HSC: The Call To Go Deeper | Reverend David Larlee

Join us on a transformative message as we delve into a powerful message delivered at the Holy Spirit Conference in Los Angeles with Reverend David Larlee. In this episode, we explore the profound invitation to offer God something truly unique amidst our earthly challenges—a gift that we cannot give in heaven. Discover how choosing to worship and trust God during times of hardship brings you closer to His heart.

Experience the dynamic storytelling of a church leader from East Dallas as he recounts his unexpected path from skepticism to a deep, personal encounter with the Holy Spirit. This engaging narrative is filled with humor, candid insights, and a stirring call to embrace the fullness of God's presence in our lives.

Journey through biblical passages like Ezekiel 47 and Acts 2, as we uncover the vision of a river that flows outward, bringing life and healing to all it touches. Learn how the Holy Spirit seeks to dwell within us, transforming us into conduits of His love and power.

Whether you're ankle deep or ready to be carried by the river's current, this episode challenges listeners to step out in faith, surrender, and experience the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. With practical insights and a heartwarming personal story, this message offers encouragement for those seeking more of God's presence in their lives.

Tune in to explore how embracing the Holy Spirit's flow can lead you to deeper understanding, unity, and purpose. Whether you are new to this journey or seasoned in your faith, this episode invites you to dive into the depths of the Spirit and witness the life-changing impact it holds.

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Transcript

 Thank you.

Thank you for such a great introduction.

Not all rumors need to be corrected.

Let me pray as we come to the... There's a story there I'll tell you maybe later.

Let's pray before we come to the Lord's Word.

Lord, we love you.

More importantly, you love us.

And you take us as we are.

And you pour yourself into us again and again.

Amen.

 And we want to receive from you all that you have for us.

So would you, as we've already prayed, as we've already sung, would you come and move in power now, we pray, and bring your word to life that it might tune our hearts afresh to your gospel.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Do take a seat.

Thank you, band.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Amazing.

 It's great leading a church in Dallas.

In Texas, I mean, you know, it's great leading a church anywhere.

But the thing you learn about Texans is you don't surprise them.

Because they're usually carrying guns, even in church.

So I'm not going to surprise you tonight.

This is what I'm going to, there's an invitation tonight.

 just to get yourselves ready and are not surprised, and here's the invitation.

The invitation is for you to offer something to God that you will not be able to offer him in heaven.

Think about this with me for a moment.

In heaven, there'll be no suffering, there'll be no pain, there'll be no heartache, there'll be no difficulty, it will all just be perfect, it'll be awesome, and he will wipe away every tear and all will be well.

 and we will worship him.

What you can give God, which he counts more precious than anything else, is when you choose to worship him in the middle of the hardship, of the pain, and of all of the difficulty and all the challenges.

And when we worship him,

 From there, we get to give him a gift we won't be able to give him later.

Because later, that won't be possible.

That's where we're going tonight.

So you have 30 minutes.

Eh.

Let's do the math.

Carry the one.

Maybe 40 minutes to get yourselves ready.

And until then, you know, we'll look at the scriptures.

It was fascinating.

 on the flight here from Dallas, three hour flight, amazing seat selection, thank you, Amanda.

Extra leg room, you know, the seat was empty in the middle, and then a chair broke in business class, and so someone got relegated to sit with me and the nervous person by the window, and luckily they talked, and so I watched a trashy Marvel movie, it was great.

 And then an hour left where, you know, I was starting to, you know, whatever, to think of landing, and Edward, who was in the middle, found out his name in a moment, you'll hear why, gets up to go to the bathroom, and then Marie turns to me and says, just starts talking, and so it'd be rude not to ignore her, so, it'd be rude to ignore her, so, you know, I take my headphones up, we start talking, and

 The gentleman returns, and he says, so what brings you to L.A.?

I said, oh, I lead a church in East Dallas, and I'm coming to speak at the Holy Spirit Conference at Cathedral.

He said, oh, that's interesting.

 So like, what's your job?

I said, oh, you know, some people call me a priest and other senior pastor, whatever.

He says, you're not the type of guy that I would equate with a church leader.

I said, yeah, I get that a lot.

And he says, so tell me your story.

 I mean, you just can't make, so yeah, exactly.

So, okay, like really?

And like Marie, who's still nervous, goes, yes, tell us your story.

And so I say, well, you know, I grew up in East Coast Canada and grew up in the church and we were part of the Anglican Church Canada and, you know, yeah.

