Faith On Fire
Faith On Fire
On Pentecost Sunday, Pastor Adrian delivered a passionate message titled "Faith on Fire," calling believers to rekindle a vibrant, Spirit-empowered faith. Rooted in 2 Timothy 1:5–7, he highlighted three essential ways God ignites our faith: through generations, through godly people, and through the Holy Spirit. Using Timothy’s example, Pastor Adrian reflected on the legacy of faith passed down from Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, urging listeners to honour and continue the faith of those before them—or, for first-generation Christians, to be the spark for future generations.
He shared personal stories of mentors and family members who inspired his walk with Christ, reminding the church that God sends people into our lives to challenge and encourage us. Most importantly, Pastor Adrian underscored the need for believers to fan into flame the gift of God within them. This requires intentional prayer, worship, Scripture, and surrender to the Holy Spirit, who gives power, love, and a sound mind.
The message was both a challenge and an invitation: to move beyond passive Christianity and pursue a faith that burns brightly—one that impacts homes, workplaces, and communities. Pastor Adrian closed with a powerful call to respond to God’s Spirit with renewed hunger, courage, and devotion.
Related Bible Verses
📖 2 Timothy 1:5–7 (NLT)
🔗 Read on Bible.com: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/2TI.1.5-7.NLT
5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
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Faith on Fire: How to Keep Your Faith Burning Bright
On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples, giving them boldness and power to preach the gospel. This transformative event sparked the explosion of the early church, and that same Holy Spirit power is available to us today.
But how do we maintain a faith that's truly on fire for God? How do we avoid becoming Christians who merely go through the motions, compartmentalizing our faith as just one small part of our lives?
What does a genuine faith on fire look like?
There's a clear difference between someone with a passionate, genuine faith and someone who's just moderately committed. When your faith is on fire, it impacts every area of your life. People with burning faith:
Live with integrity
Say what they mean and mean what they say
Make decisions by first asking, "God, what do you want me to do?"
Allow their faith to influence every aspect of their lives
Unfortunately, many of us live in a culture where our faith becomes timid and compartmentalized. We might attend church but then go home and "get on with life" without letting our faith guide our daily decisions.
How does God help us develop a faith that's on fire?
In 2 Timothy 1:5-7, Paul gives us insight into how God builds a burning faith in our lives:
1. Through generations in our family
"I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you."
God often uses family members to pass down a genuine faith. Timothy had a grandmother (Lois) and mother (Eunice) who lived out their faith and actively influenced him. They built a foundation that Timothy could build upon.
Young people should look to the generations before them and recognize the wisdom and faith legacy they've established. Even if our family members weren't perfect, we can learn from their genuine faith and commitment to God.
2. Through godly people in our lives
"This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you."
Not everyone has family members who passed down faith. But God always sends godly people into our lives to encourage, challenge, and build us up. For Timothy, the Apostle Paul was that person who recognized God's calling on his life and spoke into it.
We need to:
Be attentive to the godly people God has placed in our lives
Listen to their wisdom and encouragement
Be proactive in seeking out mentorship
Become that godly person for others
3. Through the Holy Spirit
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
Without the Holy Spirit personally filling our lives, our faith will never truly be on fire. The Holy Spirit gives us:
Power to overcome timidity and fear
Love (agape) that helps us forgive and see the best in others
Self-discipline and a sound mind to make wise decisions
When the Holy Spirit fills us, we gain confidence to step out in faith, even when it's uncomfortable. We begin to see every person as someone God loves and can transform.
How do we fan our faith into flame?
Paul tells Timothy to "fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you." The fire is already there—the Holy Spirit dwells in believers—but we must actively fan it into flames.
Just like a physical fire needs oxygen to grow, our spiritual fire needs to be fanned:
Hunger for God's presence: "You will find me when you search for me with all your heart."
Read God's Word: Open the Bible and ask God to speak to you.
Worship: Draw near to God through praise and worship.
Pray: Get on your knees and seek God's face.
Remove what snuffs out the flame: Be mindful of what you're filling your life with.
Many Christians wait passively to be "fed" spiritually, but God calls us to actively fan the flame. We must stop being lackadaisical and take responsibility for our spiritual growth.
