting definition of friendship. Jesus's definition of friendship is not you are my friend because we hang out. Jesus's definition of friendship is this, you're my friend because you do what I say. Fellowship is when you have communion with the Holy Spirit, but it will never grow into friendship until there is obedience. It's possible to have a communion with the Holy Spirit and live in sin. It's possible to have a communion of the Holy Spirit and never pray, read the Bible, evangelize, forgive, even practice homosexual tendencies like our sister shared. And walk around say, me and the Holy Spirit are cool. Yeah, but just be disobedient. It's kind of like having a marriage if you're married, you know, and my wife, she gives me these instructions. Hey, take the garbage out. And then, you know, she needs to remind me every two days, every two hours. Hey, can you, I'm like, babe, I got it. I put it in my reminder list, you know, but did you take the garbage out? Well, no, but I will. And then imagine two days later, can you take the garbage out? I learned how to say that in Greek and Hebrew. And I have a Bible study that talks about, we map direction from the garbage can to the other garbage can, and we discuss how we would feel taking the garbage out. I get it. Good, you have a support group for taking the garbage out. Did you take the garbage out? Well, I'm going to get to it. See, your intimacy with the Holy Spirit is contingent, not on just learning more about the Holy Spirit, but obeying what He asks. And sometimes it could be simple things, forgive the person. Sometimes it could be simple things, throw away things that don't belong to you. It could be simple things to pull away more to prayer. What I found out personally, sometimes what the Lord asks us to do in our hearts, it's consistent with the scripture, it's so hard that we play trade with Him. We're like, Lord, you know I don't want to do that, but I'm going to double my prayer time. I remember one time when the Holy Spirit would put on my heart to empty my savings account. I said, Lord, no, but I will double my prayer. I'm going to pray four hours a day. He said, I didn't ask you to pray four hours a day, I asked you to empty my account. I said, okay, I'll pray five. I'll have fasting, every other day I'll fast until I die. He says, I'm not asking you to fast every other day, empty your account. It's like Saul, you know, God says, go and take the Amalekites out. He's like, no, God, I'll bring you a lot of sheep, a lot of sheep, a lot of sheep. And God's like, I don't want the sheep, I want the Amalekites head. And we love to, we love to overcompensate with sacrifice where we lack in obedience. Intimacy with the Holy Spirit is contingent on this one thing, obedience. That's why when you see people who are friends with the Holy Spirit, you will think, oh yeah, they probably talk to the Lord five hours a day. Not always. It's about obedience. They are obedient. Oh, they probably fast a lot. There are people who are very close to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit uses him. It's not about how much you fast, how much you pray and how much you read the Bible. Yes, all of us have to pray. All of us have to fast. All of us have to read the scriptures, but ultimately we have to obey what he tells us and what he asks us to do. There are people here today, when the Lord begins to speak to you, say, hey, cut away that drink, cut away those friends, or maybe walk away from that, begin to serve, begin to, begin to do that. For me, I remember there was a time where like, hey, write a book about deliverance. I was like, no, I'm not writing a book on deliverance. I have a high school diploma. I'm an immigrant. But some people think I'm a Russian spy. I am writing no books. Who is going to publish it? And I was like, Lord, you'll see, you'll see that I'm not called to write a book. I called two publishing people. They didn't even pick up my call. I was like, uh-huh. See, I'm not called. He says, I didn't ask them to publish it. I asked you to write it. I said, but who's going to publish it? He says, use Google. Figure it out yourself. I credit you as an intelligent human being. Use that brain. And today when I published it, you know, and this week is, I think it's a fifth book. Now I have publishing companies. Some of them are the same ones who didn't pick up my call. But now with message like, hey, we want to publish your next book. I was like, where were you five years ago when I really needed you? Obedience unlocks friendship. Fellowship is when I hear him, when I talk to him, but the friendship is when he speaks to me and I listen to him. I remember when we came from Ukraine and I let my cousin borrow my car. We had two cars, two Toyota Camrys. And we needed two cars because we lived in Richland. I worked at the church lawn. I worked at the local BMW over there in Richland. So we drop off. I give my car to my cousin for a week while I was in Ukraine. And we come back. We just gave that big sacrifice that I was just telling you about. And I come back and I said, Lord, just speak to me. God, I just want to hear your voice. Holy Spirit. Anything. I don't pray those prayers anymore, but when I was