 Didn't really major.

The church I went to didn't really major in discipleship.

So I had no real concept of a personal relationship with Jesus.

All I knew about the Holy Spirit is that he was like a dove and I shouldn't throw rocks at birds.

And he was fire.

And not like people say, oh, that was fire.

Now, but like in the...

 You didn't play with fire, right?

So how do you relate to the Holy Spirit, who is kind of also sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost, right?

It's kind of, ah.

So anyway, I'm telling them this.

Okay, and then what happens?

I said, well, you know, my mom...

 was a federal court judge, my dad was the DA, so I was in trouble before I thought of doing stuff.

So I was super compliant in high school, and then I went to college and it was amazing.

And I thought it'd be wrong to be drunk seven nights a week, and it is.

 Unless you're drunk on the Holy Spirit, right?

But I didn't know that back then.

So I just said to them, so I was just drunk six nights a week.

And somehow, by the grace of God, I was able to get up early, do my work, and hold down a 3.0 GPA.

You know, it's...

 It was hard work, but I got there, and then after my undergrad, my parents wanted me to do law, and I did not want to do law, so I went and did a master's in history, and I was finishing it a year early, and my parents were really worried, so they set me up with a lunch that Christmas with their friend who's the bishop.

 And so I go to the lunch thinking, oh, here we go.

I'll just survive this, then go home, watch Star Wars.

Nothing like watching Empire Strikes Back over the Christmas break when you're a college kid.

It's just so good.

And anyway, so he's there.

He's all dressed up in his big, all of his bling and all that stuff.

And we're talking.

And then he says, what do you think of the state of the Anglican Church in our province?

 And I said, I was telling Jake this at lunch.

I said, you know, I've apologized since, but I just said to him, I said, look, I don't know how you sleep at night.

I go to church for an hour on Sunday.

If I go, it has nothing to do with the rest of my life.

In the headlines that year, this is back in 2000, two infants had died of neglect in that town.

 and in different apartment complexes, and they even went and interviewed the people who lived in the apartment complexes, and they all said the same thing.

We knew it was bad, but we didn't think it was our place to get involved.

So I said to the bishop, if your church was doing what the book that I don't really know about, because I didn't really know the word, if the church was doing what the Bible says it should do, those babies would still be alive.

 I don't know how you sleep at night.

You're closing church, you should be opening them.

You're looking at churches through an Excel spreadsheet.

It was early Excel, right?

The formulas didn't work.

And Jeff, that was for you, yeah.

And anyway, so I let this loose, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna hear from this when I get home.

And he turned to me, he was, well, he was facing me full throttle, and I was like, what's he gonna say?

And he said, have you ever thought about training for the ministry?

 Weirdest thing happened.

Because honestly, we were talking and asking about an encounter with the Holy Spirit, it's weird.

It's weird because it's something of the supernatural, the creator of the heavens and the earth is interacting with us who are finite beings limited by space and time when he is not.

And everything slowed down and I heard this thought go through my mind saying study theology in Oxford, England.

 And so I just said, Bishop, funny you should mention it, I've been considering studying theology in Oxford, England.

And I was like, where did that come from?

But I just kept, I was committed now.

And he said, well, you know, normally you'd have to go through a selection process.

If you went to Toronto, we'd cover the whole thing.

But if you go to England, it's on your dime.

And I said, Bishop, you know more about this God thing than I do.

If money's the only barrier,

 It's no barrier to God.

And secondly, if this is a God deal, I don't want to waste his time.

So I'll go right away, and then I'll come back in a year and see if I get selected.

Either way, I'll get an Oxford degree maybe, and it'll be good for my CV.

He was like, okay.

And I left, and...

 You know, if I met myself now, like I was back then, I was like, no way.

You are not material.

But for...

 for any of this, but anyway, make the story shorter.

I arrive in England.

I have really no idea what I'm getting myself into at all.

I show up at this Oxford College, and the student body in there are filled with these charismatic, evangelical Anglicans.

I'd never met a charismatic, and I'd never met an evangelical.

 And they keep asking me, are you filled with the power of the Holy Spirit?

And I'm like, you know, I'm full of something.

But I don't think it's what you're talking about.

And they said, well, you need to be filled with the power of the Spirit.

I said, I don't disagree.

I just don't know how.

My best man, Ed, he became my best man.

He would say, he would pray, and I'd pray with him just to try to, I mean, I didn't know how to pray out loud.

