a jumping off place. I want to talk to you tonight about empowered living. God wants us to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Look if you would in Philippians 1 tonight in verse number 19. Philippians chapter 1 verse number 19, Paul says, for I know. He's in prison. He's writing to the church at Philippi, and he's talking to them about his imprisonment. He's not sure of the outcome, but then he says this, verse 19, he said, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation. Now, whenever you see the word salvation in the Bible, it doesn't always mean salvation from sin. It's a generic word. It's one of those words that when you look at in the Bible, it means to rescue, it means to deliver, it can mean spiritual salvation from sin, but the context will determine exactly what kind of deliverance it's talking about. And here, he's talking about deliverance from prison, his imprisonment. He said, For I know that this shall turn to my salvation, my deliverance, through your prayer. Aren't you glad that prayers make a difference? Aren't you glad about that? That's why our prayer time is important, our prayer list is important. I'm glad that prayer makes a difference. And then what's this next statement? "...and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." I keyed in on that word supply. It means to furnish that which is lacking. To furnish that which is lacking. I thought about something as I was contemplating this verse in our relationship to the Holy Spirit. I thought about any time that you get an electric appliance, no matter whether it's a hairdryer, a microwave, or a clock, or whatever it might be, whatever appliance it might be, whatever is electric, and you hit the on switch and it doesn't come on. How many know what I'm talking about at times? And you go to the troubleshooting guide. You ever notice that the very first subject to troubleshoot is this? Is the power cord connected? Is it plugged in? And you're going, duh, of course it's plugged in. But have you ever had your wife stand on the other end of it and show it to you? You ever had that happen? Or you just put batteries in the flashlight and it won't come on. And you know good and well that you could see those tiny little directions about showing which way the batteries actually go in, but yet you try to cut it on and it won't come on. And then your wife takes it away from you because she can see better than you and opens it up and flips the batteries around and cuts it. Anybody ever had that happen other than me? And a little bit embarrassed, you know? Nobody's going to even admit to that. It only happened one time. Now I won't even let her have the flashlight. So anyway. But you troubleshoot that thing. The problem was a power failure. It wasn't connected to the power supply. And I believe much of the failure and frustration in the Christian life can be traced to one central truth. There is a power failure in our lives. We're trying to live the Christian life in our own strength, on power, and you and I lack the power in ourselves to live life successfully for God. A supernatural life. Salvation imparts a supernatural life. The new birth. We're made partakers of the divine nature in the sense that we're given the very life of God. The new birth. We're given eternal life. A spiritual life. And that life demands a supernatural power. It was never meant to be lived in our own strength. It was never meant to be lived in our own power. You and I are not sufficient to live the Christian life. We're not. Listen, to live the Christian life on your own is not just difficult. Can I be honest with you? It's impossible. You can't do it. It's designed to be lived in a different power. And God wants to empower your life and my life. He wants to empower your marriage. Have you ever just desired, I wish that I had the power, the strength to be the husband, the wife, the parent that God wanted me to be. To be the right kind of person out in the world. To have the right kind of family. Maybe to be able to serve the Lord and it be impactful. Maybe in our own church that we would want the power of God present in our church. And listen, before you and I can experience God's power in our lives, before we can be plugged in, so to speak, then you and I need to know the power source. And the power source for Christian living is none other than the Holy Spirit. Look again at verse number 19, the last phrase, and the supply. supply, that of furnishing what is lacking in our lives. You see, so often in this matter of living the Christian life, what is lacking is the power of the Holy Spirit. And success or failure in the Christian life will be commensurate or equal to our relationship to the Holy Spirit and His empowering in our lives. But if I'm going to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, I need to know who He is. I need to understand how He works in my life and how I relate to Him as a believer and how He relates to me as God. And so I want to talk about that. Number one, if I'm going to know the power source, if I'm going to be plugged in, so to speak, if I'm going to be empowered by God to live life successfully for Him, then I need to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit. I need to understand and know who He is. And remember tonight, the Holy Spirit is a person. He's not some kind of impersonal force. He's not an influence, alright? And much of our world, if they watch any type of sci-fi and Star Wars, this, that, and the other, they talk about, may this force be with you. That is not the Holy Spirit. There are false cults that would refer to the Holy Spirit as an it, an impersonal force. I'm here to tell you, the Holy Spirit has force. The Holy Spirit has power, but He's not just an influence, He's not just a force, He is a person. He's not an it, but a Him. He's not a something, but a someone. And the Holy Spirit is as much a person as God the Father and God the Son are persons. We would never refer to God the Father as it. We'd never refer to God the Son as it, but yet many people refer to the Holy Spirit as it. And it's