younger, I prayed those prayers. Lord, anything you ask me, I'll die for you. I'll go anywhere. You know, emotions are high. Devotions are low. And I remember at two in the morning, I can't sleep. I have a jet lag. So I decided to go to the local bank to withdraw money for a tithe. And as I'm driving, so happens I'm driving by the house of my aunt, where my cousin lives. And my car is parked in the driveway. And I get this weird thought. Give your cousin your car. I was at two o'clock in the morning hearing voices. This is not good. And I sped up. I was like, no, that's my car. What about my wife? Who's gonna, I mean, who's gonna take us? No. So on the way back, I was like, I'm not driving back that road. I don't want to see my car. I want my cousin to drop off my car. I don't want to see my car in her driveway and start thinking weird thoughts. Withdrew my tithing. I'm going out the other way. And then I'm remembering the prayer I prayed on the way there. God, anything. I said, God, anything except to Yorack Camry. And then I wrestled from two o'clock till six. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep. Part of me is like, but what if that's not God? What if, so what is this gonna stop? So giving to Yorack Camry. What about, what if God's gonna come for the second one? God sees that you're like yielding to start taking everything. My wife woke up and I said to the Lord, I said, Lord, if this is you, my wife has to agree with it instantly. And she will have to know we're going to have one in one car. So we're eating breakfast and you know, and I'm nervous. My heart is beating like this. I don't want to do it. And I'm hoping my wife will not agree. So I will have a good excuse. So I tell her, I said, listen, I know we just gave everything. We're not seeing any changes, but what do you think if the cousin, the, my cousin, you know, who keeps the car, what if we just, just keep the car? Let her just, just, just, just, just, I'm using a lot of just, just, and my wife even finishes my sentence. She's like, let's do it. Let's, you know, we're young. We don't have children. And I almost felt like, God, you got to her. This is not fair. I'm over there wrestling all night and she just wakes up and she hears directly and she's completely fine. And I'm over there like, Oh no, God, this is so hard. And she's just like, yeah, let's just do it. Well, because it was my car, it was not her car. So it was way easier. And then a lot of transit and a lot of borrowing and everything. But honestly, looking back at it, a year later, I was in the meeting and a good friend of mine, Andres Bisoni, who I was watching and reading books. And when I started to do these acts, I didn't do them so I can be generous. I did this so I can be obedient. I understand some women think Holy Spirit will never ask you of that. See, when you have these guardrails in your life, where you only think Holy Spirit tells you only what you like to hear, you might not hear those things. Holy Spirit leads you to become more like Jesus, not to become more like you. And so a year later, after about a few of these things, we end up giving Lana's car. So we end up with both cars. So like we end up with nothing, pretty much almost. But it was our journey. This is not everybody's journey. This was our journey. I was willing, and I'll be honest with you. At first, I only said it, didn't mean it. With time, I meant it. I was willing to give my whole life so that I can know this person, the Holy Spirit. I wanted to know him, not just about him. I lived my life, Christian life, for 15 years. I call it a pigeon religion. It was more like a pigeon religion. It wasn't a dove. I didn't sense that presence, that anointing, that grace, and I wanted that. And I set my heart for 12 months. What if I'm just going to give all of it when he asks, and just leave my life with him? If I don't do it, the devil can take it anyway, and stuff. So I'm just going to do that. I remember a year later, we're at the meeting, and there's a person, he's praying for everybody. He comes up to me, and he grabs me with my hand, and he says, God wants me to tell you, the Holy Spirit considers you as his friend. Oh man, I just like, I felt like, to me, that was more important than anything else. And after that, I held on to those words from this man of God, and I said, Lord, that's my desire. Some people want to be friends with this president, that president, that famous person, or that. I want to be friends with the most famous person in the world, the Holy Spirit. You can be friends with him too. It starts with being more familiar, which is exactly what this message is, bringing your familiarity a little bit more. Then you start with fellowship. But I do have to warn you, to go deeper, and to go further, there is a cost. And it might not be, might not be anything with cars. For me, the reason why it was cars and money, is because my heart was so attached to that. For you, it could be fasting. It could be prayer. It could be honestly serving. For you, maybe it could be commitment, committing to church, prioritizing your family, whatever that is. But it's going to be in line with God's word. It will not be in line with your flesh. I can guarantee you that right away. And it will be something that more of you will die, more of him will live. And then the very area where you are tested the most, will be the areas you will get the most breakthrough. Amen. I want you to open your Bible with me. So this was my introduction. Let me just give you the conclusion, and then we're going to pray. Genesis chapter 24, Genesis 24 and verse 1. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, please put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. I want to share with you just five things about going deeper in the Holy Spirit, especially cultivating friendship. Number one, the Holy Spirit is like a ruler of all heaven's wealth. Look at this story. Abraham had a son, but Abraham had an unnamed servant. We don't know his name for sure. Now some people say it's Eleazar, but we don't know for sure. What I find interesting is this servant didn't have a name, because it's kind of like Holy Spirit. He wants to remain anonymous. You don't see Holy Spirit always blasting himself, promoting himself. He always promotes Jesus. But I want you to see here, Jesus also says that the Holy Spirit will take of what is mine in Gospel of John, and He will declare it to you. The Holy Spirit manages all of heaven's wealth. Holy Spirit is like this servant who managed all of Abraham's wealth. The Holy Spirit manages all of the resources of heaven, all of the power. In fact, God didn't even create the earth without the Spirit first being there. Miracles and signs are His activity on this earth. He's the one that does those things. He manages all of the wealth. So instead of seeking power, develop a relationship with Him who has the power. Instead of chasing after miracles, why don't you develop a relationship with the manager that has all the miracles. Instead of just saying, hey but I just want to be used by God. There is one person who does that, the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, you will receive power when the Spirit of God comes upon you. So it wasn't the power that was the focus, it was the Spirit that was coming upon. Jesus says that, behold the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to heal the sick, to cast out demons. God's power is in the Holy Spirit. So instead of chasing the power, develop intimacy with the Holy Spirit. He is the ruler of heaven's wealth. Can somebody say amen? The second thing I want you to notice is He is sent to find Isaac a bride. The Holy Spirit is sent to bring Jesus a bride. Catherine Kuhlman said, and I'm going to paraphrase it, is the Holy Spirit's job is to promote, and He's the greatest promoter, but the person that He promotes is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is sent to glorify Jesus. In fact, Jesus says that, unless I am exalted, the Spirit will not be given. He says, but when I am exalted, the Spirit will be poured out. Something we have to be very careful is, when many of us think that special charismatics, or Pentecostals, or tongue speaking, you know people who love the power, love the miracles, and all of this stuff. You must understand the Holy Spirit's job isn't to glorify Himself, but to glorify Christ. Now is He God? Yes. Can we worship the Holy Spirit? Yes. In fact, in Assyrian Creed says, we worship the Spirit and Christ. He is part of the Trinity, but on the earth that He lives in us, His goal right now, His mission right now, is point everything to Jesus. So we don't focus on the Spirit if we want more of the Spirit. We focus on Christ. Some people are like, well, but if I don't glorify and always kind of focus on the Holy Spirit, you know, I'm going to ignore the Spirit. No, no, no. You can have a relationship with Him, but His assignment is to glorify Jesus. Amen. That's why when we win lost people, Holy Spirit likes that, because it brings people close to Jesus. When we stand here, and when we worship, Holy Spirit loves that, because we glorify Jesus. He is God. He's not looking for attention for Himself. He's giving all that attention to the Lamb that was slain. And Jesus says, don't you dare do anything bad to the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, I'm going to knock you out. Jesus is very protective of His Spirit. The Bible speaks of God that He said to the Israelites, He went against them, because they grieved His Spirit. So both the Father and the Son, they fight for the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit doesn't fight for Himself. He doesn't defend Himself. If you grieve Him, He won't punish you. He'll just walk away. He always comes in loudly, leaves quietly. Samson didn't even know the Spirit left. Why? Because when he exits, he doesn't announce it. He's very gentle, very sensitive, not like easily sensitive, like we know some people, but sensitive in the sense that you can harm Him. You can cause Him pain. But one of the greatest joys of the Holy Spirit is not when you only fellowship with Him. It's when you worship Jesus, when you honor Jesus, when you exalt Jesus, when you trust in Jesus. That's why many of us, we know about Jesus from reading the history. But when you come in contact with the Holy Spirit, He makes Jesus precious. He makes Jesus real. The closer I get to the Holy Spirit, more fascinated I am with Jesus, more in love I am with Jesus, more adoring I become of Jesus. Can somebody say amen? Number three, so not only He's the ruler of the heaven's wealth, not only Holy Spirit is sent to point people to Jesus, but number three, I want you to notice what happens. So this unnamed servant arrives at the well, camels, he has servants with him and this lady named Rebecca comes in there and the servant ran to meet her and said, please let me drink a little water from your pitcher. Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher. Now I'm so glad Rebecca was not part of the feminist movement. I see the like, excuse me, someone got my nails done, little lashes over here. I ain't getting water. You got your arms, you get your own water sir. I ain't gonna do that for you. Let me ask you a question, could he get a water for himself? Of course, the guy was a guy. He had servants with him. He could have asked any of the servants, hey could you get me water? They could have gotten the water. He runs to a woman. He doesn't need her help, but he starts something. I really believe his thirst was her test. Do you remember Jesus did the same thing with a Samaritan woman? He comes up, he could, Jesus didn't even need to get water. He was water. He comes to her and he says, woman can you give me water? And she's like, and you know a Samaritan woman, she was like, you know you shouldn't be talking to me. Even you guys Samaritans and just brings all this kind of nonsense stuff. And Jesus is like, girl shut up. I can give you the living water. What's your problem? I can give you the living water. Bring your husband. And so Jesus kind of puts her in her place. She repents and he has a really, really amazing, amazing awakening. This Rebecca represents all of us and the Holy Spirit represents this servant and he comes to her and I believe the Holy Spirit comes to us and he says this question, will you give me a drink? I want you to notice the words, please indicates I'm not going to force it. It's a petition, not a command. Let me indicates I can force it, but I will let you decide to do that. A little bit of drink, meaning I'm not asking you for a well. Out of your picture, I think it symbolizes out of your schedule, out of your time. Holy Spirit wants fellowship with you. He's asking you for a little bit of water. Is there somebody has a, I'm pretty sure we don't have a pitcher, but I don't think I'll be drinking water from that. I'm just going to use this for just a second. Let's just pour some water right here into this pitcher. Sermon illustration right on the spot. Every single day that you're, let's go. Every single day that you wake up, you have a cup. It's filled with 24 hours. You spent six or eight hours with sleep, very important, getting ready, going to work, going to school and every day you have some water in your jar. You have some water in your cup. The Holy Spirit is asking you because he's a person, he wants to be a friend and he's asking you, will you give me a little bit of your time? Would you give me a little bit of your attention? Would you give me a little bit of your affection? Would you invite me in your situation? You're overwhelmed. Your husband or wife is getting on your last nerve and you're about to let them have it. What if you would pause for five seconds and in your heart you say, Holy Spirit, help, please, 911, Holy Spirit, help. And just wait for him to give you help, to respond differently. Maybe you're facing exam, tests, financial problems and you can't do it. What if he says, would you invite me? Would you help? Would you give me that water? Give me that invite me into your circumstances. Involve me in your situation. I'm God. I created this world. I can help you. Would you give me a little bit of attention? It doesn't have to be prayer. It could be a conversation throughout your day. As you're gardening, as you're putting your children to sleep, as you're washing dishes, you can be playing a song in your mind or you can be praying a prayer in your heart and have a fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Now I understand some of us may think that I just took this verse and stretched it a little bit too far. In Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14 it says, The love of God, the grace of Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Have you noticed it doesn't say the love of God, the grace of Jesus and the communion with the Holy Spirit? Meaning it's not just something you have with him, it's something he has with you. Now when it comes to the love of God, many of us do not disqualify ourselves and say oh yeah I'm not deserving of God's love. We know it's love you don't deserve. When it comes to Jesus' grace, we don't say no I messed up too much. I don't deserve that grace. No it's not something you deserve. But when it comes to the fellowship, when it comes to having this relationship, giving him of our water, developing this intimacy, many of us are afraid. I was. In fact in my mind this verse read like this, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit be with you. I was like oh I was like if Holy Ghost is going to be with me every