Life Application
This week, I challenge you to actively fan the flame of your faith:
Identify your spiritual heritage: Who are the people (family or others) who have modeled genuine faith for you? Thank God for them and consider what aspects of their faith you want to emulate.
Seek out godly influence: Who could you ask to speak into your life? Or who might God be calling you to mentor and encourage?
Create space for the Holy Spirit: Set aside time each day this week to pray, "Holy Spirit, fill me afresh. I want to be on fire for you."
Examine what's snuffing your flame: What activities, thoughts, or influences might be dampening your spiritual fire? What practical step can you take to remove one of these?
Ask yourself: Am I living with a faith that's truly on fire for God? Am I making decisions based on what God wants, or am I being guided by fear, comfort, or the opinions of others? What would it look like if I allowed the Holy Spirit to set every area of my life ablaze?
Remember, God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. The fire is already within you—now fan it into flame!
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A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.
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Hey, Pentecost Sunday.
So if you don't know who I am, my name's Adrian. I'm one of the pastors here. We're gonna get into the Word this morning. Cause I want to and God wants to. And so if you are visiting with us, I want to give you a big welcome.
Thank you for joining with us here, our guests. You're very welcome in this place. It's a privilege for us to have you. And at the end of the service, we've got morning tea, we've got the cafe open. There's a gift bag we want to give you.
It's got a card, you can fill out all that stuff. We'd love to get to know you more and see, see what God wants to do through your life and that'll be good. So I'm sure we got some announcements. We'll do those at the end. But the word of God's more important than some announcements, aren't they?
Isn't it? So without further ado, let's get into it. Good job, team. Well done. Well done to all the team.
Especially Alex. Pregnant. Alex. Alex. Alex.
And baby. Their baby is basically a born worship leader because they're not even born yet. And they're already up here probably, you know, singing along internally to the beat of the drum and the songs and then mum singing and her mum singing and. Very good. They're having a little girl.
Did you know that Fua and Alex are having another little baby girl and. Cause girls rock and we need more on fire women. And so we're bringing giving birth to them in our church and we've got a whole bunch of baby girls being born. And we've had one baby boy, Elijah has been born and he's gonna be surrounded by these women in his life, which is what I've had in my life. So it's a good thing.
And men and women of God partnering together. All right, here we go. Two Timothy, two Timothy chapter one. We're gonna read from. It's Pentecost Sunday.
If you don't know what Pentecost Sunday is, Pentecost Sunday is a whole bunch of things, but particularly in the Christian church, we celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They spoke in other tongues, they were filled with power from the Holy Spirit. They became bold. And it's really when we see the explosion of the church start to happen because the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them boldness, anointing. And they went forth and preached the good news of Jesus Christ in ways that had never happened before.
And it's still going on today. And we're very privileged. We are a Pentecostal church and we've seen over the last 120 years of the Pentecostal church sort of really being birthed in about 1900. I mean, the Holy Spirit's always been moving in denominations and the Christian church. But in 1900 there was really an outpouring of a move of God.
And I think back then in 1900, there were less than a million people that called themselves Pentecostal Charismatic Christians. Today there's over 700 million people across the world that say they're Pentecostal Charismatic Christians. And that doesn't matter what denomination you are. But what it does matter is that God is moving and saving people and changing lives. And we're part of that group, aren't we?
And so we're going to talk about that today. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 5. This is the Apostle Paul talking to Timothy. Timothy. I have an affinity with that name because my mum and dad named me Adrian.
Timothy. Who's got a second name? Timothy here? Anyone else? Right, Might be a couple of us.
Adrian. Timothy was my name and this book was written. This was a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy. The apostle Paul was in prison and he couldn't get out and do everything. He planted a church in Ephesus and he'd put Timothy, a young man, in charge of this church.
And now he was writing a letter to him to encourage him and give him some instructions. And we read this is the second letter he wrote to Timothy. And it says this in chapter one, verse five, I remember your genuine faith. He's talking to Timothy now for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline, some versions say, and a sound Lord, as we come around your word today, Holy Spirit, would you grab ahold of us and make this like a two edged sword, Lord, diving deep into our souls, our spirits, that we would not just hear some nice words or a story or two, but Lord, we would have the word of God penetrate deep in our souls and spirits, Lord, and change us and challenge us. Because that's your desire in each and every one of our lives today. In Jesus name, amen. I want to talk to you about this topic today.