And so I was just hanging around the people who knew what to do.

And I said to him at one point, I said, Ed, dude,

 you talk to God like you're on a first name basis.

He says, yeah, I am.

I said, could you make an introduction?

Like, I'd like to have that deal.

And you know, I was just so out of there.

And all of these charismatics, they were like drinking herbal tea, their glasses were like sideways, they were old, they had dandruff, you know, I was like, what, I don't wanna be weird.

 But, you know, joke's on me, right?

And this is all going on in row 17, right, of the airplane.

And row 16 have all taken their headphones out.

And they're all turning around, and the people in back, they're like leaning in.

I'm like, oh man, what is going on?

And so anyway, we get to it, and I said, I had all this pain in me.

 I didn't know how to get rid of.

And I had a chip on my shoulder the size of the state of Texas, literally.

And I didn't know how to relate to the world, to myself.

I probably had a heart somewhere, I just couldn't find it.

And anyway, I went to this prayer meeting that was terrible.

It was the worst prayer meeting of my life.

All of the bad prayer meetings I go to are actually really good for me.

 Because I've just offended because I'm arrogant and I need to humble myself.

But this was like keyboard, not like Hari here.

This was a Casio early days, late 90s special.

And they were singing like Shine, Jesus Shine with sound effects of waves crashing.

Oh, it was nauseating.

I'm like, what is this?

Have I come halfway around the world for this?

And...

 I had signed up for a short-term mission trip.

This is still going on in row 17.

And we're talking about the mission trip.

I have no idea what I've signed up for, but I knew I was going to the Channel Islands.

And they said, well, at this prayer meeting, we're going to pray for everyone to be anointed by the Holy Spirit for the work.

 Sure, great.

Maybe I'll get this power.

And so I put my hands out.

There are 15 of us, and I'm at the back.

And so I'm trying to fake it, right?

Because I really shouldn't be there, but I'm there.

And they anoint hands with oil, and they come to my hands.

And I'd kind of figured out tongues was like this language deal, and I knew how to swear in French.

French is my first language, so I think I got tongues covered, right?

And anyway, they anoint my hands with oil, and I see fire, and I'm like,

 Dang.

Okay, I deserve it.

I've worked hard for eternal damnation.

You know, I'm going to hell, God showed me this, so I'll just pretend to be a good person, then I'll take what's coming.

I deserved it.

And prayer time finishes, I go down to the mess hall to eat,

 I'm like, oh man, nowhere to sit, I guess.

Separation starts now, and you know, just kind of, just can't figure out why I've come to England to find out I'm going to hell.

It's like, joke's on me.

And the ministry team comes, sits down.

And they say, so, something happened when we prayed for you.

Meanwhile, 16D across the aisle is kind of looking in now, right, they're all, and I say, yeah, God told me I'm going to hell.

 Oh, that's not something he would say.

Well, let me tell you, he didn't just say it, he showed me.

I saw the fire in my hands.

The whole time, I'd been tempted to learn about the things of the Spirit because my father, before leaving Canada to go to England, had been diagnosed with cancer.

 And the moment that I'd heard that there was a gift of healing, I wanted it.

Because I wanted that gift so I can go home and pray for my father.

Since then, my father's, you know, he's in full remission.

It's just amazing.

 And so they said, oh, no, no, fire in the hands.

That's not hell.

That's the gift of healing.

I was like, oh, wait, I've been asking for that.

They say, yeah, why don't we meet after supper?

We'll pray some more.

Met after that, prayed with them, received the gift of tongues, and I was like, oh, that is not French.

Um...

 Some more happened, then the next morning is really when everything changed.

I had been going to this charismatic church in Oxford twice on a Sunday.

I had experienced everything.

I'd done everything wrong.

I was a bull in a china shop.

I'd go forward for prayer, and some of the old school people there thought you needed a courtesy drop in order to receive the Holy Spirit.

You know, they'd push you.

 thinking that if you were pushed, you would get filled with the Spirit.

I had been skipping New Testament Greek and Hebrew to play rugby.

So, you know, I got pushed.

I pushed the guy back.

And I got banned from receiving prayer ministry for a month.

And there was a staff meeting where they were like, you know, you shouldn't use violence in church.

I said, but it felt so good.

 So, you know, there I am.

But the next morning, the piano player with the sound effects comes up and he says, hey, can I pray for you?

I was like, yes, please.

Do you know that Jesus loves you?

And I said, yeah, yeah, John 3, 16.

