I can't think of anything that is more needed at this moment in our country than people who are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. You know, there's lots of emblems for the Holy Spirit in Scripture. We're gonna see a couple of them tonight. I thought it was interesting. I'm not sure who did all the design work, but I like it. I love the sailboat because one of the emblems of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is he is the breath of God. He is the wind of heaven. And you know, for years we've been saying, the winds of change are blowing, the winds of change are blowing in our country. And they have been blowing. I sense that the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing at this time in our country. G. Campbell Morgan said, you cannot organize a revival, but you can set your sails to catch the wind of the Spirit when God chooses to blow upon them again. And I'm praying tonight that God will help all of us get our sails up. And may the Spirit of God blow upon us. Would you open the Word of God with me? We're going to the doctor's office tonight. How many of you would like to go to the doctor's office? We're going to Dr. Luke. Would you go to Luke chapter number 4 within your Bible? He's the beloved physician, but in fact the great physician is the one we're going to look at in Luke chapter number 4. In fact, interestingly enough, in Luke chapter four, he is called physician. And they kind of misunderstood because he'd been healing people. They thought that was the whole thing. But Jesus didn't come just to make bodies better. Jesus came to heal the sin disease of our soul. Luke chapter four is a powerful, powerful passage of scripture because it is the first mention in the New Testament of someone being led by the Spirit. Now, I think that's very appropriate. Because the leading and the power of the Spirit is, it's articulated all through the New Testament and it's exemplified in the early church in the book of Acts. But if you want to know what a life and a minister led of the Spirit of God looks like, I would just simply say to you, look at Jesus. Because nobody was ever led by the Spirit quite like Jesus was led by the Spirit. It's interesting to me that of the four gospel writers, Luke mentions more about the Holy Spirit than any of the other. In fact, he writes the gospel record that bears his name and he writes the book that we heard such a powerful message last night from the book of Acts. Luke is the one inspired by the Spirit of God who records for us the amazing testimony of the day of Pentecost and everything that that set in motion that continues to this very day. Now this is what's so interesting. God chose a man of science and a man of observation and a man of medicine and said, now I'm going to let you be the one that writes down the greatest power of all. Because the great power is never what men can do. The great power is what only God can do. Aren't you sick of what men can do? I mean, honestly, haven't we had a belly full of what men can work up? We need what only God can send down. And so we come to Luke chapter 4 and verse number 1, where the Bible says, and Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was, would you read the phrase with me, led by the Spirit into the wilderness. You might wanna mark in verse number one that he was full of the Holy Ghost and he was led by the Spirit. I hate to tell you this, but there's a whole culture today of people who want to be full of the Holy Ghost, at least they think they do, but they're not willing to be led by that same Holy Ghost. And I want you to know, God won't fill you so you'll feel better. God will fill you so you will follow him. There's a divine order in this. Come with me down to verse number 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And you should mark in verse number 14, in the power of the Spirit. Like bookends. Look at it. Verse number 1 and verse number 14 like bookends on the story of what we commonly refer to as the temptation of Christ. Which I would remind you was not the only temptation that Jesus ever faced. Remember the devil left him for a season. The devil will leave you alone for a season. He always comes back around the other side. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. I don't believe that the temptation was just a single event in the life and ministry of the God-man. I think he faced the onslaught of Satan all of the days that he lived on the planet. And what was the secret? The secret was that this was not just any man. This was the perfect man. This was the God-man. And what marked him? The Holy Spirit. It is John who tells us that the Spirit was given without measure to him. I love that. Do you remember the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was given to people, and he was given and taken back, and the Spirit of God came on Saul, and then the Spirit of God was removed from Saul? He was given by measure in the Old Testament, but when you come to the Lord Jesus, he doesn't have the Holy Spirit by measure. Watch, he has all of the Holy Spirit of God upon him. This is what's so beautiful. When you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, if you get Jesus, you get the Holy Spirit. See, watch this. Jesus is the one who brings the Spirit