Faith on fire. Faith on fire. We know the difference, don't we, between someone that seems to have a faith that is genuine and passionate and real and on fire and someone that is just sort of a moderate person of faith. Oh, they're just going through the motions. They just, they believe, but it's just a little part of their life.
We know, we see that in our lives, don't we? We see people that go, they're on fire. We talk about this when we see someone that gets passionate about something, that gets, that is really committed to something, they're on fire for that. There's something about being on fire. And we talk about this in our faith.
We see people who are passionate and they're living out their faith. I'm not just talking about passionate people naturally. I'm talking about people that are truly committed. And you see their lives and you say they have allowed their faith to impact every area of their life. They live it.
They're people of integrity. They're people that say what they mean and mean what they say and they live it. And all of us would desire to be those kinds of people, wouldn't we? All of Us want to be that kind of person. All of us want to be someone that others would say of you.
They truly believed what they said and they lived it out in their lives, whatever that is. And we're in church today, so I'm assuming almost all of us would say, I would love to be known as someone that had a faith that was on fire for God. That was true. That's what we want. And yet we live in a society, we live in a world, we live in a culture where so often our faith isn't on fire, so often our faith is timid and it's compartmentalized as a little part of our lives.
And we fit in our spiritual life and our faith into other areas. I know I've grown up with family that would. Extended family, and they would say they had some kind of belief, but then when they'd practice, it would be usually when Christmas was on or Easter. And it's, well, I believe. But when I looked at their lives, I didn't see their faith being something that really changed their lives and was a part of their central decision making.
And that can happen to us right here in this church. It can happen in your life. You can come to church, you can say all the right things, we can dress the occasion and worship and look the right way, but we can go home and we can just go, all right, now I'm going to get on with life. And you know, whether your faith is on fire because you can see it in your decision making. If your decisions are one of the first things you're saying is God, what do you want me to do?
Holy Spirit, what would you desire? God? What would be the right thing? Jesus, how would you want me to live this life? How would you want me to treat this person?
When that becomes part of your lifestyle and part of your thinking, you know that your faith is on fire. When you're not thinking that and you're making decisions that are for different reasons, out of stress, out of pleasing someone else, out of your own comfort, out of trying to get ahead in this life for your own benefit or because that's what someone else is doing, then you realize my faith isn't on fire. I want to talk to you about how do we have a faith that is on fire for God in your workplace, in your home? I'm talking about in our families, parents. We need to have a faith that is on fire for God because our children are watching us.
Even, hey, they don't even want to sometimes, but they can't help it. They're watching you, they're watching you. And they become like us. I'm sorry, Ella, but they do, don't they? You watch your children and some of their behaviors and how they think.
You realize going, oh, that's a bit like me. Because this is what happens. This is actually what God ordained. So there's a responsibility on us. I want to be a parent.
I want to be a grandparent. When that time comes, long way off.
I want to be a friend. I want to be a teacher. I want to be someone that has a faith on fire, that passes something on to others that says, there's something in my life you can watch and learn. And I'm leaving a deposit. Isn't that what you want?
So we want to talk about that today. How can you have a faith that's on fire for God? And the Apostle Paul gives us some indications here on how that happens in our lives. I want to talk to you about three things. They're simple things.
They're things that you will know. But they're things we let Passover. They're things we take for granted. They're things we go, yeah, been there, done that. Yeah, it's true when you think about.
But you're going to find, as I talk about these things, I want you to think about your own life and think, how has God put those people, those things in my life that I need to pay more attention to, that if I do, it's going to help me be true to a faith that God wants to set on fire in my life. So the first one we're going to look at, and it says this. I remember your genuine faith. For you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
The first way that God will help us have a faith that's on fire is he will do it through generations in our family. He will do it through generations. Now, this doesn't apply to everybody, right? But many, many of us have people in our family, people that we look to that had a faith in Christ that was genuine and it was real and it had great meaning. I don't know about you, but when we're young, we take our parents and we take our grandparents for granted a little bit.
