call it mission's message, because I'm going to be talking on something that most Christians nowadays think it's almost taboo to talk about this. and it has to do with the Holy Spirit. You know, we get so stuck in the idea that we don't want to be like other groups of people that we sometimes forget that we still need the Holy Spirit, you know. We can't live without the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day Christian life, so we need His power in our life. So, we're going to read here Acts chapter 1 and verse number 8. where the Bible says, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Let's pray and we're going to get into this message that I've entitled, Full of the Spirit to Witness. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your blessings. Thank you for your word. And I pray, Father, that you would give us wisdom, Father, from your word, understanding that it won't be my words, Lord, that come through, but it'd be your will that we hear from this passage of Scripture and others, Lord. May you be lifted up and may you be glorified and may the Holy Spirit be placed in the correct place, Lord, in our lives. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. We talk about being filled with the Spirit and automatically people start thinking tongues. And you know, it gets crazy. But the thing is, we still need to have the Holy Spirit. You can't, I mean, you can't dance around the subject forever. We've got to touch at some point the idea that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, whenever we talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, a lot of times we have this idea of a glass of water, right? The water's half full, you sit there and you pour more water into it, right? But that's not what we're looking at. Because whenever we talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, we have to understand something. Whenever we were saved, the moment we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we got all of the Holy Spirit we will ever get. We got Him, 100%, not 99, not 90, 100% of the Holy Spirit. So we're not adding a Holy Spirit to our lives, we've already got Him. So then we're gonna answer three questions tonight. And the first question you know you would think is how much of the Holy Spirit do I have? And that's not the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking is how much of me does the Holy Spirit have? And that's different if you think about it. And it's not the same thing. How much of me does the Holy Spirit have? And it's an interesting question because then we have to start evaluating our spiritual life. How are we before our God? Are we looking for the Holy Spirit? Do we want the Holy Spirit in our life? Do we seek to have the Holy Spirit in our life? I mean, yes, we get Him whenever we're saved, but you know what? A lot of times we try to pack Him into a corner of our heart and ignore Him whenever He's trying to tell us something. And you know that still small voice that the Bible talks about? That's back there, the Holy Spirit saying, you need to talk to that guy. You need to tell him. You know, sometimes we ignore that voice and we just keep on going. And the Holy Spirit, yes, we have all of the Holy Spirit, but like I said, we try to pack him into the closet of our heart, whereas he needs to be taking up the whole space of our heart. Now, whenever I talk about or I'm asking this question, how much of me does the Holy Spirit have? We need to understand that every human being is made up of three parts, right? Anybody know those three parts? Okay, body, soul, and spirit. That's the order we usually do. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number five. Don't want anybody getting the idea that I'm making this up. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5 verse number 23, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, that's completely, that's not wholly as in our holy God. He sanctify you completely, totally. What is that? And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body. Spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, the Lord starts with the spirit, and it's not to bully anybody that puts it out of order, right, or in the other order, because we're human. We deal with the flesh all the time. We deal with the body. So it's natural for us to put the body first. body, soul, and spirit. But God is God. He's supernatural. He is a spirit. And so for him, it is the more natural to put the spirit first. Spirit, soul, body. Because we deal with God through our spirit. So we have three parts. Spirit, soul, body. Now, whenever we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. And we start to fill up the spirit part of our life with the Spirit. Because we start to communicate with God. We end up speaking to him in prayer, and he's speaking to us through his word. And the Holy Spirit dealing with us about sin, and we know that we need to get things taken care of, and we start fixing things in our life. And whenever we have, whenever our spirit gets filled with the Holy Spirit, we're doing things to fix things in our life, to make our relationship with God flow freely. because you can't have communion with God if we have sin in our life. So the Holy Spirit deals with us about that and we get that taken care of and we have that communion with God. Now it gets to a point to where that spirit part gets full. Now if you're with me here tonight, imagine kind of like a little bullseye. You've got the spirit and you've got the soul and then you've got the body all the way out