day reminding me of what I'm doing wrong I'm gonna need a therapist because I'm gonna live my life every day being reminded. I know I'm not good enough. Imagine having a pastor chain to you. Everywhere you walk, everything you look, everything you think is just like monitoring everything. I'm like I wouldn't have peace. You wouldn't have peace. You wouldn't have peace. And many of us think of the Holy Spirit the same way. We're like man I don't want to be too close. Like he's holy. I'm human. If he gets too close like it's just ah. The last thing I need is somebody else telling me what's wrong with me. Holy Spirit does convict us 100 percent. But his conviction is different than condemnation. Condemnation is you're wrong. Conviction is your attitude was wrong but let me help you with that. Condemnation brings hopelessness. Conviction brings hope. Condemnation is from the devil. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit saying come here let me help you in this way. But in here it doesn't say and the conviction of the Spirit be with you. It says and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. Meaning Holy Spirit says I'm offering friendship. I know I'm holy. You're human. I'm extending relationship where I will guide you and help you to walk. I will fill you and I will lead you and I want to be with you. I know your dirtiest thoughts, craziest moments and I still chose to be with you. Nothing that is happening in you catches me, catches me by surprise. I don't go like OMG I can't believe she what. Holy Spirit doesn't have those moments. He's God. He knows you're capable of stupid and steroids. He knows I'm capable of my weaknesses and he still chose to dwell in me because the only hope I have of ever being holy is not me. It's the Holy Spirit. So I lean on that help. I need that help and I need to stop being afraid that I'm too dirty, not good enough, not big enough, not holy enough because the bible says that the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. A-L-L meaning you too. But I'm just a stay-at-home mom. All means you. But I'm just a construction guy. You too. But I'm just a college student. You too. But I'm just a busy businessman. I'm running so many employees. All means you too. But I don't have a YouTube channel. I don't write books. I don't preach. I just I'm just just a regular. Yeah yeah that's for you too. Did you ever said grace is not for me? Why? Because I've worked from nine to five. Did we ever say love is not for me? Why? Because I just I'm not doing anything worldwide. No no. Grace and love is for everybody. So is Holy Spirit. It's for every one of us. It's not for the elite. It's not for the special. It's not for the apostles and the singers and the men and the women of God. It's for every Christian. All means all. Somebody shout me too. Man that all that changed me. Man I was like even me included. Insecure introvert. One eye is smaller than the other one. Not being comfortable around people. Struggling with the English. All of that stuff. Even somebody like me. And man I know my weaknesses. I know the days that I don't read the Bible that I should have. I know when I fall short. I know me. And sometimes the parts of me I know I don't like. And I was like if Holy Spirit has access to all of that private information. He probably don't like me either. But he wants to fellowship even with somebody like me. Somebody like you. He knows you're inconsistent. He knows you break your promises. He knows emotionally. You say yes Lord I'll give it all. And then you change your mind. He knows all of that. And you know what the interesting part? He's the only one that will help you to be different. He's the only one that will help me. Holy Spirit doesn't make me better than you. He doesn't even make me better than my wife. I really tried to ask him to do that. But he didn't do that. You know what he does? He makes me better than me. He makes me better than me. I become different. I become better as a person. Not because I tried harder. That's why it's called the fruit of the Spirit. It's not called the fruit of therapy. It's not called the fruit of fasting. The fruit of Vlad really trying harder. No. Vlad say Holy Spirit help me. I know I am A B C D E F G. Could you help me? And then he gives me that help. When I'm impatient and I'm very impatient. Of traffic, slow traffic. My wife taking extra. Says five minutes but it becomes 25. You know Jacko wakes up in the morning at five in the morning. And I'm not ready to do my devotions. And he stands there. Touches me. Pretty much says hey I need to go. I was like dude I'm sleeping. No wake up. Be nice to the animal because the Bible says that a righteous man is not cruel to his animal. Okay dog. I'm gonna be a fruit in the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. Be kind to my dog. I'm not gonna hit him on the way down. I'm gonna pet him. And then bring him to my devotions. And I say get on your knees. Repent. Waking up your master. Grieving your master's heart. Amen. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit. He's your friend. He wants to be your friend. I want you to notice the fourth thing. After this the Bible says in Genesis. She gives him a pitcher. So she gives him water. And this girl she's crazy. Because look at this. She finishes giving him water. And then she says and when she had finished giving him a drink. She said I will draw water for your camels also. Until they had finished drinking. It's one thing to give water from your pitcher. Camels. She didn't have a hose where she brought to each camel. Put it into his mouth. And say close it. Let me turn on the hose. Water. And you drink it. Camels drink a lot of water. Camels drink 8 to 12 gallons of water daily. And thirsty camel can drink up to 30 gallons of water in one sitting. So let's just imagine 30 gallons of water. Those buckets have 5 gallons. 30 gallons of water. And this there was no hose. So you have to go to the well. Draw the water from the well. Fill it. 10 gallons. Let's just say she had those buckets from Lowe's or Home Depot. Brings it down. And remember the guy is standing there. She volunteers. He doesn't ask her. Hey I thank you for giving me some water. What about the camels? Camels are thirsty. He's not doing that. The servants are standing there. Now some of us may seem like man that's just not fair. You know she's being abused. No she's not. She's volunteering. She's volunteering to water the camels. What she did not know is the camel she's watering have gifts and jewelry that belong to her. She didn't know that at first. She waters all the camels. I just wanted to take a moment and to mention if you want to get closer to the Holy Spirit. Learn to water camels. What I mean by that? Volunteer at the local church. Volunteer. Don't wait until you get asked. Yeah nobody's asking me. She wasn't asked to water camels. She signed up on planning center. She wasn't, hey we really need help with kids ministry. No she said, hey uh kids ministry every church needs help with kids ministry. I would love to water their camels. An amazing part about the church camels is they are very thirsty. That's why some of you you've been in church. You've been hurt serving in church. You're like man I don't want to serve in church. Why? Because you volunteer for one thing. They see you're faithful. They sign you up with five other teams and then you need to be there on Saturday or Sunday and every day and it's just like a lot of water. These camels are thirsty. 30 gallons. She volunteered 30 gallons for a camel. She served in that. We're not talking about being a burned out or being abused but I do believe that God wants to build a culture where we don't look constantly for a place where we get to be shown in but we're looking for a place where we can serve. So many people look they're like God give me more power so I can heal the sick. What about using the power to help other people with the power that you have? You can help the kids ministry today without the power to drive out demons. You can help in security by learning how to use your gun. I mean you can help with the camera team by simply learning how to use your hands. So many people would come up, young people come up man can you pray for me I want to receive double portion. I said what are you doing with the first portion that you have? What are you serving with that portion? Pray for the activation of the gifts. I said the ones that got activated the last three years what are you using them for? You can't expect God to give you the jewelry, the gifts until you're doing also buckets with water watering the camels. I know you won't get the Instagram recognition. Yeah you're probably not going to get a brand deal but listen you will water some camels and you never know what that will lead. It develops a heart of humility in you. It develops your character and your maturity when you begin to water the camels. I just want to take a moment and acknowledge every Rebecca at Hungry Gen who has been faithfully watering the camels. People from the parking lot, people in the sound booth, Ryan my man right there with lights, people that have been doing the pro presenter, people that have been doing the worship team, people that have been doing the camera work, people that have been guiding and make sure that we get ourselves seated, people that are working in the kids ministry, people that are helping with food, everyone that is serving in every capacity. Can we give a round of applause for watering our camels, taking care of our children, serving with our youth, building our small groups, opening the church at 5 a.m so that the people can come and pray. We don't get, we don't get paid to do that, we get to do that. Some of us pay to do that. Why? Because we love the church. The Holy Spirit loves the church because it's the bride of Jesus and we get a chance to water the camels. I know we live in a culture today where you pick up a piece of paper and you want to send somebody an invoice. But I think God wants us to have a volunteer revolution at Hungry Jack. We will always have people that are on this paid staff. It's very important and very necessary. Worker is worthy of his wages. Nothing is wrong with that. But if we live in a culture where we don't lift a finger and we don't water the camels, unless we send somebody an invoice, we might not have the heart of Rebecca and have access to those