Cause we think they're old fuddy duddies and they don't get how life really works. And then you become a parent and then you become a grandparent and you realize that's how they're looking at you. But you realize you Carry all this wisdom and you wish people would listen to it. Young people, we need to look at the generations that have come before us and say, what have they built a foundation for that I can build upon and follow that God has put there as a gift to me, as a grace to me. I love this.
He says, you share the faith, Timothy. He's talking to a pastor now of a church, an up and coming young man. He says that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. We don't know what happened to his parent, his father, his grandfather, but we do know this, that he had a grandmother and a mother who had a genuine faith that they passed on. Grandmoms don't get too much of a mention in the Bible, but when they do, they're legends.
They're legends of the faith. And I thank God for Lois. We don't know much about her except that Lois found Jesus and she lived for him with all of her heart and life. She mustn't have been following him that long because Christianity hadn't been around that long. But she found him in her life, and she must have been probably a first generation Christian.
And some of us are. And you know what Lois did? She said, I'm gonna pass this on to my daughter. I'm gonna pass this on to my grandson. You know what that means?
Cause he mentions Lois. It means that Lois had an impact. It wasn't just, oh, she's there doing her thing, and Timothy didn't have any appreciation for it. It means that Lois was actively influencing her grandson's life. And I want you to think about the people in your life that have actively influenced you.
I. I can think about. I've got two grandmothers, they've both passed away. Now. On my dad's side, I had a grandmother named Martha, lived with us for a couple of years when I was just a small kid.
And she was a Christian and she didn't have much of an education, she didn't have money. But you know what she did have? She had a faith in Christ. And I remember many things about her, but two of them are this. No matter what she was going through, she would keep on saying, God's got me.
It's all gonna be okay. To the point. To the point where she would be coughing and spluttering and going, you need to go to hospital. She goes, no, I'm okay because God's healing me. God's got me, I'm fine.
And she said that probably to an extreme, where she was saying that like the night she died in her sleep. And she was like, I'm fine. I'm cool. No problems here. And then she passed away.
But what I love about her is she was trusting God. And she did get some medical care. She didn't, like, reject medical care, but she had this faith that said, God's always got me, even when she's going through a difficult time. She had gone through a difficult life, but she held onto God through it all. I remember Narelle and I went and visited her when we first got married.
And the other thing I remember, there was this love that she had. Love for her family, a love for her grandchildren. She'd remember everyone's birthdays. She'd send me bed socks on my birthday, and she made them. She knitted bed socks especially for me.
She did it for all her grandchildren. And I would wear those bed socks with pride. And Narelle was a bit embarrassed with those bed socks, but I was like, these are my grandma's bed socks. She made me. I'm gonna wear them.
And not only did she do that, she passed away before Ella was born, actually. But we found. When we went there, we found a parcel in her shelf that she'd made. She had knitted our future child. She had knitted our future child a blanket, a yellow blanket that she'd made for our child that hadn't been born, but she'd prepared it in advance.
And I go, there's love, there's grace. I go, there's a legacy of a genuine faith. It wasn't perfect. She didn't live a perfect life. She didn't live an easy life, but it was a genuine faith.
And then I think about my. You heard about it before. My mum's mum, Nonna. Carmela. Nonna.
Carmela from Italy, got saved when she was 18. And she lived for Jesus the rest of her life. She would. When they came to Australia, they would walk to church over 40 minutes. They'd walk.
She'd walk her two daughters to church because her husband wasn't saved yet. And they would go to church, walk home from church. They would go to the tarrying meeting. The tarrying meeting is another word for a prayer meeting. But that was, we're tarrying after God.
We're waiting on the Lord for three or four hours. And she'd take her daughters there. She was sold out to Christ. I remember my Nonna, she would pray. Whenever she'd hear the ambulance symbol, sirens going right, she would start praying and crying out to God for the person that was Hurt that God would protect them and save them.
And she would be singing in the kitchen and be going, you know, we'd be babysat on holidays. And some of you guys, you get babysat by your grandparents on the holidays, don't you? And I would go there and we would, like, have to be in this Italian tradition. And she would be cooking up a feast for us. But while she's cooking, there'd be this sound in the kitchen.
Hallelujah. Gloria di o gesur gesu. And we'd be like, she'd be singing these Italian songs that she was just making up. She was making up songs in Italian. And we were like, yeah, it was like free worship.