of God into your life. If any man had not the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. I got the Holy Spirit on the day I was born again. And I'm just starting, I think. Almost like in the kindergarten class of God to scratch the surface on some of what that means. I wish I had learned it early on. It's interesting that this is the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. The earlier in life and ministry you learn this, the better off the whole thing will be. But sometimes God just has to bring you to the end of yourself to show you that you're not all that. How many of you know God has a way of letting the air out of our balloons? And it's good for us. And God will let you hit a wall. God will let your power wane. God will let all the things you leaned on crumble to remind you that the power you so desperately need is the power of the Holy Spirit. I came to one of those moments a few years ago. I was doing all the right things. And you know, people say, just read more and pray more, try harder. And I did all that, and it didn't get any better. I was weary, not physically, spiritually weary. You ever been there? I was preaching and teaching and working and laboring and witnessing, and something was missing. And in the good providence of God, somebody put in my hands a copy of an old book by V. Raymond Edmond called They Found the Secret. There's a life story of 20 great Christians in history, men and women, all different backgrounds. They all had different experiences, all described it differently, but they all found the same secret. They found the secret of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, I was flying, I remember, to the West Coast when I was reading that book. I was on my way to Washington State, I was traveling alone, and 30,000 feet somewhere over the Midwest, reading that book, the truth of the indwelling Holy Spirit. became so deeply real to me. And suddenly, suddenly I realized it was not what I could do. It wasn't more effort and it wasn't more energy. It wasn't that. It was to acknowledge and depend on the power that is alone sufficient and that is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. What does that look like? May I just ask, how many of you would like to have the power of the Holy Spirit of God? Well, I want you to know God won't give you the power of the Holy Spirit so you can use it. He'll only give you the power of the Holy Spirit so it will use you. And as a young preacher, I remember begging God for His power, begging God. And sometimes even preachers give this idea, you know, like if you beg God, beg God, beg God. Let me ask you a question. Do you think you've got to talk God into doing what God already said He wanted to do? Do we really think that we have to convince God to bring into our lives the fullness of the blessing that Jesus Christ bought and paid for at Calvary and promised and made possible on the day of Pentecost to every believer. Do we really believe that? No, no, that's not it. It's not me convincing God to do something different with me. It is me saying, forget me. Lord, here I am. And whatever Your spirit wants to do with me. That's good. See, God never intended us to simply be recipients of the Spirit's power. He intended us to be conduits of the Spirit's power. Did you know you can even get selfish about something like the power of the Holy Spirit? And even in our prayers sometimes we reveal how truly selfish we are. May I say that the Lord Jesus is the ultimate example in Scripture of one who is led of the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit at every season of his life and ministry. This is what jumped out at me. Would you mark it in your Bible? In verse number one, the Bible says that he was full of the Holy Ghost and led by the Spirit when he returned from Jordan. How many of you see that in verse one, when he returned from Jordan? Now, we'll see that in a moment, but that's the returning from the baptism in the Jordan. Now go to verse number 14. And I want you to mark that Jesus returned, there's that word again, in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. Watch this carefully, in verse one, he's returning from the Jordan, but in verse 14, he's returning into the Galilee, and in between is the greatest test of his life. Did you know lots of men go into the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit? But not all of them come out on the other side filled with the Holy Spirit. How will you return from this meeting? I wrote down so many things last night, this morning, God's speaking to me about. That's good, it's all really good. But if all you go home with is a to-do list, you missed the point. Look here, you wanna go home different and you wanna make a difference in this world, in this particular generation, we need one thing. And it's not a thing, it's a person. We need to go home filled with the power of the Holy Spirit of God. So may I ask you, how will you return? You, how will you return? When you get there, will people say, oh, he got some ideas this week? Or will they say, something's happened to him? I don't know. I don't know what happened to her this week, but she's different now. Before I give you my thoughts from this passage, would you hold your place here just a minute? Go over to the book of Acts with me just for a second. Let me show you this verse. Connect this verse to what we're about to study. Look at Acts chapter number 10 and verse number 38. In one of Peter's great sermons about the Lord Jesus, he's describing the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Look at verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth Excuse me. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Is it possible God could do something in your little Nazareth? Now I'm talking about the little town where you serve, the wide spot in the road where God has assigned you at this moment. Is it possible God could do something there just like God does something in some big metropolitan area? Let me just remind you, Jesus came through Nazareth. Let me tell you what makes the difference in Nazareth and every other place for the record. Look at it, please. He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. May I say, you don't get the power apart from the person. Watch it carefully. He went about doing good. And healing all that were oppressed of the devil. This is it. Would you mark it? Four. God was what? With him. With the God. With the God. Some of us should leave this meeting and go home and somebody say, God's with that man. Be a grand thing if somebody heard us preach and instead of talking about our sermons, they said, I sensed the presence of God while you were opening the Word of God to us. God was with him. Now if you want that, may I say to you, you'll find the example of how to have it. In the example of Jesus, go back now to Luke chapter number three. Let's back up one chapter because you gotta start where the scripture starts. Remember, the first mention of it is when he's returning from the Jordan. Why is that significant? Look at Luke chapter three and verse number 21. Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was open. And the Holy Ghost, descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased." Don't you love the fact that all three members of the Godhead are there? Somebody says, I don't like that word Trinity, it's not in the Bible. Well, Rapture's not in the Bible either, but we're getting ready to go out of here. and the truth of the Trinity is. So all right, all right. Use the Bible word, the Godhead. Who's the Godhead? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent. And I love this. There stands the lovely Son of God in the muddy waters of the Jordan River, and there speaks the Heavenly Father from the portals of glory. And what is that? Look at it carefully. There's a dove. There's a dove descending from heaven and coming and lighting on the shoulder of the Lord Jesus. That's an odd thing, don't you think? No, what it is is another one of heaven's symbols of the sweet Holy Spirit of God. Number one, would you write it down? I'll give you four simple thoughts tonight. First of all, if you want to know and be used by the power of the Holy Spirit, first, you have to have the Holy Spirit. That's kind of basic, isn't it? You can't have the power if you don't have the Holy Spirit. And I will go a step further in this. You don't only have to have Him, you have to know Him. You know what I think is super sad? I think it's super sad that some people get saved, and they know about God, and they can tell you things about Jesus, and then you ask them about the Holy Spirit, and they get kind of spooked, you know, like, well, that's kind of some mystical kind of, you know, that's for the fanatics out there. Look, the Holy Spirit is a real person, and He is God living inside of you. Jesus came to bring you to God. The Holy Spirit came to bring all of God to you. How many of you think it's a little odd if somebody moved into your house, lived there for 40 years, and you never talked to them? How many of you think that'd be odd? And yet, there are people who had the Holy Spirit of God move into them 40 years ago, and they had never even thought about the one living inside of them. Let me tell you who He is. He is God with you. Do you have Him? The only way you have Him is if you've invited Christ to come into your life and He brings the person of the Holy Spirit to you. And if you do have Him, how well do you know Him? Notice a few little things here. First of all, there's a revelation. The revelation is that the Holy Spirit of God is revealed as a dove. I love this picture. Would you use a little sanctified imagination for a minute? Forget the muddy Jordan, forget the people, forget John the Baptist, because the preacher's just the messenger boy. Would you look at Jesus? And would you see the dove resting on the lamb? You know what a dove is and a lamb is? Two of the most gentle things in the world. You know what you have here? The nature of the Holy Spirit. The dove is a picture of purity, a picture of peace, a picture of gentleness. And I will tell you, in a harsh world and a lot of hard things to deal with, I think we could use a little more of the gentle work of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Some people only want the Holy Ghost who is fire. And they miss the Holy Ghost who is dove. See, in the same chapter, John said, when Jesus comes, he's gonna baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. That's right, bring the fire. Well, all