Transcription
[Uplifting music]
Dr. Corey wrote this to me; he said, "I shared during fall convocation 'that I believe America and even the world is 'at the doorstep of another great awakening 'that will be defined by resolute faith and radical love. 'If we allow the power of the Holy Spirit 'to work in and through us, if we can see 'what the Spirit of God will do in our year, 'this generation of students will be mobilized 'to proclaim Christ to the nations.'"
He continued, "There's nothing I want more than 'for Biola to be filled with Jesus-loving students.' Any of them in the house tonight? 'Jesus-loving students on their knees pleading 'for the Holy Spirit to empower them 'to dream of what can be done 'with a generation surrendered to Him.'"
My goodness, that's a vision. That's a stunning encapsulation of not only the desire of your current president, but the desire and the heart of God, of a generation ablaze with that. It's an honor for me to speak here tonight. It's partly an honor because when I first became a believer in 1986, I stumbled across a book that was quite thick; it was called What the Bible Teaches, and it was by a man named R.A. Torrey. And I couldn't believe when it came up on the screen tonight, but it's by R.A. Torrey. And he was the first person who introduced me to the Holy Spirit, not as a force, through his writings, not as a force, but as the Friend. And it just revolutionized my engagement with the Holy Spirit.
So it's my total joy tonight to introduce my greatest friend; he is the wisest person I've ever met; he's the most intelligent; he's the most brilliant; he's the gentlest, most generous, kindest, most loving, intimate. Like he knows all of our broken places and he still does not reject us. He still will not abandon us as orphans. Still draws near to us. I wanna introduce him and invite you into what it is that he is releasing in our lives in these days.
The story of God, the story of scripture is the story of the Spirit breathing life into humanity. You heard it beautifully and poetically phrased tonight. Creating words and worlds, the Holy Spirit who fashions and forms these things. The scripture's open, and the bible says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 'The earth was without form and void. 'Darkness was on the face of the deep, 'and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
Just love that; it's so like the Holy Spirit to be hidden. So like my friend to be humble. So like him never to force his way. So like him to be in the shadows, just waiting, waiting for the Father's voice to speak, waiting for the presence to bring expansive life. And, of course, the moment he speaks, the moment the Spirit of God speaks, everything comes alive because we were made to respond to his voice. There's something about his voice that just draws out everything in our design. And this is the Holy Spirit, with whom we have to do.
And I confess that when I was a young believer, I struggled a little bit to understand the Holy Spirit. The Father, I got; that made sense to me. I had pictures and presentations and that all around my world. And Jesus made total sense, but the Holy Spirit, people would call him the Holy Ghost. That just sounds spooky, doesn't it? Like, who wants to be a friend with a ghost? That just sounds slightly strange, slightly weird, and I didn't really understand him at all. It sounded impersonal. And again, grateful for R.A. Torrey's work in this. The Holy Spirit is equally, entirely and eternally God. He is just like Jesus.
So we're gonna open up the bible, make it a legal meeting. It's always good to do that. Open up the bible to John, gospel of John, chapter 16. We're gonna read verses 13 to 15. And I've got it in my computer tonight, because I can barely see, so I'll give it a go. He says, "However, when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, 'he will guide you into all truth, 'for he will not speak on his own authority, 'but whatever he hears, he will speak, 'and he will tell you things to come. 'He will glorify me," says Jesus, "for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. 'All things that the Father has are mine. 'Therefore I said that he will take of mine 'and declare it to you."
Eugene Peterson phrased it this way: "However, when the Friend comes, the Spirit of Truth, 'he will take you by the hand and guide you." And I think as I prayed about tonight, I think that's the first thing that my sense was the Holy Spirit wanting to say that he's your friend. And not only is he your friend, he's different. And his greatest goal is to fill you with his friendship. We're gonna talk about being filled with his power and his fullness, but I want you to understand that all the works of the power of the kingdom come from this abiding friendship, this beautiful invitation to know and be known, to love and be loved, to give ourself to the nature of the other, the Holy Spirit, to crawl inside his heart, to gaze inside his mind, to wonder about the things that he is speaking over. That we have this glorious friendship invitation that is as old as Enoch as he walked with God, that Abraham knew richly as God spoke over him, the friend of God, that this is the privilege of believers. That he is so much more than a force who changes lives. But he's the friend who inscribes the story of God into the core of who we are.