She was like a worship leader in her own kitchen. And being the very respectful children that we were, we paid her out and said, hey, Nonna, what's that song from? And she'd just look at us and smile and she'd keep singing. And we thought it was hilarious and funny. But you know what?
She passed on a genuine faith. When I'd meet with her, there was love in her eyes. She'd ask us, are you loving Jesus? Are you serving the Lord? Are you following after him?
She took it to extremes sometimes. She was Italian, she didn't quite get the technology of the world. And there was one time in our house, we were playing, I think it was Nintendo, and we were playing Nintendo Switch 2's come out. Who just bought a Nintendo Switch 2? Anyone here?
Oh, no one cares. All right, well, I know a couple of kids who care. They're in kids church right now. They want to Switch two. Anyway, we were playing the table.
We were playing Mario Kart or something, right? And we were on there with the controls and you're just having fun on the tv. And my Nonna's sitting on this couch in our lounge. You remember this, Mum? She's sitting there and she's like going, oh, no, Gloria Dio, no.
And she's like, really consternated. She's like, this is. This is like. I'm like, mum, what's wrong with Nonna? And my mum's like, ah, don't worry about her, Adrian.
Don't worry, it's fine, it's fine. I said, no, she's really upset. Something's really upset her. I'd like to know what it is. And so my mum goes, oh, look, she goes, she doesn't know what this thing is that you're playing.
She thinks you're playing the poker machines. She thinks this is a poker machine and you're on the pokey's gambling. And we're trying to explain. So I'm like, nonna, this is not a poker machine. We don't have them in houses.
And so I'm explaining, this is just a game. This is a game. And my Nonna, Italian, if you know, Italian family, she's going, she's doing this. She's going to, Ah, sure. Ah, sure.
She wouldn't believe a word of what I was saying. She goes. She was like, I know what I know and you're wrong. And she had a few of those idiosyncrasies. But I knew her heart was in the right place.
Do you know what I love? She passed it on to her mother, to her daughter. Sorry. My mum and my mom took that faith and one day my mum went to Bible college because she had a heart that wanted to serve God. And my mum carried that from her childhood right till now, Right?
And all through my life, my mom has. You know what I love about my mother? She has never once wavered in her faith. Even when she's gone through heartache and pain and struggle and loneliness and all the things that you're gonna face over your whole lifetime. My mom has held onto her love for the Lord Jesus and wanted to serve him, and she's passed that on to me.
And do you know what my responsibility is? And your responsibility is look at the generations that have served the Lord and say, am I listening to what they're saying? Am I looking at their example? The people that have held onto faith, they're not perfect, but they had a genuine faith. God's put them in your life for a reason.
And sometimes young people and other people, we've walked away from that because we think we know better. We haven't considered the depth of it. We've looked at some of the mistakes that have been made or how they haven't got certain things, like my Nonna, and said, oh, yeah, I'll do it my own way, but God put these people in your life, that we would listen to them and follow their genuine faith. And here's the challenge for you. Are you gonna be someone that is gonna pass on a genuine faith to your children, to the children around you, to your friends, young people, you got friends.
They are desperately in need of some men and women of God to lead the way and say, there is a genuine faith that I have that's on faith for God that will change your life. They need it. They need it. Will you be that person to others? I've determined I want to be Narelle and I.
We want to be that person to our daughter. We want to be that person for others around us, our friends, others around. We're not perfect, but I want to have a faith that I pass on to the generations. Are you doing that in your life? Are you taking it from the generations and passing it to the next generations?
That's the first way God builds a faith on fire. It's practical. It's real. The second thing. The heat is still on, or are they off now?
Trevor.
Oh, let's turn it off now because I'm hot. Sorry. Is it too. Sorry. Is it getting hot?
Yeah, the body temperature of this place, we've all increased it by about 6 degrees. So, anyway, thank you, sir. Trevor. All right. Point two, three generations.
This is the second point. Cause some of us don't have other family members that have passed on a faith to us. Some of us have found faith for ourselves. And that's good. That's okay, right?
Because God has a way forward for all of us. Because the second thing he says here, he says, this is why in verse 6. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. This is a beautiful thing about Timothy. He had a grandmother and a mother that passed on a faith to him.