He says, no, no, but do you know?

I said, dude, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Pray for me, then he can explain it.

So all he says is, David, Jesus loves you.

And something happened.

 Jane Austen would say, I swooned.

I like that.

A courtesy swoon feels more gracious.

It wasn't.

I hit the deck hard, but somewhere from standing up and laying down, I encountered the full, unbridled affection of my father.

Changed everything.

I knew where my heart is, got up off the ground.

Ed next to me says, I've been in AA for 15 years.

 I said, yeah, it's powerful, isn't it?

It is.

And then Marie says, and my husband's been in it for 10 years.

I said, oh, wow.

It's been really helpful.

And I said, yeah, but they both said, but we feel that they need something more.

I said, I agree.

They can't just be addicts the rest of their lives.

It's helpful.

But what I said, what we found in London working with recovering addicts is the 12 steps are incredibly powerful and you need to learn how God sees you.

 And you need to receive the identity that he has for you.

Because if you relate to yourself the way the world sees you, you'll never hit the gold.

And I said, so where's this conference?

I said, Glendale.

He said, oh, well, actually, my in-laws live five minutes from there.

Edward, are you here?

Well, that would be amazing.

He's probably not.

I should have paid someone.

But, like, that would be Simon the Sorcerer, right?

I'd be, like, wrong.

 And so that's my story.

And I share all that to you to say is that what Elijah said is right.

The only reason I'm here is because of God's grace.

You know, I went, I've seen God move.

I've had the privilege of going to places only because of him.

Only because he saw, you know, we do, I lie to people.

 All the time.

I say, you know, the Holy Spirit's a gentleman.

He never forces himself on you.

He only comes where he's invited.

And for the most part, that's true, unless you're really a mess like me, and he'll come and take you by the neck and sort you out.

And that's what he did.

You've been warned.

 and in praying for, the beauty of being asked 54 weeks ago to come this week is I've been able to pray for a year, and so Michael Hamada is like, meets me yesterday at the airport, and I was...

 What's the expression?

I was like overly familiar too soon.

Because like I just feel this connection to Cathedral because like I'm praying for y'all and just the Lord's giving me a heart.

And it's just amazing.

And so I just wanted to share, put that out there with you because I get it.

 There are probably one or two, maybe more people who are just kind of think, what is this Holy Spirit thing?

Maybe you're brought by a friend.

Maybe you've been in this world for a long time and things are just not how they were.

And I just want to encourage you that there's more.

 And we know that because of our passage.

And I wanna just look at a couple of passages with you, then we'll do some ministry, be home, be out of here by 10.

Power's being cut by 10, police are coming, we gotta be out.

Right, Amanda?

10 o'clock, we're gone.

The door's open early tomorrow, so you can come early and start again.

So there we go.

Ezekiel 47 is an incredible passage.

It talks about the river from the temple.

And it's the last passage

 That's the climax of the prophecies that Ezekiel has.

If you wanna grow in the prophetic, Ezekiel's a hard place to start, because he acts so much stuff out, right?

Starts New Testament.

But what we see is after chapters of judgment restoration, the prophet is led by an angelic guide to see water flowing from the south side of the temple from under the threshold.

And this isn't accidental.

 God has inspired Ezekiel to turn everything on its head.

This is a completely inverted view of how things should work.

In the ancient Near East, at the time of writing, they had some pretty strong beliefs.

The big one is that gods made their presence known in temples, not out in the world.

They had this geolocation idea.

And so this idea that there was a temple

 It's great.

But what we see here is that something's going on that's counterintuitive, which is that the presence of God increases the further you get from the temple.

Just notice this.

Let me read this to you from Ezekiel 47.

 Goes to the north gate, the man eastward.

Okay, here we go.

Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand.

Verse three.

Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured 1,000 cubits and then led me through the water.

It was ankle deep.

And again, he measured me 1,000 and led me through the water and it was knee deep.

Again, he measured 1,000 and led me through the water and it was up to the waist.

 Again, he measured 1,000.

It was a river that I could not cross.

The further he gets from the temple, the deeper the water.

What's incredible is, is that a current picks up when he can no longer cross the river.

So that's the vision.

And that's the vision that we have today.

That's the inversion that we need today.

 Because I don't know, this is my first time in LA.

I know less than anything about churches in LA.

I can only speak from my experience.

But often, in the Anglican world, we have this field of dreams vision, which is that if we build it, they will come.