not it, it's Him. He's a person. And I need to be rightly related to the Holy Spirit just like I need to be rightly related to the Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me show you a few proof texts. Let's look at a couple passages. Tonight's Bible study night. And I think some of these verses are mentioned in your notes, but if not, you can write them down and then look them up. How about turning your Bibles, if you would please, to Matthew chapter number 28. Would you turn there? Matthew chapter number 28. Find your place there if you would please. And I think I forgot our rooted verse tonight, but I'll make sure I get that next week. Look if you would please in Matthew chapter 28. And find if you would verse number 20. And here is the baptismal formula. Verse 19, excuse me. Here the Lord Jesus says we're to go and teach all nations. That means we're to win them to Christ. Notice he makes the statement, baptizing them, to be immersed, alright? And this is immersed in water. And notice the formula, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. And notice here, he uses a singular name, not names plural, alright? It denotes unity and equality. Reminding us that we worship one God who eternally exists in three equal persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The great three in one. And I want to show you another verse. Look at Romans chapter 15. This is extremely clear. Look at Romans chapter 15. Would you do that? Find your place there. Romans chapter 15 and find verse number 30. and jot it down if maybe I'm moving a little quick. Romans chapter 15 and verse number 30. Paul says, Now I beseech you, brethren. He's asking them to pray for him. He said, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, there's God the Son, and for the love of the Spirit, there's the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God, there's the Father, Did you see that for me? Here is a proof text of the triune nature of our God. What we would understand is the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all mentioned together in one verse. Did you notice that they're equal in this verse? One is not greater than the other. They are spoken of in equality. They are mentioned together on equal terms. It reminds us that the Holy Spirit is co-equal, co-eternal and co-existent with both the Father and the Son. So it helps us to understand that the Holy Spirit is not just a person. He is a divine person. The Holy Spirit is as much God as God the Father is and God the Son is. Many times we relinquish Him to a lesser role. Do you know why we do that? Because the Holy Spirit never witnesses of Himself. That's what Jesus said. He said, when I send the Comforter, when He comes, He's not going to talk about Himself. He's not going to elevate and exalt Himself. In John 14, 15, and 16, as He talks about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, He's going to exalt me. He's going to testify me. You know one of the problems with the Pentecostal movement is in our day? It elevates the Holy Spirit in a way that the Holy Spirit doesn't elevate Himself. He doesn't draw attention to Himself. The Holy Spirit, a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit, will always be witnessing of Jesus Christ and drawing attention to the second person of the Trinity. And that is His office work. He came to witness of Christ, to make the things of the Lord Jesus real to us. And so He's a divine person. He's not less than the Father. He's not less than the Son. He is equal with them. He is different in His office or His functional work in the Godhead. And we need to understand that. Let me give you a couple of verses. We're going to look at some of these in more detail a little bit later on. We're going to look at another passage tonight real quickly before we move to the next point. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. Do you know you can't grieve something that's not a person or that's not personal? You can't grieve it. You can't grieve an it. You can't grieve a force. You can't grieve an influence. It's not a living thing. It's not a person. Alright? The Holy Spirit, that's Ephesians 4.30 where the Bible talks about not grieving the Holy Spirit. There's another one where the Bible says quench not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be quenched. 1 Thessalonians 5.19 That means His work, His desires can be extinguished in our lives. I want to show you one other thing. Alright? Look at Acts chapter number 5. Would you turn back one book, Acts chapter number 5. Do you realize that the Holy Spirit can be lied to? You can't lie to an impersonal force or influence. You can't do that. You can only lie to a person. Alright? Look at Acts chapter 5. Here's the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. Acts chapter 5. And you remember they had sold a piece of property and they had kept back part of it for themselves and that would have been perfectly fine. But the problem was, they went before the apostles and they said, here's all the money. Peter even said, if you would have kept all of it, is it yours? Absolutely, it's yours. But you didn't do that. You acted as if you were giving it all, but you kept part of it for yourself and you made a pretense. You made a show as if you were doing something you didn't do. And notice what he said Ananias and Sapphira did. Look at verse number 3. He said, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost. Wow! That's powerful. Alright? That is powerful. And to keep back part of the price of the land. Now look at verse number 4. Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? You could have kept every bit of it. Why did you make this pretense? Why did you lie? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but watch this next three words, but unto God. Here the Bible explicitly tells us that the Holy Spirit is a divine person. He is God. Listen, I need to always remember, always keep it in my mind, that the Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the divine trinity, and always remember that He is an individual part of the Godhead who I am to be rightly related to if I'm going to live my Christian life successfully. So number one, I need to recognize His person. Number two, if I'm going to be empowered, if I'm going to live a Spirit-filled life, if I'm going to experience empowered living, then not only do I need to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit, I need to realize His presence in my life. I need to realize His presence in my life. Look with me at John chapter number 14. Would you do that? We're doing a little doctrinal study of the Holy Spirit actually. We've done something like this a few years ago in a different way. And I just wanted to come back tonight and reiterate some things. We have new members in our church and I just sensed from the Lord it's a good opportunity to take a few Wednesday nights and just talk about the Holy Spirit's work in our life. We want His power, don't we? We want His ability. We want His enablement. Then we need to understand who He is and how He works in our lives. Look at John chapter 14 and I want you to find verse number 16. John 14 and verse number 16. Jesus is getting ready to go back to heaven. As a matter of fact, much of John 14 is in the upper room. When you get to chapter 15, He's now at the Mount of Olives. But here in chapter 14, He's in the upper room with the disciples. And He says in verse 16, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. I'm going away. Jesus already told them that in chapter 13. I'm leaving. Alright? Verse 16, He says, I'm not going to leave you without a Comforter. Okay? Look, verse 17, Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, the world can't receive Him, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. They don't understand Him. But ye know Him. You know Him. For He dwelleth with you." He's already present with you. Now watch these next words, "...and shall be in you." Wow! Powerful, isn't it? He's with you, but He's going to be in you. The Holy Spirit is present in the life of every child of God. That's just a fact. It's just a fact. I need to accept that as a fact by faith just like I accept as a fact by faith that I'm saved the moment I put my faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Really, there's only two kinds of people on planet earth. You say, preacher, what kind are they? Those who have the Holy Spirit and those who don't. And if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit. Because Romans 8 and 9 says, now if any man have not the Spirit, he is none of his. And so, the very fact that we possess the Holy Spirit is evidence that we know the Lord Jesus, that we're saved, and we trusted Christ. We can be assured that the Holy Spirit is in us. You have the Holy Spirit. He dwelleth with you, is what He told the disciples, and shall be in you. Now, what does that mean, He's with you? What does that mean? Alright? Well, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit, even in the Gospels, because you had to understand that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the writings, alright, of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, was under an Old Testament economy. Alright? Jesus lived under law. He brought grace. It's after the cross that we move from law to grace. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now, let me help you understand something. I was listening to a series of lessons that I'm working on in my own college courses that I'm taking my personal self. And it's interesting, I was listening to this guy and he was talking about He was talking about the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, it's a doctoral class on the Holy Spirit. And I was listening to him, and he made this statement. And I'm sitting here thinking, you're a professor on this level, and you don't understand this. It almost just warned me to quit listening, because it irritated me that he should understand this. But he said, you know, in the Old Testament, people were saved different than they are in the New Testament. That was the law. This is grace. Can I help you understand something? It doesn't matter whether you start with Adam or go to the very end. Everybody is saved the same way. By faith in Jesus Christ. They were looking for a coming Redeemer. We're receiving the one that's already come. But they're believing on the same person. They may not have understood everything that we understand. They may not have understood a cross. They may not have understood every aspect of it. But they understood that a Messiah, a Redeemer, would come and save them from their sins. That goes all the way back to when our first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden, and God made a promise that the seed of the woman, the Messiah, the Redeemer, would crush the serpent's head. He would undo everything that Adam did. Isn't that powerful? And so they looked for that. They believed the promise of a coming Redeemer, a coming Savior. And then Jesus came and He died. And now we receive the One that's already come. So everybody's always saved by grace through faith in the person of Jesus Christ. Law is simply a schoolmaster in the Old Testament to show people they were sinners and that they needed the Savior. You have to understand the difference. Thank God that once we're saved today in this New Testament economy, we're no longer under the Old Testament law and legal system. We're under grace. Hey, that doesn't mean we're lawless. I'm digressing. I understand. I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit right now. It's just a little pet peeve of mine. And to understand, alright, if you'll follow with me, that being under grace today doesn't mean we're lawless. What it means is we're under obedience to Christ. I'm not obedient because I have to, because I want to. It's a love motivation, not a law motivation. You see the difference. And it's not fear. God doesn't want me to obey Him just because I'm afraid of Him. That may be a reason for obedience, but it's not the best reason. Hey, the best reason is, God, I love You, and You're my Heavenly Father, and I