- Well, good morning. And don't you love that video. Man, it's just awesome. Our tech team did that. They do a fantastic job. And today we're gonna begin to look at the fire on top of everybody, as we jump into a fascinating passage, and then talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in our life today. But before we do that, don't you love the song that we just sang, "Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me"? It's really the essence of what we're gonna discover today. Pastor Doug, he's just wonderfully gifted worship leader, and it's great that he's on our staff, and he finds these unique songs that are awesome and just fits so well into what we're doing here at Rockpoint. Let me also mention one of the thing before we start into our passage. If you are with us and you have a little kid, and you want them in kids programming, let me mention one thing here. This service is beginning to get fuller and fuller and fuller depending on the week. I wanna let you know that at 10:45, we have another service that's absolutely identical. So you can sleep in a little longer. Your kids have full programming. We have classes for you as an adult. And if you can, I understand if you can't based on schedule and stuff, but if you can, float on over to that service, because you'll get the same thing and it'll help provide some room depending on the weeks that we have especially as we move into the fall. So that would really help us out. Well, today we're gonna take a look at the church being born. And before we jump into our passage, let me just mention this. As we talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in our life, some of you can't wait. I mean, you grew up in a tradition where it was taught and taught very well and you love it. You can't wait and wow, this is it. And it's so dynamic and that's awesome. You're gonna love today. There are others that kind of grew up in a tradition where we talked about them, but we don't wanna go too far into emotionalism. And so you're a little cautious, and a little nervous. And maybe at this point you just gripped your Bible and you gripped your spouse's hand. You're gonna meet a few moments, but if I go too far, you're gonna get up and walk out. And then there are others that you grew up, and you're here at Rockpoint, trying to figure out what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And maybe you're watching online and you're trying to figure this thing out, and something way back in your mind, you've heard this word, Holy Ghost. And so the moment I bring up Holy Spirit, you're thinking, Holy Ghost, we're gonna have a ghost talk today, and let me just stop. We're not talking about Casper. We're not talking about any of that. Actually Holy Ghost was used with an older translation of the Bible and we prefer the word Holy Spirit. Because it is a person. It's not the force awakens within you or something. So don't be nervous. We're gonna go back to what the Bible teaches. So I want you to open up your Bibles, and I want you to go to Acts 2 as we begin to take a look at what it means to have the Holy Spirit in our life today. Acts 2, grab your phone, grab your iPad. If you need the page number in the chair Bible, it's page 909. I do want you opening up a Bible this morning. The reason is we're gonna go to a couple of other key passages that we're gonna look at as we discover together the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now you're in Acts 2. So before we read verse one, I want you to go to verse eight of chapter one. This is the key verse of the entire Book. Let me read it again. Jesus promised that there would come a baptism of the Holy Spirit. It says in verse eight, "But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you'll be by witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth." This is the map of the known Roman world. You'll see many of these countries this morning in our passage as they're named. The idea is the Spirit's gonna come and launches from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And it's really the outline of the entire Book of Acts. Now, before I get into verse one, let me just mention something here too, as well. This from the eyes and from the experience of the believers back then, put yourself in their shoes. They've been told that 120 of them, the apostles, they've been told about the Holy Spirit. They knew of the Holy Spirit, but they really didn't know what it was gonna be like for the Spirit to live within them. In the Old Testament, they're thinking Kings had the Holy Spirit, prophets had the Holy Spirit and they did some unique things, but they have no idea. They were waiting for something that they did not fully understand. They weren't real clear about what was going to happen. Jesus arose physically, and was with them in a resurrected body, not resuscitated. It was resurrected. It was transformed. And He was with them in a location, but Jesus said it is to your benefit that I leave. So He was with them in a location, but then He left. He goes to the Father and He says, now I'm going to send the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit would not just be with you. He would be in you. There's a difference. And when He's in you, we can experience the very presence and power of Jesus Christ living within us through the third person of the trinity who's with us indwelling each and every one of us. And that's very important because each and every believer has the Holy Spirit, and He is empowered us to go and to be His witnesses. Let me illustrate it this way. Let's just say, you're having a conversation with someone and they're ready to receive Christ. They're at work. They're in your neighborhood. You got