gifts. Because gifts are not there to make us powerful or famous. They are there to make us effective and to make us useful. Amen. Some of you here, you're not serving with your gifts, but you're serving with your finances. You're serving with your resources. You're serving with your connections because you can write one check and that could really change the trajectory of a lot of stuff that happens in the church. And I want to let you know, we appreciate, Jesus appreciates when you have a heart. It doesn't just say, Holy Spirit, because this is what a lot of people have. Oh, Holy Spirit just want to spend time with you, but they don't want to spend time in the church. He didn't just, she didn't just water him, meaning give him water and said, camels, that was nasty. It's just me and Jesus. It's me and the Holy Spirit. The church, yeah, a bunch of hypocrites that don't appreciate you. They don't recognize you. Plus they backbite you and talk about you and all of this. They will just use you all the time and stuff. So yeah, I just avoid from that toxicity. I'm just going to stay away in peace. It's just me and myself. I'm going to realign myself. And so I'm going to stay where I used to do that. I graduated from that. I got my nails done. I got my stuff done. You know, like I really got healed from that. I want to stay away from ministry and all of that. I get it. I understand with respect. I want to speak with respect. I've been in the church for 20 years on the paid staff. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I've seen people leave you, talk about you, all of that. The reason why I am serving at the local church is not because I never got hurt. Jesus died for the church. He's building it. He loves it. And while there were some crazy people did some stuff to me, there were times I was crazy and did some stuff to them. I'm not perfect and our church will never be perfect. Our church will always be perfected. We're hurt people, lost sinners who found their way in Jesus, trying to build a community. We will never have it perfect. But if we have our heart right on Jesus and we all have a serving spirit to water the camels, God's going to do a miracle. Then this hungry gen will not be because of the gifts of one, but because of the sacrifices of many. I want to invite you to deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit. By what? Watering the camels. Serve the youth. Serve the children. Serve in your area. Yes, it takes time. Watering camels does. Yes, it doesn't feel like you're not getting rewarded. Yes, you're not getting, you know, there seem to be, what is from that? Well, if your eyes are on the man, then yes, it's discouraging. But if your eyes are on him, you find joy. He is being pleased. My life is being invested into the kingdom life. Amen. Hallelujah. The last thing, and they go into the house. He gives them jewelry. Everybody gets jewelry. Gifts are like jewelry, not in a sense that they are like toys, but in a sense they beautify the church, but they're more like tools. And then this unnamed servant looks at Laban and says, Laban, I need to take Rebecca. We need to go. And Laban is like, go where? It's like, well, he, she needs to go see her future husband. Now, please understand, put yourself on Rebecca's shoes. The girl, she didn't see the guy. There is no Myspace, Facebook, there's no Tinder, ChristianMingle.com, nothing. Literally, the oldest servant probably is just describing, yeah, he's a guy, has facial hair, about 5'8", and yeah, he's all right. That is pretty loaded though. That's about it. She hasn't seen him. There's no Google Maps where she can, you know, kind of track, take the satellite picture, see kind of like where, how he looks. It's totally unknown. Laban is her brother. It's what she knows. And now this servant says, I want you to leave what you know, leave what you're familiar with, and I want you to come into the unknown. And I love this because Laban looks at her and says, so you want to go? She says, of course. I believe the next level in the Holy Spirit comes with leaving Laban. Most of us know what it's like to leave bad things that hurt us. Maybe a bad relationship that is so toxic, you leave that. Most of us know what it's like to give up alcohol. It's destroying your health. It's destroying your driver's record. Most of us know what it's like to give weed, give up weed, pornography. Most of us know what it's like to give up gambling. We know what it's like to give up maybe cigarettes. We know what it's like to give up the sinful things. And honestly, and I know sometimes people come up and they say, man, such a big sacrifice. I give up drugs. Come on, really? That wasn't a sacrifice. That's good for you. You'll live longer. Oh, such a big sacrifice. I give up smoking. No, that's not a sacrifice because if God wanted you to smoke, he'll build a chimney on the top of your head. He didn't. So he doesn't want you to smoke. You'll die faster if you smoke. He doesn't want you to smoke. So that's not a sacrifice. Real sacrifice is not when you give up what hurts you. Real sacrifice is when you give up what comforts you and giving it up hurts you. That's a sacrifice. Laban is comfort. Laban is