He doesn't just want to bring breakthrough to us, and I love that; I grew up in Pentecostal faith. I love breakthrough; I'm all for it, all for it. Hardcore, card carry, love; nothing I love better than watching cancers disappear off a body. That's just fun; it's on the list. You wanna see that stuff in your lifetime, right? You wanna see deformed bones change shape before your eyes. You wanna see blind eyes opened, deaf ears opened. I'm all for breakthrough; I'm all for blessing. I love the power of the Holy Spirit. But beyond that, I love it more, not just that he comes upon us in those moments, but that he rests upon us--
Man: That's good theology, brother.
And his friendship, thank you, my friend.
Man: Good theology, brother.
It is good theology. And he rests upon our lives. So Jesus says, hey, "When he, the Spirit of Truth comes," and I'm not quite sure those around him really got what he was saying, this longing of the Holy Spirit to be with us. They had a theology wrapped around the Old Testament where the Holy Spirit would come in acts of power and bring liberation through judges or speak mightily through prophets, but the idea of a friend, of God up close and personal, as a friend who formed his affection in us, my goodness, that is everything.
So within that friendship God invites us into all that he is, into all that he is. And then what he loves to do is he loves to introduce us to people who he wants to be friends with. And he does that in intriguing ways. A group of our team, we have some of our team here tonight, Lenny was there this day and Claire and some of the others were at the Fullerton bus station. They came across a young man. They were out just praying for people. That's what we love to do, isn't it? Make Jesus known to people. They're there and they go to a young man, and they'd already seen the Lord do what the Lord does in those moments, but they go up to this young guy and they say, "Hey, can we pray for you today?" And he said, "No," which is kind of what you say to strangers, isn't it, who are wondering if they can pray for you? He said, "No," and my friend looks at him and he said, "What about for those nightmares 'you've been having for the last eight years? 'Could we pray for that?" The guy's eyes kinda widened. He says to him, "It's caused by that presence 'in your room, isn't it?" The guy's like... He says, "It stands at the right hand side of your room. 'It's been coming to your room for years. 'It's not a good presence, is it?" The guy's like... He says, "How about we pray for that?" And don't you love that the Friend knew what was going on in this young man's life? His name was Jean Carlo, the guy on the bench. My friend gets to lead him to Jesus, lead him to faith. Well, that's just fun; you wanna do that with your friends, don't you? Like, Holy Spirit, not only are you the Friend, you're a genius! You know everything that's going on about everyone. It's like legal gossip.
[Audience laughing]
It's just like, how do you know these things? In those moments you'll come away saying, man, that guy, what a prophetic gift. And I mean that's good; I just come away marveling at my friend the Holy Spirit, thinking, how do you keep doing this? You're utterly unlike anyone I've ever known. Utterly beautiful, astonishing in all your ways. And he loves to come upon us, and he loves to introduce us to his friends.
Last week, it was last Wednesday, I think, our guys were back; they were in a little parking lot near Drip Coffee, I think, in Fullerton. Sound familiar, any Fullerton people here? Orange County, they're there. The week before they'd gone up to four high schoolers and they had spoken over them what God had invited them in that moment, shared God's thoughts with them. There was a group of four at one table, five at another, and the four that they spoke over, all four of them came to faith. So he said, "Hey, guys, meet us back here next week." So the next week they came, was it 15 of them came the next week?
Woman: They came with 16 friends.
They came with 16 friends into a parking lot in Fullerton, and another five of them came to faith. We showed up this week and it's spring break, go figure. None of them there, but just this work of the Holy Spirit in a car park as he introduces us to the people he's longing to be friends with.