don't want to dishonor You. I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit that lives within me. It's very elemental. And I want you to understand that Abraham wasn't saved any different than you are. He is the father of them that believe. Abraham was saved the same way you are, alright? Back in Genesis 15, alright? God said He accounted to him for righteousness in the same way that God accounts it to us for righteousness today. Now, I'm off that hobby horse, okay? So we come back and understand that they're in an Old Testament economy, alright? And at this stage, the Holy Spirit has a different ministry pre-cross. That means before the cross, before Jesus died and was buried and ascended back to heaven, He dwelt with me and He would come upon them. He would empower them. He would enable them. That's why David would pray in Psalm 51, Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. I would never pray that prayer and you need never pray that prayer because I may grieve the Holy Spirit But praise be to God, He'll never leave me. That's a wonderful truth. But beginning in the New Testament era of Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit begin to indwell men. He began to indwell believers for the very first time. The Holy Spirit indwelled believers at Pentecost, and from that day forward, the moment a person is saved, the Holy Spirit comes into them. That means the moment you trust Jesus Christ as Savior, they're instant. I don't care if you're 5, 15, 25, 55, 105, the moment you trust Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. He dwells in you. He takes up residence in our heart and lives. Our hearts become His home. Isn't that a wonderful truth? Wonderful truth. Just hold your place. Hold your place because we're going to come back here. I want you to look over at 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. Would you do that? Look at chapter number 19. Verse 19, Paul's incredulous. "...Know ye not that your body is the temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Ghost, which is..." Watch these next two words. "...in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, no longer belong to you, ye now belong to God. For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, are gods. I love that phrase that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. That means it matters how we live and how we use our bodies, doesn't it? It matters. My heart's His home. He indwells me. He lives within me. He's in you. That's powerful. Listen, receiving the Holy Spirit is not some kind of second blessing after we get saved. No, He's part of the first blessing of being saved. I'm glad God doesn't just bless people one time or two times. I'm glad He blesses people many, many, many times. Aren't you glad? God doesn't limit us in blessings. I'm glad that the moment we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. And our body, our heart, so to speak, our spirit, our human spirit is the dwelling place, the Holy of Holies of the Holy Spirit. Now, I know we talk about our heart. I understand that. And it makes sense. But can I help us understand that my heart is an organ that pumps blood? Everybody with me? That's what your heart is. It pumps blood. That's what it does. Brother James had a heart transplant. So when they took James' old heart that didn't work out and put somebody else's heart in, the Holy Spirit didn't go with his heart. He still had the Holy Spirit. When we talk about our heart, we're talking about the innermost part of our being. We're talking about our spirit, our human spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells our human spirit. He makes us alive spiritually. Before we're saved, we're dead in spirit. Okay? And in sins. But the moment we get saved, a spiritual resurrection takes place, and we're now made alive unto God. We're made alive spiritually. The Holy Spirit lives within us and dwells our human spirit. Okay? When we talk about the heart, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about the inner man. Okay? And my body, our heart, our inner man is the temple because my inner man dwells in this body. You follow me? Okay? If my inner man's not inside this body, We're in trouble. Anybody know why? You'd be dead. You follow me? Everybody with me? Okay. So, as long as you're living on planet earth in your body, your human spirit dwells inside of you. Okay? Because this body is going to go back to the dust, right? But my soul and spirit will go to the Lord, go to be with the Lord. Are you following me? Okay? And so, because my inner man dwells within this human body, the Holy Spirit, my body becomes the dwelling place of God on earth. Did you catch that? It's the dwelling place of God on earth. You realize God doesn't hang out here in church till we come back on Sunday. He's not here waiting on us to come back. No, He leaves when you leave. He's here when we come together. 2 Timothy 1.14, that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. The Holy Spirit is not just God with us, He is God in us. He was with Joseph, but He's in you. That word dwelleth means to occupy or to live in a house, and we're the house the Holy Spirit lives in. And I don't want to wear this out, but look at John 14 again real quickly, would you please? It's probably about as far as we're going to get tonight. Look at verse number 18. The Lord Jesus comes to us through the Holy Spirit. How do I fellowship with the Father and with His Son? I do that through the Holy Spirit. He comes to me, He fellowships me through the Holy Spirit that lives within me. Look what He says in verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. How does Jesus come to us? He comes to us through the person of the Holy Spirit who inhabits, who dwells within us. I want you to look down at verse number 23. Alright? Jesus answered and said to them, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him. He's talking about fellowship, not salvation. I mean, fellowship with God. And we will come unto Him and make our abode with Him. We're going to dwell with Him. And so the Father