here. That spirit gets filled and what happens? it spills over into the soul. Have you ever been sitting there in a service and you just felt the Lord is with you in the service? And then you just get that little urge to say, amen? That's whenever the spirit starts to fill up your soul. Why, what is the soul? The soul has to do with our emotions. It has to do with our character, who we are. It gets to our essence. And you know something? There's a lot of groups out there that really stay with the soul. Because all they care about is that emotionalism. You know, I feel happy, so I feel like I've got the Holy Spirit with me tonight. It's not about feelings. It's about having God in our life. You know, and we get that soul starts to fill up with the Holy Spirit, and we start to show it. We get the feel of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. We get to kind of commune a little bit more vocally. And it doesn't matter to us that others are around us. We're Paul and Silas sitting in the jail cell singing, you know, to Blessed Be the Rock. And the rock starts to break and the jail's doors fly wide open. You know, that's what we feel like where we've got that kind of power to sit there and praise the Lord and everything's going great. And that spirit starts filling up our soul. And then, once the soul is full, it starts to spill over into our body. Now what does our body relate with? Our body relates with others. My soul is me. My spirit relates with God. The body relates to others. So now if the spirit starts filling up into my body, what happens? I start talking to other people. I start telling others about Jesus. I start being a witness, a witness of what God has done in my life to other people. So I'm starting to get into the second point here, but so whenever we're talking about how much of you does the Holy Spirit have, are you limiting him right there at the spirit line? Nope, can't get into the soul. We don't want to have a holy, you know, shouting fit in church. That wouldn't be, you know, proper. Or while I'm sitting in my prayer closet and the Lord's just really getting down into the depths of my soul and I'm just wanting to shout it out right there, you know, we can't have that. We got to keep it in the spirit. Or do we draw a line there at the soul point and we're like, nope, nope, I can shout, but we ain't getting into any more than that. How much of you does the Holy Spirit have? Because we can draw a line, we can separate, we can stop Him, quench Him as we say in some places. We can quench the Holy Spirit and stop His movement and His progression in our life. So what happens if you are completely full of the Holy Spirit? The Bible says here in verse number 8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses. The Holy Ghost comes upon you, you become a witness. And here's the thing, I challenge you to look up and check every time in the Word of God that somebody is filled with the Spirit, what happens? About every single time they start proclaiming the Word of God. And I use that kind of as a generalization term. In the Old Testament they were prophesying. Did you know about Saul? The Lord, the Spirit filled Saul and what did he do? He was prophesying. Remember that saying? Saul among the prophets? Oh my word, I can't believe it. I can't believe that Saul was among the prophets. And you can kind of tell later on in life that that basically held true. He wasn't normally among the prophets. And his actions and his attitude later as king would demonstrate that. However, this isn't about Saul. You check in the Old Testament, every time somebody was filled with the Spirit, they began to do something for God. They began to prophesy, they began to tell it. Samson began to tear down doors and set people free and liberate armies. I mean, he had the power of God come upon him and he did something for God. You think the Philistines didn't know who was behind that? It was God, it wasn't Samson. They figured it out eventually. But in the New Testament, every time somebody gets filled with the Holy Spirit, they start preaching the Word of God. People start getting saved. That's what happens whenever somebody gets filled with the Spirit in the New Testament. And here's, I mean, you can look through it. Acts 1.8, we just read about that. Let's go to Acts chapter two. The Bible says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and like, oh no, preacher, you're gonna touch this one. Yes, we're gonna touch it. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And people were like, well see, there it is! But you know something, that wasn't the purpose of being filled with the Spirit. It wasn't the purpose for them to speak in tongues. What was the result? You know, people think, yeah, they were filled with the Spirit and they spoke in tongues. That's the result. No, that's not the result. The result, you have to look further on in that chapter, all the way down into, oh, I always forget the actual verse. Verse 41, it says, and then they that gladly received His word were baptized that in the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So what was the result of being filled with the Spirit? It wasn't the speaking in tongues. It was 3,000 souls added to the church. That was the immediate result. And whenever we look and we see, you go to Acts chapter number 4. Here we have the same group of people. Acts chapter 4, verse number 31. The Bible says, And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. So they were filled with the Spirit, and what did they do? Spoke the Word of God. Go through