I wanna encourage you in this. When I was young, when I was like you, before I lost my golden locks of hair,
[Audience laughing]
I was amazed and in awe at the power of that. Those stories would have rocked my world. Stories of tumors disappearing, all of that would have rocked my world. Now I'm amazed at my Friend. It's like, oh my goodness, you are, you are the most beautiful person in all the world. Jesus says, "When he comes, 'he will guide you into all truth." And this is where I wanna drive for the last half of this. His friendship makes all that he is available to us. But Jesus said he's gonna come, and you've written this in your banner. And I was so encouraged as I came in. But he didn't just want us to come into all that he is; he wants us to come into all that he has for us. And Jesus says, when he comes, he's going to lead you into all truth. Not just religious truth, but all truth. He's going to help you step into the story of God where it's breaking out in industries and work places and campuses and all sorts of families and all charities, all that kind of stuff. The Holy Spirit helps us step into that story. And you've put it on your banner, and I think it says, "Seeking God in," do you know this? It was just in the banner; you're like, no, we don't notice the banner. We proudly display it; what does it say? "Seeking God in all things," all things.
And as you're seeking God in all things, whether it's political science or psychology or filmmaking or fashion or any of those things, Jesus has made a promise, and his promise is this, that the Friend would guide you into the truth in all things. That he would say come with me, I want to show you how I designed this to function. That I love the Holy Spirit, my friend; he loves to bring lost people home to him, lost individuals, but what he really loves is to show us his design that he's hidden for entire industries and institutions. He loves to show divine design, the uniqueness of what he's created to people who would inquire of him. He brings us into reality; he guides us into the whole truth. He is the most brilliant person. I wish I had time to tell you all about him tonight, but you know what, he's the best engineer that there ever was? Dallas Willard says this; he says we can't relegate God to the religious side of your life. Do you know he's the best-selling author?
[Audience laughing]
Just let's start with one that we can verify factually. He is the best-selling author in history. Nobody has ever inspired a book or a library of books like this, a whole library of them, sold them, and it's the best-selling book in the whole of history. The Holy Spirit, he is the best architect. Have you looked at creation? He's a genius artist. You know this already; I'm just reminding you how wonderful he is, and that he's not only present, he is utterly brilliant. He's better at management than Peter Drucker.
Man: Good one!
And Peter Drucker's pretty good, was pretty good at management. He's better at film than J.J. Abrams. He knows everything, and he reveals his secrets to his friends and his mysteries to his friends. He just pours it in and he pours it over us. What about his presence and brilliance for economics, for governance, for technology? Wouldn't you love the Holy Spirit to show you what was coming next in technology? I'm gonna share a story with you in a couple of minutes where he does that very thing. But wouldn't you love that? That that's available? You're like, Holy Spirit, you're gonna guide us into all things? Yes, all things about the Father. So let's not leave that behind. All things about the Son, all things about scripture and creation, but all things, all things. "All things in heaven and in earth" Jesus said, "are given to me," and the Holy Spirit will make them known to you. We need his presence, don't we, in artistic design? We need it in politics; we need it in our sexuality. We need it in creativity; we need the presence and brilliance of the Holy Spirit in that. He is brilliant at everything, just a strategic genius.
I know a man who went to bed one evening, and as he went to bed he had a dream. And this is one of the ways that the Holy Spirit loves to speak. This gathering, I believe, is called poured out, is one of the other expressions of it, and God said when he poured out his Spirit, we would have dreams and we would see visions, right? So dreams is one of the ways that he speaks to us. And he goes to bed; he has a dream, and in his dream he sees this minimally-invasive device for the treatment of strokes. It's not yet available; it's never been designed; it's never been created, but he's a believer and he writes down what God shows him in the dream. He begins to create other drawings around it and he pulls some venture capitalists into the idea of creating this little device. The basic theory behind it was that if he could create it and if you could insert it into someone, into their brain, whose just had a stroke, if you could catch the stroke in the first three hours, the person would suffer no ongoing paralysis or effects. That was the theory. They developed it; they brought it to prototype, and they tried it out and it hit over 90% success. So understandably the medical profession, you can google this, the medical profession were thrilled about this, this is pioneering breakthrough in medical treatment, pioneering breakthrough in medical treatment. They get it onto the market. They do what they do with it. My friend makes a hundred; he signs off on his thing; he sells his share on it for $150 million. And the night he signs the contract, off on it, that night he goes to bed and God gives him another dream for a new product. Well, that's just cheating.