them to this point. They're interested in how come your life is different. And all of a sudden they're asking these questions and they're ready. They're ready to receive Christ. And you stop and say, wait a minute, I gotta make a phone call. And you leave them, and you go make a phone call on your cell phone and you call me. And you say, "Pastor Roy, I need you to get over here right away. My friend's ready to receive Christ." Well, I appreciate the phone call. But at that moment, I just got 200 phone calls from 200 other people at Rockpoint. And they're saying, "Hey, I need you to show up right now, and tell my friend how to find Jesus." Now we have a great staff team here, but even 200 people receiving a phone call at that moment, if we were to divide that up with our pastoral staff team, they're not gonna be able to see everybody in one day. That's the point. The point is the Spirit has come to you. You have the ability to communicate your story, and be a witness to your friends. That's your mission field. That's not my mission field. They know you. They want you to tell them how Jesus Christ has changed your life. And this is why the Spirit has come. The Spirit has come so that each of us can go out and be His witnesses. Now look down in verse one of chapter two. "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven, a sound like a mighty rushing wind. And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And it says divided tongues as a fire appeared to them, and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Now let's stop there 'cause there's a lot to unpack in four verses and you probably got all kinds of questions if you're trying to figure out Christianity, you've never gone through this passage before. And for the rest of us, we need to stop. And just mention a few things. First, it says the day of Pentecost. What was the day of Pentecost? Well, the day of Pentecost was the third largest feast in the Jewish calendar. And the word Penta means 50. And it came 50 days after Passover, or we would say 50 days after Jesus invented the resurrection, in Easter. So it comes 50 days after, and it actually is the feast of the first fruits. So the 12 tribes from all over the place. And they're coming now as we move into this passage, they're coming and they're coming into Jerusalem at this moment when the Holy Spirit is coming on them. And the idea was they would come, and bring the first of their harvest of what God had blessed them with. Now, as they walked into Jerusalem and offered these sacrifices, what was supposed to happen was then they would be dispersed back to their countries to be a light to the world about what it meant to live with Jesus Christ as your King. So when the Spirit comes on this day, when they come or this season, this festival to bring all these sacrifices, they were supposed to go back. It is so fitting that now the Spirit of God is gonna come and actually disperse His people to be a light to the world the way it was supposed to be in the first place. You get it? That's the idea. Second, they were also celebrating at this time, the giving of the law. Well, what happened there? Well, that's when the fiery presence of God descended on Mount Sinai and gave the law. Well, now we're reading about the fiery presence of God, descending, not just to give them the law, but to empower all of the believers, to go out and to be a witness. And right now in this place at this time, the gift of the Holy Spirit comes and the church is born. Now, it says here that they were all together and eventually it moves to a larger location because the number starts spreading, which you'll see in just a minute. But there's a couple of interesting things here. First, it says in verse two, "That suddenly there came from heaven, a sound like a mighty rushing wind." Now he's using words that describe he's pulling from an analogy. It was like a mighty rushing wind. It was no, I don't think there was any wind. Otherwise it'll blown the house over, but there was the sound of it like a tornado showing up. And the word wind here, and the word spirit are related. Keep that in mind, they're related and the word wind can mean breath. And so the idea here is that there was a mighty breath of God that blew into their presence, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And Luke is trying to use words to describe a supernatural event. So give him a little grace here. He's trying to figure out how do I communicate what God just did. "And divided tongues as of fire." Again, he's trying to figure out how to describe this. So, they didn't all become bald at that point. So, but it's, as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Now, I don't think there were literal tongues that they were watching on fire above their head. The idea here is, again, remember fire represents the very presence of God, happened in Mount Sinai. It's happening here. And so the very presence of God is descending. And as a fire, it looks like it descending on each and every one of them. I don't think there were physical tongues, but the idea is, this is the fire that is bringing or constitutes the ability to have tongues. They're speaking in languages here, which we're gonna find out in just a second. That's the idea. So let's continue on because now he describes what they were. He says, "Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven," which you just saw. "And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language." There it is. "And they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native tongue?" And then he says, "Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues, the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocking said they were