So we will create a temple that God will live in, and people who don't know God will have to come to us.

That's how you build a lot of things.

That's not how the kingdom is built.

 And so what we have is that there's a promise.

And to find that promise, we see it in John chapter 14.

So I've got three passages.

I'm just going to, it's easy if you're on a phone, you just kind of flick the thing.

Or if you have a Bible, you just kind of flip the pages to the right.

And in John 14, we have this incredible promise that the river will be full of water.

 living water, and what we find is Jesus makes an astonishing connection to Ezekiel's vision that begins in John 7.

He says, let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink, as the scripture said, from the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.

 I was once in, really awkward, I had my Irish friend Patrick with me, he was like six foot five, big presence, and he was in Dallas, we went to work out at the YMCA, and he takes forever to get out of the changing room.

 He's, I mean, some of these guys, I don't know what it is.

He's just forever.

And so I go in to get him, and he's talking to this guy who's clearly hungover.

And the guy's reciting to him all of the beers he's had the night before.

And Patrick does, you know, he's like, I got this guy.

He says, have you ever tried living water?

He says, no.

 No, man, I've never had that beer.

He says, it's amazing.

You drink it once, you're not thirsty ever.

And like the effect it has on you changes how you feel totally.

He's like, how do I get some of that living water?

He says, I could get you some right now.

And I say, Patrick, we gotta go.

Come on, seal the deal, let's leave.

So despite my encouragement, the guy came to faith.

 But he says, you know, because people are thirsty.

We had that passage from Isaiah 55.

Come all who are thirsty.

And our culture is drinking stuff that will not satisfy.

It'll make them sick.

That's why we need hospitals.

That's why perhaps you're here tonight.

 In our passage from John 14, we see Jesus preparing his disciples for this very reality.

Philip asks an incredible question.

Lord, show us the Father.

And reveals his deep thirst for God's presence.

Fathers are so important.

Their role is to create stability at home so that every other member of the family can thrive.

 That's the role of our Father in heaven.

To create stability.

We can find our place in the world.

And that we can run towards the things he has for us.

And so Jesus responds by promising, he says, I'm gonna leave you, but I will send you another advocate who will not only be with you, but in you.

And so we see this river from Ezekiel's vision

 becomes an internal reality through the Holy Spirit.

It's not merely about an individual blessing, though there is individual blessing involved.

When the Spirit fills us, we become conduits of God's life to others.

The river that flows from the temple now flows from the hearts of believers.

 We don't just receive the Spirit's fullness, we become channels through which the fullness reaches the world.

Think of it this way.

Jesus took upon himself the punishment that I deserved.

Killed him in the cross.

So that he received what I deserve so that I could receive from him what I don't deserve.

 so that what was only his can be mine and can be yours, so that the goodness of God could fill not just my heart, but flow through my heart to reach those I encounter, those you encounter.

So here's the progression.

God's presence dwells in the temple.

 Then in Christ the word becomes flesh and dwells among us.

Then in his people through the Spirit.

The temple river becomes the river of the Spirit flowing through the church to the nations.

And what's incredible is the Holy Spirit doesn't change based on your age.

Right?

So you're kind of old.

Maybe say you're more than 49 years.

 consider that old now I know you don't have a senior Holy Spirit just like our kids just like pastor James your son who was there just now he does not have a junior Holy Spirit he's got the same Holy Spirit so we did this thing in London and the church I was at where we would teach the gifts of the Spirit to the children

 We wanted them all to have a PhD so they could prophesy, heal the sick, and drive out demons.

And then what we would do is that we'd bring them into the church, we'd have a healing service, and we'd tell our ministry team, hey, you've got the night off, we've got a guest ministry team, and we'd bring the kids in.

 And we had to teach a little differently because he would teach kids on how to hear God, and I was brilliant.

But this kid comes out of my class, and he starts telling his mom about this thing he saw, this man who was made of bronze, and basically describes Daniel's depiction of the Son of Man.

And the mom's like, why didn't you share that in the class?

Oh, well, you know, the pastor said, heard.

I didn't hear it, I saw it.

 Right, kids, right, too literal.

So we had to teach them how to catch from God, chat to God about it, so that they could then pass it along.

 And so what happened is we had this wonderful guy who was like six foot two, 300 pounds, losing his business, life falling apart.

He comes forward and little Dorothy and Harry, who are both six and seven or five and six, are his prayer team.

Harry, who's six, prays like a six-year-old.