right, he does bring the fire. He brings the fire that purges unholy in the sight of our life. He brings the fire of God's judgment. He baptizes the church with fire on the day of Pentecost. But wait a minute, the nature and character of the Holy Spirit of God is pictured as a dove? May I say the sweet, gentle Holy Spirit of God can be grieved. And I wonder how often those of us who say we love Jesus are grieving His Spirit. We are not filled with the Holy Spirit when we're more characterized by anger than we are by love. In fact, in Luke chapter 4, the religious people get all up in arms and the Bible uses this phrase, they were filled with wrath. Listen to me, you can't be filled with the Holy Ghost of God and filled with fleshly anger at the same time. We are not filled with the Holy Spirit when we speak more about us than we do about Jesus. And we are not filled with the Holy Spirit when we are quicker to criticize someone else than we are to transparently confess that we are needy sinners ourselves. No, my friends, when the gentle dove of heaven rests upon you, He changes your nature to become more like His own. You know, in the Gospel according to John, the Bible says that John knew him because the dove would come and descend on him. Watch this. Not worked up, but sent down. Not what flesh can do. Not what churches can accomplish. What God sends down from heaven. But this was the mark. Not only would the dove descend, the dove would remain on him. I don't think that means that for the next three and a half years Jesus walked around with a dove on his shoulder. That's not what I think. But I know this, there was never a moment, not one step that Jesus took on this filthy planet that He was not filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit. And may I say, God intended it to be the same for His own followers. He doesn't want to fill you on Sunday. He wants to fill you every day. He doesn't want to lead you at a conference. He wants to lead you every step of the way. This is God's way for the true followers of Jesus Christ. Do you know Him? There's not only here a revelation, but look at it carefully, there's an observation. Is it striking that the first mention of the Holy Spirit, now, He was born, conceived of the Holy Ghost, we understand that, but the first mention of the Holy Spirit connected to the Lord Jesus in Scripture, please don't miss this, was not first connected to His labors, it first was connected to His life. We have this idea, boy, I gotta preach, I need the Holy Spirit. Let me just tell you something. I need the Holy Spirit to be a husband. And I need the Holy Spirit to be a daddy. And I'm a papa now, and I like being a papa, but I need the Holy Spirit to be a papa. I need the Holy Spirit to be a friend. I don't just need the Holy Spirit on my labors. I need the Holy Spirit in my life. I don't just need the Holy Spirit on a platform. God help me. I need the Holy Spirit of God in the secret place. And so do you. Is the Holy Spirit of God evident in your life? The real mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit is not that you preach a great sermon. The real mark of the Holy Spirit is how do you treat the waitress at the restaurant? How do you speak to the people who serve? See, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance. The power of the Holy Spirit of God is not something that we harness to our ends. It is something that harnesses us. And it brings us into a new relationship with Jesus Christ, representing Him in this world. None of these things move me. In the count of my life, dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry. Lots of people want to finish their ministry well. Let me tell you how to finish the ministry well. Finish your course well. Those are two different things. This week someone said to me, how can I pray for you? Can I tell you how to pray for me? Would you please pray that I finish my course well? Please. Please pray that. I've had people I greatly respect who didn't finish well. Better Christians than I. Pray for me. I stand before you tonight with a fear of God. A holy fear. You know why? Because I don't want to do something that grieves the Spirit of God. And it hurts the good name of Jesus in this world. No, no, I need the Holy Spirit's power every day of my life. So that I can not just get right with God, so I can stay right with God. And pray that for yourself. Because there's not only here a revelation. Here's the dove, here's the dove. You know this is interesting. First mention of the Holy Spirit in the whole Bible is in the book of Genesis. He didn't start on the day of Pentecost. That's like saying Jesus started in Bethlehem. No, He's the Eternal Son. And the Spirit is the Eternal Spirit. First mention of the Holy Spirit is in Genesis chapter 1. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. The word there literally means to brood, to hover over. You know what I think? I think it was the dove, the dove, the dove. And then you have the first mention of the dove in the book of Genesis. Do you remember with Noah and the dove, a picture of mercy and grace and hope for the future? Let me just tell you something. Wherever the Holy Spirit of God is on the move, there is hope that God is about to do something. Don't miss the application. The application is that the Holy Spirit of God comes in power on Jesus. Look at it carefully. In the place of death. You understand that the baptism was a picture of death. But here he is, not just fulfilling some religious rites, some Jewish ceremonial cleansing. No, no. No, no. Jesus Christ, when he walks down into those waters to be baptized by John, already has his eye on the cross. Let me tell you how to be filled with the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. Be dead. You know the preachers God uses, they're dead men. And the churches God is blessing right now are filled with dead people. They've died to self and died to what they want because now we just want the Holy Spirit to have His way with us. Whatever the Spirit of God wants, that's all we want. Is that what you want? It came at the time of prayer. Look at it carefully. As He was praying, It's a unique word. It's really only used here for Jesus. It literally means to move something forward. You know how things move forward? By prayer. And it came on the heart of obedience. Is there anything the Holy Spirit of God has told you to do you haven't done yet? I'm being quiet because I can't tell you that's between you and the Lord. Anything? Any step of faith? Any sin? Any person to reconcile with? See, we say we want the move of the Spirit of God. I've been asked, I don't know how many times in the last few days, is this the revival we've been praying for? Is this what's going on in our land? Is this what we've been praying for? I tell you, there's a spiritual stirring right now, and there's a spiritual awakening right now, but whether it becomes a full-blown move of God and revival that will continue and have lasting effects, I believe is determined by how God's people respond to the stirring of the Holy Spirit at this moment. Are you willing to obey whatever God tells you to do? Are you willing to pledge total allegiance to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God? Because if you want to know God's power, you must number one, have the Holy Spirit. Number two, go to chapter four in verse number one. You must not only have the Spirit, the Holy Spirit must have you. This is the essence of the word full. And you know, we typically have this idea of filled like liquid, but this is interesting. Would you circle the word full and circle the word led and connect the two in your Bible? Watch this. We are filled as we are led. We are filled to become followers. What does that mean? It means He dominates. It means He steers, He stops, He guides, He orders. I hate to tell you this, but God's not looking for planners tonight. And we love our plans. People have said to me in evangelism, would you do this or this event you all did? Are you going to do it again? I'm not sure about that. You know why? Because, and I mean this before God, I'm not trying just to fill dates and calendars and do something. I want to be sensitive to the Spirit of God, Lord. Do you want that done? See, there are times the Holy Spirit says go, and there's times the Holy Spirit says no. But whatever He says, we need to say yes. When the Holy Ghost of God said to Paul, now you throw out the Apostle Paul. Paul says, I'm going into Asia to preach the gospel. That sounds like a great thing. And the Holy Spirit says, no, you're not. Well, figure that one. and God redirects him into Europe and his first stop is Philippi and a little women's prayer meeting down by the riverside. Oh, this is so wonderful. Did you ever notice who the first convert in Europe is? Her name is Lydia. She's from Thyatira. Thyatira is not in Europe. Thyatira is in Asia. It was not that God didn't want the gospel in Asia. It was that if he obeyed the Holy Spirit, God opened two continents to the gospel at the same time. I tell you, you obey the Holy Spirit and God will do more than you ever imagine. We've planned and organized till we have, excuse me, organized the Holy Ghost right out of the thing at times. There is the wind of the Holy Spirit that blows. And you don't know where it's coming or where it's going, but man, we're glad to be along for the ride. Are you all in? He's in you. But are you totally yielded to Him at this moment? It means that the Holy Spirit of God is going to lead you at every season and through every struggle. Do you understand the implications of the last three words of verse number one? Led by the Spirit. Not to the synagogue. Not to the temple. Led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Do you know God grows beautiful things in the wilderness? You know what He grows there? The fruit of the Spirit. Only He can do that. There have been some wilderness times in my life where, honestly, I just, I wonder, where's God in all this? Only to look back on it and realize that it was some of the greatest season of my walk with Jesus. Some of you are in the wilderness right now. Some of you came to this meeting, it's a last ditch effort. Maybe we'll throw a lasso to heaven, hope we'll get something that we hold on just a little bit longer. May I just say to you, God has more for you than hold on just a little bit longer. God's not just going to get you through the wilderness. Do you understand this is the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. There's a whole lot getting