filled with new wine." There were people that were saying, all these guys are all drunk. Well, Peter mentions later on, it's nine o'clock in the morning. It's a little too early to be sauced. Something else is going on here. So what was it? Well, I just read to you, what were these tongues? Well, they were other languages. It's very clear. All of a sudden they moved from this upper room out into the numbers of people that were there, perhaps moved up into the temple precincts area, and they were speaking in languages that these Galileans didn't know for people to understand that there are proclaiming the mighty messages of God. The mighty works of God in their native tongue, from all over the known Roman world. That's what they were hearing. These are Galileans. These were predominantly foreign people from Galilee. Back in that time, that's what it was. This was not an Ivy league center whereby they would have known 25 languages. And these were the top gun school and all that kind of stuff. No, these are Galileans who for the most part were ordinary individuals who were common people. And all of a sudden it's like they got a real education. I mean, there's speaking. And it says here in languages, the mighty works of God. And there's where I'm gonna stop. I'm not going any farther. And the reason is because that's the setup for next week when Pastor Seth is gonna begin to talk about Peter steps forward at this moment with all of these questions, and he begins to communicate a powerful message. The reason I'm stopping there is because I wanna talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. We talk about the gift coming, but I think it's important, especially today in our culture, in our setting and in our church. I wanna talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. And so let's stop here, and let's begin to unpack because that's where you and I relate. That's where the rubber hits the road. It's a great story. And we'll come back to Peter's message. But I wanna talk about the gift of the Holy Spirit working in our life, because it's this foundation that we're gonna be building off as we continue through the Book. Now, as we go into the role of the Holy Spirit, there are some real abuses, quite frankly, that you pick up on in various areas and some real false teaching regarding the Holy Spirit. And it's another reason why I wanna talk specifically and look at it from a very balanced, but Biblical perspective. There are individuals within Rockpoint church that lean in a direction. Some of you will know this word, in a more charismatic perspective where they're viewing some things, and some gifts of the Spirit operating and moving today. There are other individuals who will say no, no, no, no. Some of those gifts were just for the apostles, and just for the first century. And some of you come from a more charismatic tradition where there's a lot of freedom there. And then some of you come from more, I'll say it this way, a wonderful tradition, but more of a Baptistic tradition where that's not happening. And that's why I like to free church, because we're all free. We just gather together, and we can just kind of learn to get along with one another. And that's my point. We gather here at Rockpoint with our denomination, majoring on the majors and minoring on the minors, because the differences, when you begin to discuss them are not that significant and they're secondary issues. And when we come together in the evangelical free church, we unite around the gospel to be a witness for Jesus Christ, because that's the main point. You get it? So we come together in a way that's balanced, but I will say this, the Bible is our guide and that's a big deal. And when we discover the Holy Spirit, don't be afraid of this and realize He's a person. And here's why I wanna concentrate on it. The Christian life is absolutely impossible to live. I've said it over and over, and I'm gonna say it again. It's impossible to live. You could repeat it. It's impossible to live because there's no way I can live this kind of life. There's no way that people could keep the law. That's why the Spirit had to come. That's why Jesus died on a cross, lived the life for us. So that by way of the Spirit living in us, we now can do and live the kind of life that Christ lives. Why? Because we just sang yet "Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me". So that by the Holy Spirit in me, it's the presence, and the power of Jesus living His life through me. That's because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. I can't do this on my own. I'll give you some examples as we work our way through this. Now let me illustrate things this way. And then we'll start talking about some specific topics. Some of the cars today are just so smart. I mean, they're almost so smart. I don't like them. Anybody with me on that? You get in, it's like how you drive this crazy thing. Now, I'm not that old. I didn't grow up with model T Fords. I'm not a boomer. I'm gen X, and gen Y or the millennials. We oftentimes, that's actually gen Y, and then my son is gen Z. But I did remember cars that had crank windows, anybody with me on those? Oh, I miss those crank windows. They actually worked. Anyway ... We had engines you could actually work on. And if they didn't run, what'd you do? You took a hammer out, tap something here and there, and things starts, and it goes. Now, if you take a hammer and hit your engine, you'll kill it. I mean, it's done, over with. Anyway, one of the things with AI or artificial intelligence that has shown up in our cars is there's cameras everywhere. And you have this little screen in your car, and you have all the camera views right there. And some of them