Power, you know, and he's just like, you know, he's watched Power Rangers or something.

He's just kind of going for it.

 Oh, I loved it.

It was like amazing.

Pray for me that way any day.

Dorothy says, oh, it's okay.

 And she goes up to hug him.

Bless her heart.

She thought she could reach around him.

There was no hope.

She like gets a quarter of the way around, just holds on to him and commits with a full lean, right?

So she's like at a 45 degree angle into him.

And she's just holding on to him saying, it's okay.

He loves you.

This guy starts to weep.

 because he received something from the love of God through this girl's faith that absolutely transformed him.

And he loses everything, but he meets God in it, and the Lord, in a Job-like experience, returns it all.

So what we find is that when the spirit flows, he's no respecter of ages.

And I think what God wants to do is wants our children

 to know the power of the Spirit earlier than maybe I did, than we did.

What we find then as we move along to Acts chapter 2, which is a passage I know you know well from the teaching that you've been led through here at Cathedral, is you have this upper room event, utterly weird, unless you witnessed Genesis 1.

 It's the same kind of event.

Genesis 1, the spirit of God is brooding over the chaos, bringing out order and life.

In the upper room, you got a group of people that should not be sitting together.

You've got a homegrown terrorist who wants to burn the government down, and you've got a tax collector.

Like, they shouldn't be in the same room together, right?

But Jesus has brought them together, and what we see here in the Pentecost event is that

 God is creating.

In the sending of his spirit, as the wind starts to move in Acts chapter two, let me read it to you.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

The word brooding can mean many things.

One definition is caring for young children.

 which is not a serene deal.

I mean, I have three boys.

I was exhausted.

I'm still exhausted.

To care for them, you're always trying to keep them away from the sticks, from hitting each other, from breaking windows, like the brooding event with young boys.

You know.

You know what it's like.

 That's what the Spirit of God was doing, caring for these young believers by pouring out His Spirit.

And the fire comes upon them, because the fire that once, the presence that once filled the temple is now filling the individual believers.

And the result, the river begins to flow to the ends of the earth.

It's not accidental.

Luke carefully lists the nations.

 Jerusalem, in Jerusalem we had Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, unpronounceable place, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome.

 It reads like a map, and what you see is that the river is not following an intended course.

The river isn't moving in a random, diverse way, but is purposefully moving in such a way to include the peoples of the earth who've been at war with each other from the beginning.

So the Spirit's river is already flowing to every nation under the earth.

Notice the effect.

 All of these are all of these who are speaking Galileans.

How is it that we hear each of us in our own native language?

The river of God, the movement of the Spirit always brings understanding and communication and unity.

But here's what we must not miss.

This is only the beginning.

 The river that was ankle deep in the upper room becomes knee deep as it flows through Jerusalem, waist deep as it reaches Judea and Samaria, and soon becomes a river that could not be crossed as it flows to the ends of the earth.

How does this work?

How does this work?

The Holy Spirit doesn't want us to suppress our humanity.

He wants to sanctify it.

 You may have heard it said in the church, people quoting with good intentions the words of John the Baptist, I must decrease so he can increase.

John is speaking theologically about the fact that he knows that he is the last of the Old Testament prophets.

And so his era, his age is coming to an end and a new covenant is about to begin.

If, because we know that Jesus ascended

 to heaven and is currently not on earth but at the right hand of God, the Father, in the throne room, we know that he was fully human and fully divine.

So the fullness of humanity is in heaven right now.

So there are things about you that you may think, we get this all the time from Baptists.

We serve, I mean, we're Anglicans.

We serve wine.

Kind of like at everything.

 You know, some people call us Whiskapillians because whenever two or three Anglicans are gathered together, there's a fifth of whiskey somewhere, right?

And Baptists will come to our church and say, preacher, I was told I'd go to hell if I did this.

I said, yeah, we have a different take.

Some people were told they can't dance.

I said, hey, you can dance if you want to.

You know, I'm here all night.

 Think about it this way.

There's something that the Spirit wants to do in this season in order for his presence to reach the ends of the earth, which may actually be a neighborhood over, where he needs more of us so that more of him can be glorified.

Take David, for example.

Imagine making such an impression on the heart of God that you would name your son after him.

 It's said of David in the history, in two chronicles, that he has this idea to build the temple for God.

And God says to him, I chose David, and it was on David's heart to build me a temple.

God didn't choose to have a temple built.

He chose David.