ready to happen. I said a minute ago, the great thing about a place like this and a meeting like this is not the place and the meeting itself alone. It's what it is used of God to set in motion. I love that. And right now, you may feel stymied about something or someone or what you can accomplish. Forget what you can accomplish. What is God trying to set in motion in your life? Then you must be willing to say, Lord, you can have all there is of me. Number three. If you just peruse verse two down to verse number 13, you have the record of the temptation of our Lord, and you know it. I won't take time to read it all. But three times, Jesus answers from Scripture. It is written, it is written, it is written. Number three, if you want to be used of the power of the Spirit, first, you must have the Holy Spirit. Second, the Holy Spirit must have you. And third, you must use the Spirit's sword. It's the scripture, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Isn't this beautiful? The living word quoting the written word. I know, I know who I'm preaching to tonight. Somebody says, I've got to prepare three new sermons every week and man, I'm studying all the time. I'm not talking about sermon prep. I'm not talking about lecture writing. I'm not talking about articles and books and Sunday school curriculum. I'm talking about your own personal relationship with the Word of God. Do you understand that the only way to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the Scriptures? In fact, if I had time, I'd take you to those twin epistles of Ephesians and Colossians and show you that in Ephesians, the Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit. And in Colossians, it talks about being enriched or filled with the Word of God. And in the context of both, like parallel tracks, if you lay them alongside one another and compare Scripture with Scripture, the fruit of being filled with the Spirit is exactly the same as being filled with the Scripture. Would you like to know why that is? Because the fullness of the Spirit comes as you fill your mind and life with the Word of God. You know who Jesus was? He was a man of the Scriptures. Occasionally I'm around men, and in my private conversation, I'm not talking about public things, in my private conversation, it is evident that is a man who lives in the Bible. There's a discernment in the Spirit, but it's more than that. It's like, no matter what the topic is, some truth of Scripture is going to come out. Again, I just tell you, there's no shortcut to that. There's no way to conjure that up without you immersing yourself in Scripture. I'll tell you what I've come to believe. I believe Jesus was meditating in the written Word the entire time He was living in that wilderness. See, the wilderness is a place where there's spiritual warfare going on. And every one of us know right now that the spiritual warfare, the intensity of it, has ratcheted up several degrees in recent months. I think it's encouraging. I really do. Because the battle's always hottest just before it's over. I think the devil and all the hounds of hell know that their time is short and they're unleashing everything they possibly can. But can I just remind you that the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is still more powerful than every lie that Satan throws at us. Let me show you something. Go to Hebrews 4 just for a second. I know you know the verse. That's not the verse I want you to see. Look at Hebrews 4. We love to quote verse 12. Have you ever noticed verse 13? For the word of God is quick, it's alive, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marra, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now watch verse 13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, But all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Look up here just a minute. Do you understand? He says the Bible has a way of laying everybody and everything so open that now you don't see it from your vantage point. You see it from God's perspective. Let me tell you what the Bible will do. It will give you a different lens on this culture. It will give you a different lens on lost souls. It will give you a different lens on what's going on in this world right now because you won't now see it from man's perspective. You'll see it from God Almighty's perspective. You want the mind of God? Get in the Word of God. If you want to think like God thinks, read the Bible. If you want to get the mind of Christ, live in the Word of God. And as you do, the power of the Holy Spirit will be yours. A decade ago, when God called me into evangelism, we moved back to the old family farm in West Virginia and built a house there. On the field ride, drove a tractor for the first time, passed it when I was 12. Not back there a lot, but when I'm there, I sure like it. It's quiet. And from where I live, I can see my grandpa's old house, and he's with Jesus now, but my cousin Ryan lives there. When we moved back, Ryan was not the young man I remembered. He was younger than me. His dad was a pastor. His mother was a school teacher. He was quite an athlete and gifted and going to go to college and do big things and just one of the sharpest young men you've ever met in your life. And by the time I moved back, he was a drug addict, a