But then the apostle Paul at some point met Timothy and said, there's something on this young man's life. And he spoke into Timothy's life. That's what this letter. When we read the Bible, you're actually reading a letter, a personal letter from. From the apostle Paul to Timothy, saying, I believe in you, Timothy.
I want to build into you. Here's some instruction. Here's some ideas. Here's some thoughts. And he tells him here, hey, remember when I laid my hands on you and you received a spiritual gift, and I want you to keep going?
And in other places, you know what he says to Timothy? He says, do not despise being young. Don't let anyone despise your youth, because God's called you, and he's put this anointing on your life. And you can be the man of God that he's called you to be. You.
Do you know what God does to us? He builds our faith, and he sets it on fire through godly people. He does it through generations. But then he brings godly people into our lives. And those godly people are sent by God into our lives to encourage us and to build us up.
I remember I've had so many Godly people in my life. You know, sometimes we take them for granted. Sometimes, you know what we do? We look at the negatives. We can look at the negatives of the failings of people that have not been there for us.
I've got those people. You know what? Every single person in my life has failed me at some point, just as I have failed every single person, even though I didn't want to. Because we're human beings. But if we focus and set our, oh, this person wasn't there for me.
This person, it becomes this spiral of negativity. One of the challenges is for us to look at the godly people he has sent and say, there are people that care. There are people that have done that. I've had so many of them. I thank God for those people in my life.
I had kids, church teachers that. Mrs. Hands. Mrs. Hands, she was the.
I mean, you think Narelle, five foot one, is short in stature. Mrs. Hands, I reckon, was under five foot. She was tiny. And she had a husband who was like.
Like, almost seven foot. He was a giant. And it was like, honestly, he was a giant. She was this tiny little woman, but, oh, my goodness, she was a fireball. You know what she did, right?
She wasn't on staff. She wasn't a pastor. She was the children's church leader for one of the classes. And I go, I still remember her to this day. She would bring in our class.
She treated that class like it was a church. And she would bring us in. She would challenge us. She would tell us stories about how she'd met with angels and angels that helped her. She'd tell us stories about the healing power of God.
She'd tell us stories about faith and the fire of the Holy Spirit. And this little four foot something woman would get so fired up, we're like, oh, man, God can do anything. She's like, you better believe it. And I was like, that was a children's church worker, right? She was on fire for God.
She was a godly person God sent into my life. I remember being 13 years of age and joining youth ministry, and I thought, I'm gonna go to youth group. And I was a. I wasn't like, I was a classic nerd, right? I was Mr.
Academic, you know, I wasn't into sport. I played tennis, but not basketball. And the stuff they did. I didn't want games. I hated the games they did because it, like, you got.
There was hygiene issues with these games, and I did not want to participate. And I was very shy at that Stage in my youth because all these things. But I went along to youth group and I joined a youth Connect group. And at that stage they were meeting, they'd meet on Saturday night, we'd have youth and then we'd meet during the week for once, a fortnight for youth Connect group. We'd go to someone's house and there was a youth leader that had been newly appointed in this youth ministry and he was the assistant Connect group leader.
And he was like 17, 18, he just turned 18, something like that. I was a 13 year old kid and he came into this group and he was an apprentice butcher. He hadn't finished school, he'd left school early and he was becoming a butcher and he would come to Connect group and like you could, he tried to clean himself off, but you could still smell the butcherness on him. All right, I don't know, that's not a word, but you know what I'm saying, you could smell that he'd been cutting raw meat in the whole day. And he came and he'd have stories about how he almost cut his thumb off.
And here's a little bit of another cut from this and he tells his story. But the thing about this young man is that he came alongside, he saw something on me, this little nerd kid, Adrian. Because one day I brought my bible to Connect group and I was talking about what God had spoken to me and he came up to me and he said, Adrian, God's doing something in your life. He said, let's catch up. And we caught up and we went and had maccas or something like that and he'd start asking me about what's God doing?
And then he'd start telling about what God's doing in him and how God's got him on fire. We'd start talking about revivals that have happened through history and how people have prayed. He gave me a book on prayer and I got that book and I read that book and we're talking and you know what I wanted to do after I'd spent time with him? I wanted to go into my room and I just wanted to seek God more. Because he'd say, Adrian, there's something on your life.