 And it was David's desire to build God a temple.

Now, he had too much blood on his hands, so his son Solomon had to do it.

What's on your heart?

God has chosen you.

 And what if the freedom to see the kingdom expand isn't so much about having to decrease so that someone else can increase or whatever, but it's to find freedom in the fullness of God and his love so that the dreams and desires in your hearts might actually be linked to the dreams and desires of God so that in the pursuit of them, you will see the kingdom come.

What dreams do you have in your heart that have died or are growing cold?

 I'm gonna ask you to offer them to him in just a moment.

As we grow in faith and surrender, we venture deeper into the river of the Spirit.

We begin to feel his current more strongly.

I come from just off the Bay of Fundy, which has the world's highest and fastest tides.

There's a current you cannot defeat.

You either swim with it or it carries you.

If you swim with it, you go faster further.

 our decisions are increasingly influenced by his direction.

We start to understand what Paul means when he says, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

 At waist deep, the Spirit's flow becomes unmistakable.

We are still touching bottom, but we're filling the full force of the current.

This is where many Christians experience a profound shift from trying to use God for their purpose to allow God to use them for his purpose.

Where are you?

Are you trying to use God for your purposes?

 Or have you come to that place of surrender to allow God to use you for his purpose?

But the vision doesn't stop there.

Eventually, Ezekiel finds himself in water deep enough to swim in, and he's not touching bottom.

There's no going back.

There's no controlling the direction.

You either swim with the current or you're carried by it.

 It's abandonment to the spirit.

It's complete surrender to God's will and his way.

Ezekiel's vision concludes with a remarkable promise.

Everything will live where the river goes.

Some of you have walked out of things in your past where the river's looking to go.

 you're invited to go deeper.

And to go deeper, you have to realize that the river doesn't flow in circles.

It flows outward, always reaching to new territory, always bringing life to dead places.

A spirit-filled believer is never a dead end, but always a conduit.

Amen.

 The river enters us, but does not stop with us, but goes to flow through us.

If you want to hold on to something in the kingdom, you have to give it away.

So what's the call to go deeper?

This is what I want to ask you this evening.

How deep are you in the things of the Spirit?

Are you still ankle deep, enjoying refreshment?

That's great.

 Are you ready to step back onto dry land when things get challenging or do you feel the invitation?

Are you thirsty enough to go deeper into knee deep where you're feeling the current but you're still in control?

 Are you waist deep, beginning to feel the Spirit's power but still touching bottom?

Or are you ready to go deeper still, to the place where you either swim or you're carried by the current, either way you're moving with him?

The place where you can no longer direct your own course but must trust the Spirit to carry you where he wills.

 God isn't content to leave us ankle deep in his blessing.

He calls us into the deep waters where we experience his fullness.

But what does it look like?

Practically speaking, how does he prompt us?

 And here's the thing, when you get into the current where your feet aren't touching bottom, where you're either swimming with him or the current's taking you, you begin to see that the things that you don't think are spiritual are fair play to him.

And he begins to use the way that you're wired to move you in ways that, oh, I don't think this is spiritual, but I think it's God.

So to give you an illustration, I went to Atlanta back in April, April.

 the whole plan I had fell to pieces because I was going to bring people from my network that couldn't come.

I get to the airport to go to pick up my rental that I didn't need anymore, and then it got good because the rental guy said, your car, we don't have it, but for no extra cost, we can give you a Dodge Hellcat.

I said, sounds like the car a priest should drive.

666 horsepower.

Unfortunately, I'm in Atlanta, which means I drive 20 miles an hour everywhere.

 I am a fan of house music.

House music is so, like look, there's been brain science that proves that listening and dancing to house music improves your mental health.

So does speaking in tongues, and so if you speak in tongues and dance to house music, it's really good for you.

I had just downloaded a new app that allows me to listen to DJ sets.

 And I hadn't thought about it, but I'm figuring out the car.

I got to get the map going to plug it in.

And all of a sudden, the 16 speakers in the Dodge Hellcat fire up.

And this is what they play.

Gentlemen, ladies.

I mean, come on.

You're in Atlanta.

You're going to Jeff and Sonny's.

I'm one hand in it.

 I'm cutting corners.

I'm living up to the name of the car.

I mean, it's just great.

Nothing but a heartache every day keeps going on.

I've even got Glenn in the car, and he's like, dude, this is awesome.

I'm like, isn't it?

Nothing but a heartache every day.

 Mixed to this, and I'm driving.