shell of the boy I remembered. I said to him not long ago, Ryan, how'd it start? He said, a cigarette. Then a beer. It was awful. I didn't know this at the time, but by the time I moved back, he wasn't just a user, he was a dealer. He had to sell $300 of drugs a day just to feed his own house. House was falling down, growing up around him and two little boys. I'd jog out that road in the old little country lane, no traffic, and I'd go by that house and look up that way and pray, oh God, somehow, get a hold of him. I hadn't planned to tell the story tonight, and I'm not gonna go into all the details of it, but some of you got a prodigal. And you think there's no hope. I'm here to tell you, there's hope. His mom and daddy would weep and say, Scott, pray, please pray. I'd pass him on the road, he wouldn't stop, didn't want to talk. Stopped coming around the holidays. It was terrible. I was in a meeting one night. A phone rang and I looked down and it was his wife Angie and she never called me, had never called me before. I stepped out and took the call and she's sobbing and she said, Scott, we need help. Will you come see us when you get home? And I did, and I sat in the kitchen that I'd visited hundreds of times and looked at two people whose lives had just been broken by sin. And they said, we want to be right with God. And God started His miraculous work. I was at our home church tonight, Pastor, We were having a soul winning campaign and I was in town for a couple of days and Tammy and I were there to go out witnessing that night and the side door opened and I knew they'd been back in church and in walks Ryan and Angie to go out witnessing. That's amazing. He said, can I go with you tonight? Sure. We're walking down the street. He said, I know all these people. I said, you know all these people? He said, I know all of them. I said, how do you know all these people? He said, because they're all lost in the same sin I was in. He said, that's why I came tonight. He said, they need what I found. God changed him. He's a bus captain in our church. Son started a Christian college this year. Miracle grace. So a few weeks ago, I sat down with him and I said, hey, let's tell your story. I've been telling it, you need to tell it. And I did a little interview with him and we recorded it and put it out. And in the middle of that interview, I was gonna talk to him 20 minutes, it went an hour. In the middle of the interview, I said to him, Ryan, what was the turning point? I was not prepared for his answer. I said, what was the turning point for you? He started weeping. He said, that's easy. I said, really? I don't know this story. He said, it was the Bible. He said, Scott, he said, that book, it's powerful. He said, I started reading that book and he said, I don't know. He said, it sounds kind of weird, but something happened on the inside. He said, I would carry a copy of that book with me in every room, wherever I went. He said, because I knew I was going to be tempted. Whatever room I went into, I was going to have some thoughts, some temptation. He said, I just take that book out, start reading it. And he said to me, when I was reading that book, he said, the Holy Spirit was working in my life. I'm telling you something, if you want the power of the Spirit of God, stop depending on your words and get back to God's Word. It's not in our finely crafted sermons. It's not in what we can accomplish. We need the power of Scripture in our lives. Number one. You want the power of the Spirit? You must have the Holy Spirit. Number two, the Holy Spirit must have you. Number three, you must use the Spirit's sword. And number four, the Holy Spirit must be able to use you. It's not a question of His desire or His ability. It's a question of your willingness and your obedience. to come full circle back to where we started. Look at verse number 14. Here's the power of the Spirit. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit of Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. Jump down to verse number 37. You'll see that word fame again. May I just say to you, we live in a world where fame is the thing, and everybody wants to be an influencer today. There is only one name worthy of fame, and that is the matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one name unto heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's only one name that someday in the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I was in the Dominican the other day. We were conducting a training session for a bunch of evangelists and I walked through an airport and a guy got ticked off about something and took the name of Jesus Christ in vain. And a young man with me said, it's always his name, isn't it? Always. When was the last time you heard somebody get mad and say Buddha? No, I'm serious. When was the last time you heard somebody get out of sorts and say Confucius? Watch this carefully. There's only one name that hell trembles at and heaven rejoices at and earth is changed by and that is the name of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you what it means to be used of the Holy Spirit. Number one, would you write it down? The power of the Holy Spirit only comes to glorify one person. And it's not me, and it's not you. The power of the Holy Spirit is for one purpose, and that is to exalt Christ. Not to attract men to us, but to point men to Him. I want the power of God because we want to see a big church built. God will not give his power to build your work. I'll tell you why, because he said he won't share his glory with anybody. Watch this, you start talking about Jesus and the Holy Spirit says, I like that. Last page of the Bible, the Spirit and the bride say come. When your message matches the Spirit's message, you can be sure the power of the Spirit will attend that message. There's a second thing. Come down to verse number 22, excuse me, verse number 18. The power of the Spirit not only comes to glorify Christ, the power of the Spirit comes for the gospel to be preached. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's reading, of course, from Isaiah. Because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I love that. You know what he's doing? He's preaching the gospel. Every time in the book of Acts they were filled with the Holy Spirit, it immediately produced bold Christian witnesses. So don't even pray that God would fill you with the Holy Spirit and lead you by the Holy Spirit if you are not willing to then open your mouth and speak a word for Jesus Christ. And then don't miss this, because it's not just truth, it's grace. Look at verse 22. And all bear witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. The power of the Spirit comes to show the grace of God. Not for us to dominate, but for him to permeate. When the power of the Holy Spirit of God is at work, people will say, like they said of Jesus, we never heard anything quite like that before. Never a man spake like that man. You know why? Because when he spoke, it was the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrating the grace of God. And I can't speak for you, only speak for me, but as I think about that, I'm so convicted and I think, would anybody listen to the way I speak? And I'm not talking about in a sermon, I'm talking about just in life. Would anybody listen to the way I speak and say, that man has the grace of God in him? Show you something at the end of the story, you're still in the chapter, come down to verse number 32. The Bible says they were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with what? Power. You know what power that is? That wasn't the power of education. That wasn't the power of oratory. That wasn't the power of rhetoric. That wasn't the power of personality. That was the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And by the way, if you look at verse number 33, one of the devils of hell poked his head up and Jesus said one word and boom, he was gone. Can I just tell you, there is not a devil that you're fighting right now that is more powerful than the Spirit of God living inside of you. Look at verse 36, they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying, what a word is this? For with authority and what? Power, he commanded the unclean spirits and they come out. Do you know the great need right now? The great need is that we would not only have the spirit, he would have us. And we would not only learn to use the sword of the spirit, the word of God, we would let the spirit of God then use us. I was driving down the road, this has been 30 years ago almost, with my long time pastor, Pastor Sexton. And I was just a kid and I was just talking, really, and I admired him and I said, you know, pastor, I really hope someday God will use me like he's using you. And he was really quiet for a few moments. And then I'll never forget what he said to me. He said, you know, Scott, he said, there's two kinds of people in the Lord's work. There are those who use God and there are those who let God use them. And I think sometimes we're trying so hard to get the Holy Ghost in what we're doing. And what we ought to do is lay down and say, Lord, I got nothing, but I'm yours. And when that happens, God will take your frustration and give you filling, the filling of the Holy Spirit. God will take your exhaustion and give you an enabling that is not you. It is the Spirit of the living God in you. Oswald Chambers. Got there. He said he was so frustrated that he finally said to God, God, either this is a fraud or I'm missing something. And he was reading this particular gospel record. And he came to Luke chapter 11 where Jesus said to his disciples, do you think if you ask the Father for the Holy Spirit that he's not gonna give him, he'll give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? And I know that's a prophecy fulfilled at Pentecost, but there's an application and a principle there. And when Oswald Chambers saw that in Scripture, he said at that moment, he said, I just stopped and I said, alright Lord, you promised. I'm asking you now to teach me what it means to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. And God so radically transformed his life, he turned around and wrote the most beloved devotional book in history. My utmost for His highest did not come from the pen, of a man with great ideas and genius, it flowed from a heart that had learned the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit. And if we are going to be led by the Spirit, we must learn what it means to be filled with the power of the Spirit.