are not just rare. Some of them are from the top. You can see all the way around it. It's actually pretty incredible. And I have to confess that has been the hardest thing for me to figure out. It's not been hard to push a start button. That's pretty easy, right? You know, anybody can do that. What is really hard is trusting the camera. Why? Because I was taught to look everywhere. I was taught to look around so that I can see what's behind me, on the side everywhere. But the trouble is the rear windows and cars now are so tiny you can't hardly see anything. The cars are backed up. You can't see on the other side. So the cameras really do serve a purpose, but you have to trust it. And everything in me doesn't wanna trust it because I'm constantly doing this. And then I actually miss something because I'm not trusting the camera view. And I thought that is a great illustration of the Holy Spirit. You learn how to walk with the Spirit, and trust His perspective, His leading, His guiding in your life. Why is that the case? Because He can see things you can't. You trust what He's showing you. You can't see certain things in your life. You can't see the character flaws He's dealing with. You see the problem you're heading into. You can't see what is coming down the road yet He is preparing you. He's guiding you. He's giving you everything you need as you walk this life and He's leading you if you learn to trust Him. So let's begin to do this. The Holy Spirit baptizes us. And that's what happened here in chapter two, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There was also the filling, which he says in verse four, which is empowerment. We'll come back to that in a moment. But what does the baptism of the Spirit look like today? Well, keep in mind, Acts is a transitional Book and happens in different ways. But by the time Paul comes along, and writes his New Testament Books, he solidifies what happens in this doctrine. And so that's what we're gonna follow. So the short answer is this. When did we get baptized by the Holy Spirit, where he comes and lives inside of us, well, that happens at the moment of salvation. Look at this verse. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, "For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body." Once you become part of the body's talking about here, that's the body of Christ. "Jews or Greek, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit." The body's talking about is entering into the church, having fellowship, union with one another and identifying with Christ. You're part of the church. The church was born when the baptism happened. When you get baptized, you're placed into the church. You're now part of the family of God. You're saved. You get the Spirit at that moment. And baptism at its core means unity or identification. You're identifying with Christ. He's now your savior. He's your leader. He's your Lord. You're part of the body of Christ. And you get the Holy Spirit. You're baptized at that moment, and He's with you. Now, the other passage I want you to go to, to unpack, and you can play around with this next week is, I want you to go right from the Book of Acts. And I want you to go to the Book of Romans. It's page 942 if you're in a chair Bible, and I want you to go to Romans 6, and I want you to locate verse one. Romans 6:1. This is an important subject. I want you to see this. We're not gonna spend a lot of time here, but you're gonna see again, what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Paul asked an interesting question. He says, "Well, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin, that Grace may abound?" The question basically, is this. When I'm saved, am I still under the power of sin? Whenever you read sin in Romans chapter six, it doesn't mean specific sins. It means to live under the power, the authority and the penalty of sin. Well, he answers that question, and he does so with this concept of being baptized by the Spirit. He says, "By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." That's the reason why we were baptized. And he says, verse five, "For if we have been united with Him in a death like this united, because of baptism, that's what it means at its core," I said that. "We shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like this." His point is simply this, the moment you were saved, you didn't feel it. But the Spirit of God baptized you. What does that mean? He takes you and He dips you into the experience of Jesus Christ, and places you into the church so you are united with Christ. Now your savior and your Lord. Now, when I said dipped you into the experience of Christ, He picked you up, and what was true of Jesus has now become true of you. He dips you into that experience so that now you were dipped into the experience of His crucifixion. What does that mean? Well, that means that the old life that I had that was separated from God because of my sin was crucified with Christ. He delineates this even further in Romans 6. Buried, dead, no more. That means that now I can identify with Jesus in His resurrection because now I'm dipped into the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. So now what was true of Jesus is now true of me. That old life that was separated from God living under the power and penalty of sin is dead. I now have been raised to new life, and I've been delivered from the penalty and the power of sin. I don't have to live under sin's penalty or power anymore. You get it? That's the idea. Now the best illustration I'd come up with is if I were to take a white piece of cloth, and I would have you dip that into a bucket of red dye, what's gonna happen when I pull that white piece of cloth out? It's