That's great, you can turn it on, I mean, or leave it on, whatever you guys want.

And I can't get the song out of my head.

And I'm starting to pray, Lord, your heart must break.

Some of you have to revisit your history with house music, especially disco, because it's just nothing like it.

 What does it look like to be led by his presence?

I've been trying to figure this out for 23 years.

I've seen things, I've gone to places, and it's just, and this would be one of them.

And the key to all of it is to surrender.

And hey, you have needs, I have needs, I'm a mess, you're a mess.

 You are.

We've got that established.

We need more of him.

I have needs that need meeting and so do you, but more than I need those needs met, I need him.

He's my provider.

 It's by his grace that I'm here.

And so as we are led by his presence, what happens is we become a people of life-giving presence.

We all know people who are like extra grace required.

They just come into the room and they suck the life right out of the room.

They do.

In order to spend time with them, you need the Holy Spirit because they need Jesus.

 And it's not about you, it's about him and the people for whom his heart is breaking.

We become a people where healing is the most likely thing to happen.

If Humpty Dumpty were to come here tonight, he would find that Jesus could put him back together again unlike all the king's men and all the king's horses.

 And we wouldn't even try, it would just happen.

He would just come to wholeness.

We would be a place of supernatural fruitfulness, a place of transforming influence, and a place of unstoppable witness.

So what I'd like you to do is it's, you don't, like if you're, these are your first, they're three nights.

You don't wanna peak too soon, right?

 You know, I know there are baseball players here.

You may not want to swing on the first pitch.

I get it.

Just watch.

Some of us are so hungry for more, we're just ready.

And so this is what I'm going to invite us to do, a couple of things.

I'm going to lead us to sing a song where we're going to offer whatever you've brought in here with you tonight, to offer it to the Lord.

 And as an act of praise, we're going to offer it to him.

You may not be able to sing the words.

You may not know the words.

It's a song from the late 90s.

I get it.

But I'm here.

You're not.

We're going to go with my song.

You may not be able to get, you may know the words.

You may not be able to get them out because I'm aware that we're on sensitive ground.

 that this is a place where there are people where hope has been deferred, hearts are sick, where we believe that we know that God has answered the prayers of others, but for some reason, why isn't he answering my prayers in the way that I ask?

 I mean, that's real.

Some of us don't know where the money's gonna come to pay for the bills at the end of the month.

Some of us have other problems where there's been a sudden reversal in a relationship, maybe the unexpected death of a loved one.

You name it.

Some of you are in the grief and it's awful, but you're here.

And that's the important thing.

 Some of you just need to rest on the prayers of those around you.

Just let the others sing around you.

I went up in the worship, hung out with the welcome team.

Amazing.

Tomorrow night, go to the balcony.

You want to see people praise?

Well, you get to see people down here and just hang out with the welcome team up there.

It's amazing.

 And so we're gonna do that, and then what we're gonna do is, some of us are facing problems where we need creative solutions.

And in Colossians chapter three, it talks about when we sing hymns, spiritual songs, and we sing in the spirit, we offer God a song from earth to heaven.

He responds from heaven to earth, and the promise is that he gives us wisdom.

 Now the wisdom that he gives us is a wisdom not of this world.

It's a wisdom scarred by suffering.

It's a wisdom clothed in humility.

It's a wisdom that is not based on information or tactics, but inspired by the Spirit of God.

It's foolishness to the world, but to those of us in Christ Jesus, it's everything.

 So we're gonna, are gonna lead us after the first song into a banger of a club hit, no it's not.

We're gonna sing in the spirit.

It's normative Christianity to hear people sing in tongues.

And if you haven't heard it, it's something to experience.

 Now, when we sing, we sing in response because we know that God sings over us from Zephaniah chapter three.

And he sings over us, doesn't speak over us.

He sings over us with joy because he loves us.

And we know that when we hear a song, it affects all of us and it can change everything.

That's why when you're trying to feed a child in a high chair and there's a disco song on their feet, tap.

 Or if you're angry and you listen to hard metal or whatever, it amplifies your anger.

It kind of helps the mood.

What God does in a similar way is he sings a song of joy over us.

 Because he wants us to feel rooted and grounded in this world, to know his love, that we might find our place and follow him and follow his lead.

So we're gonna sing in tongues.

There, okay, you're from Texas, you won't be surprised.

Put your guns away, all right?

There we are.

Okay, why don't we stand?

Here we go.