and the Son, dwell with us through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. And the Holy Spirit manifests Christ, makes Him real to us. And we commune with our Heavenly Father. We commune with the Savior. We fellowship with our God through the Spirit of God who lives within us. So I need to recognize this person and then I need to realize His presence in my life and that there's a fellowship with the Father and with the Son through His Spirit that indwells me as I walk with God and I'm in tune with God And I'm in alignment with His will for my life. And I live in the power of an ungrieved, unquenched spirit. And when I do that, God said that then I can know His power, I can know His enablement in my life to live life successfully for Him. Oh, I can preach, but if I don't do it in the power of the Spirit, you know what? It's to no avail. You can teach, you can sing, we can witness, we can do this or do that, but I'm here to tell you it is to no avail. It is flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. My flesh will never please God. But when I'm in tune with the Holy Spirit and I do it in His power and His ability and cognize the fact of my own human weakness, my own limitation, and that I need Him, then we can sense the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our life. Then there is lasting impact and fruit that will bring glory to God. By the way, I don't just need the Holy Spirit when I preach. I need the Holy Spirit every hour of every moment of every day. And so do you. We're going to talk about how to have His power in our lives. Number three, we're getting close to the end. I just want to give you this one and then we're going to come back to it next Wednesday night. Not only do I need to recognize this person and realize his presence, I need to maximize his position. Maximize his position. That word maximize means to increase to the fullest extent. That means I'm to give the Holy Spirit His rightful place to the fullest extent in my life. I don't always do that, do you? When there's failure and frustration in my life, you know what that's evidence of in my Christian life? I'm not maximizing His position in my life. I'm not allowing Him to have His place in my life to its fullest extent. How important that is. How important that is. He's not just to be resident in my life. He's to be the ruler over my life. That means the Holy Spirit's to be in charge. When was the last time you woke up? I'm going to close with this. And before you ever left your house, whether you're on your knees or not, whether you're driving to work or whatever, but before you get into your place of work or whatever it is, that you give charge of your life to the Holy Spirit. That you yield your body. Lord, I'm not my own today. I belong to You. I want You to have control of my body today. My actions, what I do. My words, what I say. My thoughts, what I think. My tongue, what I say. I want you to rule over me today. I want you to be in charge. It's amazing when we begin to look away from ourselves. As a matter of fact, it's amazing how the song tonight sort of dovetailed into what I'm preaching. Because that's the crucified life. The crucified life is recognizing it's not self-life. It's not living in my power. Not living in my strength. But living in the power of the Holy Spirit as I live not self-filled, but Spirit-filled. So often as Christians, we live our lives without giving any thought to the Holy Spirit of God. Unless we hear a message, or we talk about Him, But He's not an ever-present reality in our lives and He should be. When was the last time you said, Holy Spirit, You're in charge today. And when I take charge and fail, convict me. Help me confess my sin and then I want You to refill me today and control me. that I can live in your power, in your ability, that I can be the person you want me to be rather than who I am on my own. Because I can tell you who we are on our own, and it always pretty, isn't it? But who we are in Him can be amazingly beautiful at times, can't it? Because what would ordinarily cause us to lose our temper, or to say something we shouldn't say, or act in a way we shouldn't act, suddenly because I'm under His control today, and I'm cognizant of that, and I'm wanting to be yielded to Him, and I'm wanting Him to have control of me, that different things come out. You ever notice that? And you're like, wow, where did that come from? Or you needed a verse. All of a sudden, wow, flashed across your mind, and there it was. or you just sense that you needed to witness to someone or to pray with someone or to be a blessing to someone or a way of encouragement. You know, when I'm in tune with the Holy Spirit, He can begin to direct me and use me during that day to make a difference for His glory. So the question is, are we going to live a self-empowered life as Christians? Are we going to live a spirit-controlled life? Are we going to have experienced empowered living in our lives as believers? And that ought to be our prayer every day of our lives. And by the way, when we're not, then we're living in the flesh and we're not pleasing to the Lord. And sometimes it can even look spiritual. It can. because I'm doing it in my strength or my power without being cognizant of the power of the Holy Spirit. It's flesh and it's not the Spirit. How important that is. By the way, I can testify to these other preachers in the room, Brother Cole, Brother Vernon, others. We know when we're doing something in our flesh and when we're doing something in His power, there's a difference. There just is. And you know what, truthfully? You do too. We know when we're God-controlled and when we're not. Let's determine to live our lives under His control. Let's learn to live empowered living every day of our lives. Amen. We ought to pray, Holy Spirit, fill me today. Use me today. And actually, I've changed my prayer a little bit. I actually pray, Lord, help me to be fillable. There's no question that God wants to fill me. The question is, can He? Because God's not going to fill a dirty vessel. Isn't that true? Wow.