changed its identity. It's now red. You were dipped into that experience with Jesus, even though you didn't feel it. And now you've come out a new person. You can relate to Him. You can worship the Father, you're forgiven and you are set free. And that's what it means to be baptized. Now, He unites us with others in the body of Christ. It happens at the moment of salvation. Here's another one, the Holy Spirit indwells us now. As I said, He's living in you. Here's a great verse. Romans 8:11. "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit," who what? Dwells in you. The Spirit dwells in you. Everything that's true of Jesus is now true of me. So I have this new life. Peter actually says this in Acts 2 in his message in verse 38, that if they were to turn and receive the Christ, that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at that moment. Now, because of the indwelling Holy Spirit in my life, He guides me. He leads me. He's my navigation. I like to refer to it this way, He's your GPS unit spiritually speaking. He's guiding you. He's navigating your life. He's moving in your life. And He's also convicting you at times. I mean, it's almost as if He's saying, you don't need a GPS unit anymore. You got me spiritually speaking. You've got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. For me that's as good as AAA. So you got it spiritually. You got spiritual AAA in you. And He's going to guide you in your life through His Word. He's going to convict you, convince you and move you. Let me give you a couple of examples. Have you ever been reading through the scriptures and all of a sudden, you've committed your life to Christ. You've been reading through the Bible, and it's like, something happened. You look at it and you have been convicted. You were doing something that now you're aware you shouldn't be doing any more. Anybody ever have that experience? Okay, you've all experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. That's what happened in that moment. Have you ever been reading the Bible and you're so excited, you just got to go tell somebody. I mean, you're discovering something here. You've never bombed before. So my wife, lovely Linda has gone through Genesis, and she is discovering all kinds of stuff through a precept study on the Book of Genesis. And she's pulling off all kinds of things, and she's constantly interrupting me. "Man, you wouldn't believe what I found." I'm like, "Yeah, I got an education. I learned a long time ago." No, but I don't go there. I'm just kidding. There's stuff she's finding that I haven't thought of. What is that? That's the Holy Spirit. Don't make this some mystical ghost talk. That's the Spirit. Now, let me give you another instance. I know somebody in my life who was really struggling with the issue of forgiveness. They had some people that mistreated them terribly, and they were really bitter about it. It was a big deal. Well, they're on a tractor one day. They were driving a tractor, and they were listening to a Bible teacher who was opening up God's word. And it was in that moment that the practical application was, you need to forgive and here's how you need to do it. You need to say out loud, the person's name, that you are angry or bitter towards that you haven't forgiven and forgive them by name. And I'm telling you the moment he uttered their name, and said, I forgive you, it was like, this burden was lifted off of their shoulders. Have you ever experienced something like that? That's the work of the Spirit? What did He do? He guided Him towards a passage. The truth came out so he saw it. That's the Holy Spirit. Somebody, a Bible teacher explained how to practically apply it. He was prompted. He did what he was prompted to do. He forgave and the Holy Spirit was behind all of it. That's because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit fills us. This is another exciting passage. Go to Ephesians from where you are. And I want you to locate Ephesians 5, and locate verse 18. So Ephesians 5:18. By the way, it's page 978 in your chair Bible if you want it. 5:18, he talks about this concept of filling. Now let me mention it here. He says, in verse 18, "Don't get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." Now, as a result of this filling, address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything. And he explains the result of what happens. Paul expands on this in Galatians 5:22-23. He says, as a result of the Spirit filling you, you have the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, there's character qualities that show up. Now, if you go back to verse 18, don't be under the control. That's the idea when you're drunk with wine, you're under its control. Instead be what? Filled. Well, the word means control. How do I live under His control? It's actually commanded, but it's interesting. It's not something I do. It's something the Spirit does to me, but that doesn't mean I'm not involved in the process. And it's continual, it's ongoing. Baptism happens at the moment of salvation, filling or being under the control of the power of the Holy Spirit happens moment by moment, day to day repeatedly throughout the Christian life. It's different. And the idea is living under the control of the Holy Spirit, how does that happen? One word, surrender. That's how it happens. When you get up every day, this is what I encourage people to do. You get up every day and you say, God, I need you in my life. And I am bringing to you me, all that I am, with all of my warts and all of my sin. And I am asking for your Holy Spirit now. I surrender to you. Take control of my life and guide me and lead me and give me your power to be a witness and to live the kind of life that