convenience. Laban is routine. Laban is, I got my budget. I got my sleeping cycle. I got my rhythm here. I got my friends here and I'm walking into the unknown. See, some of you came to Tri-Cities physically into the unknown, but God's spirit led you here. You didn't know anybody here, but there was something inside of you said that you need to go there. Some of you came to Hungry Gen and you came from a church where you knew everybody. You knew everything and you came into this unknown territory like man, deliverance, demons, Holy Spirit. It's us walking around yelling and screaming and all of this stuff. Man, I don't understand. The music is loud, but something in your spirit says that's where you need to be. That's where you're going to grow. That's where your family is going to grow. And so I want to invite you today. Do not hesitate to follow the spirit, not only out of the things that hurts you, but out of the things that comfort you and leaving them brings a little bit of hurt. Do not be afraid when the church declares a fast and you say, yeah, I am comfortable feasting and eating, but this time I'm going to push the plate aside and I'm going to leave Laban and walk into the unknown. Walk out of the familiar. Walk out of the mediocrity. Walk out of the predictable and the routine and step into the unknown. I don't know what waits for me there, but I will follow the Holy Ghost. I will follow the Holy Ghost. I remember when we gave that first card. Oh man, it was scary. What's going to happen? People will make fun of us, but see, I stepped into the unknown and I can tell you back, I am so glad that I did that because I started to see that in the unknown is where the miracles are at. See, fresh fire is found out of the borders, outside of the borders of what you're familiar with. Sometimes we develop our routines and our routines become a religion. Our religion becomes a patron religion. There is no spiritual life there and the Holy Spirit says, come, come out of the shore, into the deep, come out of what's comfortable, into the what is unknown. Come out from the complacency. Come. But I don't want to go to cell group. I don't know anybody there. I don't want to go to life class. I'm afraid to commit. I don't want to join the church. I got hurt before. I don't want to because I'm scared. Jesus is worthy of everything you're afraid of losing. Jesus is worthy. Your future deserves everything you're afraid of losing. A lot of those fears are nothing but just fears. Once you encounter the new, once you encounter the new season, once you encounter the new grace, once you step into the new level, you will look back. You're like, I'm so glad I left the elementary school. I'm so glad I left the high school. I stepped into the university. I'm so glad that I finished the university. I stepped into my career. I'm so glad that I left the ex because then I stepped into the next. Some of you cannot step into the next until you leave your ex and your ex is what you're comfortable with. Your ex is what you've been doing all your Christian life and you're sick and tired of it. I want to invite you to go after the Holy Spirit. You only have one life. Some of us die at 40 and they bury us at 70 and we just exist. We just breathe in air but we don't live. There's no more dreams. Memories are bigger than dreams. The past is bigger than the future and the Holy Spirit wants to take you out of that and say, listen, I want you to dream. I want you to believe. I want to bring my power and my anointing into your life, into the unknown. Step in. Is it scary? Of course, but sometimes staying the same is more scary. One of the reasons me and my wife decided to do some of those things is because staying at the place where I was was more scary. I wanted to go into the new. I wanted to see the Lord move and I'm so glad and I want our church to be the same. I want to invite you, a man, young man, listen to me. A young woman, you can be coming to Hungry Jan and not be friends with the Holy Spirit. It will bring me such a big grief. The goal isn't to gather a crowd. The goal is for us to know the Lord, to live in revival. Are you sick and tired of your pigeon religion? God wants you to have revival. I know revival is not shaking, baking, throwing up, yelling, and running around with the flag. Nothing gets with the flags. Revival is you being alive. Revival is you loving Jesus today as much and more as you loved him yesterday. Revival is this alive inside, fire in your eyes, winning souls, making disciples, seeing people's lives change because you are involved in them, not being perfect but being perfected. Your marriage, your family, your school, your workplace, seeing the change that you are bringing. Have you spiritually feel like you lost that? If there's those of you here today, like man, I'm in that complacency, mediocrity. I am in that place where it's the same. Something needs to change. I want you to get out of your seat and come forward right now. Delivered to you on your YouTube app. If you go to hungrygen.com forward slash sermons, you'll actually be able to download the transcript, the notes, and the quotes of this sermon and the rest of all of our sermons free of charge. Until next time.