[Audience laughing]
You're coming to study for those kinds of insights and breakthroughs, and so you should. But that's just cheating. The Old Testament phrased it this way: Call to me, and I'll answer you, and I'll tell you wonderful things that you cannot Google.
[Audience laughing]
Or that you do not know. Call to me; I wanna tell you things you don't know. This is my friend; he knows everything about everyone everywhere. I could tonight, we don't have time; I could point to people and have them stand up and I could declare to you your divine design by the Spirit of God, 'cause he knows you. He's seen you when you took your first breath. He's seen you when you had your first kiss. He knows you; he knows you intimately; he knows your personally and he's present and he's brilliant and he will tell you what is to come, Jesus said. He'll tell you what is to come in the film industry and the fashion industry. He'll do that in all sorts of things. Why would he do that? He does that so that Christ would have the supremacy in all things, that the majesty, beauty, uncontested authority and victory of Jesus would be displayed in the whole of creation for the glory of God. The Holy Spirit does this not to titillate our senses, not to awaken us to experiences, not for emotion or even encounter; he does this for one purpose only, that Christ would be glorified and magnified in every industry, in every corner of culture, in every sector of society, in every area of governance, in every area of human endeavor and ingenuity, that there would be one Lord, one God, one faith, one hope. That Jesus Christ would have supremacy in all things. And the Holy Spirit delights to do that through his people. It is through the church that God makes known his manifold wisdom to the culture around us. And it's simply beautiful the way that he does that, so that through us, as Paul says, and we're almost there, so that through us Christ spreads everywhere his fragrance. He's like, I want to show them how brilliant I am.
My brother, I think I'll close with this. So many stories. My brother, one day he was getting ready for work and he was shaving, and as he was shaving, he felt the Friend speak to him and say, "You know that colleague who works beside you? 'Her mother's just been admitted into hospital 'and this is her condition. 'When you get to work today, talk to her about that." So he goes into work and he says to his colleague, "Hey, I know it's a bit of a strange question, 'but how's your mother, how's her health?" The colleague says, "That is a bit strange." He said, "Well, here's what happened today," and he told her what happened. And she said, "Gosh, that is what's happening 'with my mother right now." Well, the other colleagues are listening in and so they say to him, his name is John, they say, "John, did God tell you anything for me?" 'Cause unbelievers are hungry for the Friend. They've never met anyone like him either. They said, "Did he tell you anything for me?" And he said, "No, he didn't. 'But I'll be here tomorrow, as will you, 'so why don't I talk to you then? 'I'll ask him tomorrow morning, 'and if he gives me anything, I'll give it to you." So the next day he's shaving again; I don't know why he shaved every day. Probably so things like this didn't happen when he was speaking, right?
[Audience laughing]
He was shaving again, and the next day he goes in and he gives the next colleague and the next colleague. And he does this for the whole work, until, for the whole week, until on the Friday his best friend at work comes to him and he says, "John, did God give you anything for me?" And he said, "He did, but I don't want 'to tell you in front of the others." He says, "Let's go out for lunch." And so they go out for lunch that day, and God showed him that his friend and his partner were trying to have kids. They couldn't have kids. And he showed him that there was barrenness in the family. And even though this was John's best friend at work, he'd never told him that, and when John told him what God had shown him, he started to weep and weep. Because God just loves family, doesn't he? And he loves work places, and he loves to make himself known. And John gets to pray with him there. I'm not sure what the outcome of the story is in that, but I want to say to you tonight this, our churches and our campuses, the movement of the Holy Spirit, our stepping into the story is not so that we can have a safe space. It's so that we can become the most creative, expansive, glorious people in the planet, that we would see, as your president declared, a people awakened who don't just awaken revival in a region, but awaken renaissance and culture and begin to dream the dreams of God over every city around us. And you have some right now in this room, some of the most brilliant minds, and the Holy Spirit would just come, he would love to come, if you would let him, and I know you're hungry, but he would love to come and just inspire your mind with more.
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