I should be living. And when that happens, then when you read in a passage, wow, that's something I gotta do. I gotta forgive that person. Or that's something I gotta do. I gotta step out in faith. Trust His will in ways, not your own. He gives you the power to do what you've not been able to do before, but He's saying, trust me, I'm your GPS. Trust the navigation. Step out, give me control. Walk in my ways, not your ways. And when you make that decision to surrender, you are filled with his power and He gives you the ability to do what you haven't been able to do before. That's the feeling, that's it. It's not mystical, but it is a power that guides you and leads you in living out the Christian life. Now there's one more here, and here's where I'm gonna send you to a passage. I've listed several of them here. The Holy Spirit provides spiritual gifts to us. And if you're interested in more about this subject, and the role of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Kevin, and one of our elders, Scott Yorkovich is teaching a class on Sunday morning on what's called theology. And it's, I would tell you get in that class, 'cause they're gonna unpack what some of this looks like. Find out what it means to live out this stuff by going to a class like that. But the passages are listed here that list what these supernatural, I believe spiritual gifts are. And one of the big passages is 1 Corinthians 12. And the reason why that's a big passage is because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, I don't want you to be uninformed regarding spiritual gifts. And then he goes through and he says in verse seven, that these spiritual gifts are given for the common good for the growth of the body. So what is a spiritual gift? Well, it's things like teaching and service, and there's gift of tongues that are mentioned and all kinds of things. You can go back and read all the lists that are there. Why are those given? Those are given so that you can help the others grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe they're supernatural. They're not just gifted things that you get because you won the genetic lottery. He's talking about supernatural gifts that when you exercise them, they help others grow. It's for the common good. That's the idea. And he actually then gives this great analogy of the body, and he says some of your fingers and toes and eyes and ears, but we all come together using those spiritual gifts that are listed in all these different passages so that we together can grow and become a community of witnesses. And then as individuals, and as God's church here at Rockpoint, we can serve one another in love and be a witness to our world demonstrating the power of Jesus Christ. Now I will say this, regarding some of these gifts that are listed here. Yeah, as I said, within the evangelical free church, within our church, there are some different nuances with some definitions of what some of these gifts are. If you have any questions, just go talk with Pastor Kevin. He'll answer all of them. We'll help you out. But I want you to understand we major on the majors here. So if there's some differences on some of those, that's okay. We come together and we major on the majors, and we keep some of those things secondary because we're focusing on the big ticket items. And that means we want people to come to Christ and grow in their faith. And there's value in learning from one another as we walk this journey together. You have been given gifts to serve. You have been given the Holy Spirit to guide you to be a witness. And it is a wonderful, wonderful gift. Now, for those of you that are trying to figure out what the Christian life looks like, there is no better day to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit right here right now. Well, how does that happen? When you give your life to Jesus Christ. You can get what the rest of us know to be true. Because quite frankly, it's one of the of the distinguishing marks that we have as a follower of Jesus Christ that sets us apart from every other world religion. We believe in grace. You can't earn your salvation, they do. We believe that Jesus did all the work for you on the cross. You need to turn to Him in repentance and trust Him as savior and Lord. And when that happens, you get the gift of the Holy Spirit right here right now in His fullness. And you can start living this Christian life, and we'll join with you and help you. And it happens when you acknowledge your sin, and you turn to Jesus, and you confess that you believe He died for your sin and rose from the grave. And you're trusting in Him as Lord and savior. And in that moment, the Spirit will come and guide you. And then you'll be like the rest of us who have learned how to walk as toddlers, and then we start running. We begin to understand what it means to walk in the Spirit. And we're gonna unpack what that means throughout the rest of the Book of Acts. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for the wonderful gifts that you've given to us. We thank you for the joy of walking together under the power of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, I pray that as we sing and then leave this place that you would overwhelm us with the wonder and the joy of the gift that you have given to us to help us to be the navigation of our life. And I pray you would give us the strength to trust you so that when we leave this place, we would have the kind of power they had back here in this Book, to have boldness, to communicate clearly how someone can find hope in you through Christ. It's not us, it's you Jesus. Living your life through us by way of the Spirit. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.