it, everywhere. Somebody gets filled with the Spirit, somebody's getting saved that night, brother. That's the result of being filled with the Spirit. That's what happens whenever you get filled with the Spirit. You start telling others about Jesus. I mean, we're talking about missions, right? I mean, what is the greatest mission we have? Telling others about Jesus. And you know something, most of the time Christians in our day and age, I mean you look at all the churches that there are out there today. I mean simply in Springfield and the surrounding areas. Try to count the churches, but how many of them truly are filled with the Spirit or let the Spirit completely take their whole life. And the amount of people, you could probably say that they're making, we could guess 1,000 people in all of Springfield may be saved and in church tonight, but how many of those 1,000 are actually filling themselves with the Spirit? Allowing the Spirit to have complete control over their bodies so that they go and they tell others about Christ. You know, that 1,000 dwindles down real quick. We get a lot of things into our mind and then whenever we start talking about the spirit and spirituality and you know something? So sometimes we just need to let the spirit guide us. We just need to let the spirit take control. Have his way, let him have his way with thee. Let him direct our paths. You know, whenever we look into Acts chapter number 13, Acts chapter number 13 verse number 1, Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Mannan, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted. That's another subject that gets overlooked a lot. Anyway, we'll touch on that some other time. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Who did the separating to send to the mission field? The Holy Spirit. It wasn't the church. The Holy Spirit separated Paul and Barnabas. The Holy Spirit said, Give me these guys. Who led into the first missionary journey? The Holy Spirit. Whenever we talk about missions, it's gotta be the Holy Spirit all the way. You know, the pastor's talking about this right here. Okay, I don't talk about money usually in a church or anything like that because that's, I leave that to the pastor. But here's the thing, what do I put on here? What does the Holy Spirit say? And that's all I'm gonna say on that subject because I'm... What does the Holy Spirit lead you to do? Not what do I want, what am I comfortable with, what do I, how can I do this and stay within my comfort zone, but what would the Holy Spirit have me to do? How can I be led by the Spirit in this? And you know, and that should happen not just in this, but in every aspect of our Christian life. You know, that saying, what would Jesus do, is not just something that they come up with to put on bracelets and things like that. You know, what would Jesus do? What would He have us to do? Through the power of the Spirit, He tells us, He leads us. So we've answered the question, how much of us, or how much of me does the Holy Spirit have? I mean, you can answer that one yourself. What happens if you're filled with the Spirit? Then the last question I want to ask tonight, and I think that we all want to know the answer to, how can I be filled with the Spirit? How do we go about doing that then? And you know the answer is clear in the Word of God. It's very easy. Let's go to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter number 11, and I'm gonna read this story here, and then we're gonna get down to the actual verse. But verse number five, the Bible says, and he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. Now, you look at that story and you think about the friend has something I need. I have to have it. Because otherwise, I'm a horrible host, leaving my friend without bread. That is an atrocity in Bible times. You cannot do that. So even if you have to beg, borrow, or, well, maybe not steal, but you gotta do the rest, you go out and you get at least a loaf of bread. So he goes up and he begs his next door neighbor. Yeah, what do you want? I need some bread. Can you help me out? Oh, you're getting me up at this time of night for that? I'm in bed, man. I've got my family. We're all in bed. Just don't worry. I can't get up and give you bread right now. You ever get that phone call in the middle of the night, hey, I'm stuck over here on such and such highway about 20 miles from your house and I've got a flat tire, can you come and help me out? You know, that kind of thing. Oh, I just got to bed. I've been asleep for about five minutes. You know how hard it is for me to go to sleep? And that's the attitude that we get here from this guy. The Bible says in verse number eight, I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend. Oh, what a friend he is. You know, we always say that a true friend is the one that will get up in the middle of the night and go help you whenever you got your truck stuck or something like that. No, a friend won't do that just to be doing it. The Bible says, but because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. Come on, I need that bread, please. Shh, the kids are asleep. You know, it took me an hour to get them to sleep. Come on, man, I got to have this bread. Shut up. Here, three loaves, get out of here. I don't want to put that kid back to sleep. You know, and he goes and he gets the loaves because of his importunity. because he just insisted, and he kept on after it, and he bugged him, and made it inconvenient for him. Now look at this, verse number 13. The Bible says, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more, and you know something, we always take this verse a little bit out of context, because we always think about how much more will your father give you whatever you ask for? That's not what it says. Take a look at it again. It says, How much more shall your heavenly Father give what? It's a specific thing He's giving. One, the Holy Spirit. That's it. He didn't say He would give you all the money you asked for. He didn't say that He would give you every piece of bread or everything that you ever wanted food-wise. He said, if you ask for the Holy Spirit, He will give it to you. How do I get filled with the Spirit? Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and that door will be opened. You need the Holy Spirit? Ask of God. So then why don't we have more Spirit-filled people? Because with being filled with the Spirit comes a great responsibility of winning those people that are around us to Christ. As soon as we get filled with the Spirit, we know that our mouths are not going to stop talking about Christ. And we know that as soon as we get filled with the Spirit, we have to tell somebody. And we get scared. And we want to hide. And we don't want to be that voice out there. So, we don't ask. and we don't get filled with the Spirit. It's simple but yet it all depends upon us. There's people in Colombia that need the gospel. I'm not gonna be able to win them if I don't have the Holy Spirit and I'm not gonna have the Holy Spirit if I don't ask for it. That guy in Thailand, I guarantee you he's been asking the Lord for the filling of the Spirit because he is in a spiritually dark place. where there is a spiritual battle all the time. And I know that battle. I've seen it in other places. I mean, he needs the spirit and you saw what he was doing. I mean, I love his plan. He didn't start a church first. He went out and started getting people. the guy teaching his English class. Come on, let me talk to you about Jesus. Come on. Let's go and teach me how to say this verse in Thai. Teach me how, he started by getting that, I love what he was saying, building a relationship. Because out of that relationship, he got the fruits. And out of the fruits of those relationships, they started the church. You know, that's exactly what I'm gonna have to do as soon as I get to Colombia and start working in Santa Marta. I'm gonna have to start those relationships just like he did. You know, sometimes I wonder, where in the world am I gonna find them? But I know that if I'm led by the Spirit, they'll come. We need to be led by the Spirit because I tell you what, Nixa has not been covered with the Gospel, I can guarantee you. I guarantee you there's still somebody here in Nixa that needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then once we get Nixa filled up, then you got Ozark, and then you've got surrounding towns, and then you've got Springfield. Then you've got the outermost part of the earth to work out. So it's a long haul, but we have to have the Spirit of God. This evening with every head bowed and every eye closed. Let the Holy Spirit have His way in your hearts tonight. Let Him deal with you. Have you asked the Lord for the Holy Spirit lately? Yes. I know we got Him when we got saved. But you know something? Sin keeps us from being filled. Other things distract us and get our attention away from the Spirit. You know, we gotta get back to saying, I need him in my spirit, I need him in my soul, I need him in my body. Get all of me, Lord, take all of my life and use it for your glory and honor. If that is your attitude tonight, let the Lord have his way in your heart. As the pastor comes, I'll let him finish up the invitation this evening. Let the Lord have his way. Why don't we stand tonight, if you would, the piano's gonna play Time of Invitation, and you know what you need. Are you walking in the spirit? Are you walking in the spirit? Are you filled with the spirit? Not for you. You realize, I know you know this, but 11 people, 11 people, 120 in the upper room in that first church, filled with the Spirit of God, turned their known world upside down with the Gospel. It was quite a deal we saw there. You can't do it without the work of the Holy Spirit. Are you walking in the Spirit? I think some people think the Holy Spirit is just to kill joy and they don't want them. They're afraid they're afraid they're going to be pushed to do something that scares them. Right. That's a that's a weird way to live. Let me tell you that as a child of God. That's kind of strange. Could you imagine owning a, whatever you want to call it, whatever you like, maybe it's a Cadillac, Lamborghini, that's what I like right there. Could you imagine owning some half a million dollar automobile and not one time ever driving it because there was never gasoline in the tank? What an utter waste. Well, it looks good. It looks pretty cool. It's pretty neat that you could buy something like that. But what on earth is the point of owning something so cool that you can never able to drive because there's never fuel in the tank? And unfortunately, I think that's what some of our lives are to our heavenly father. We've been redeemed. We've been purchased back by the blood of Jesus. We belong to him. We have great value. He loves us. And here we are like a bunch of wonderful, beautiful automobiles sitting in a sitting in a sitting in a garage because we refuse to walk in the spirit and be filled with the spirit. No, no, no fuel in the tank and just look good, but don't do anything. I don't know if that's the best way to say thank you. I really don't. Amen.