Come on. If we seek God together, we could do something amazing. Who knows what God can do through our life. I was a thousand thirteen year old kid, he was an eighteen year old kid. And yet the fire of God was in him.
And God sent him into my life to speak life over him. And it didn't last. It only lasted for A couple of years before, he went on and moved on somewhere else. And as he was going somewhere else, he caught up with me to tell me. And he wrote a note to me and he said, adrian, he goes, I'm leaving.
We're not gonna see each other much anymore. But he goes, I've written this for you. And he gave me this verse. He said, adrian, I'm giving you this verse because God spoke to me about you. And it said this.
He said, adrian, you have a calling to change nations. Fan it into flames. And I kept that my whole life. I kept it because a godly person spoke something positive. I could have said, you know what?
He left me and I didn't see him again. And that's not fair. But you know what, I look back and I go, he was sent at the right time, in the right space for God to speak. You know what he ended up going? I mean, it's a pretty amazing story.
He ended up going to America and went to New York City. He planted a church in New York City. And today that church has now planted other churches in New York City. It's thousands of people. And now he travels the world, he comes to Australia and preaches, he does things.
He's written books. His name's John Tyson. Some of you might have heard of, some young adults might have heard of him. And he was started as an 18 year old apprentice butcher and went on to serve God. But you know what he took seriously?
God's called me to impact lives. And I want to tell you this as a challenge to us right now. God has sent people in your life, godly people, to speak into your life. Are you listening to them? Because I had to listen to the godly people that God has sent into my life.
And I thank God that for a large part of my life I have listened to them. Sometimes I haven't wanted to because I've been like, I'll do it my way, but thank God for wisdom and coming alongside and realizing actually there's wisdom in these people. They showed love and grace. Who are the people in your life that God sent to you? Because the worst thing that can happen is that God can send people into your life with wisdom.
And we don't listen to them and we don't go to them. There are godly people in this church that want to speak into your life. They want to come alongside you. You know what? You go, well, no one pulled me out of the crowd and asked me to.
Maccas.
Right? That's true. But you know what? Go up to someone and say, hey, can we catch up? Go up to a pastor, a leader, someone that you like.
Cause there's a whole bunch of people, right? There's been many times when people haven't come to me, I've gone to them and said, okay, I catch up with you. Pastor Alan Davies is a pastor in my life. He's come here and preach. He's someone that I still regularly.
I ask him, can we catch up? He doesn't run after me going. I say, I want your wisdom. He says, adrian, I'd love to. Let's do it.
Can I encourage you? Be proactive, Find godly people and ask them to speak into your life and then listen to what they're saying. They're there to guide you, sent by God. They're not there to control you. The pastors aren't here to control you.
No one can control your life but you. You're in charge of your life, aren't you? Yes, I am. And that comes with responsibility. You get to decide whatever you do.
But God wants to put godly people into your life to speak, encourage, challenge. And if we listen to them, God will help us. That's one of the ways he sets us on fire. If I didn't have that throughout my life, I wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't be serving God the same way.
And now here's the challenge to all of us. Are you gonna be a godly person to others? Cause you're supposed to be the John Tyson to someone else. My role is now not to just receive from everyone. My role is to give out.
That's what I want to do. I want to give wisdom, I want to give encouragement. I want to believe in people. And you go, well, that's easy. You're the pastor, you're supposed to do that.
Okay, no, no, I'm doing this. This is what God's called me to do. But actually I started doing this before I ever became a pastor. I got a hold of realizing people have built into me. It's time for me to build into others.
I remember being a 17 year old assistant connect group leader and finding and you know what my goal was? I was gonna find some the next champions of God. Just like people had spoken to me. I was like, I'm gonna find the next pastors, the next legends. I'm gonna speak faith over them.
You can do the same thing. Parents, we can do that. Friends, we can do that. Young people, we can do that. We got some kids in our kids ministry firing up, encouraging Others.
That's the second way he does it through generations. He does it through godly people. And I want to tell you this, if you're a first generation Christian, God's put godly people in your life, hasn't he? There's a reason you're here today. And he's also, he has chosen you.
Some of us can feel negative about being a first generation Christian because we missed out. And I wish that I found him earlier. I wish. Adrian, I had a grandmother and a mother and a family that came alongside me and believed that. And I didn't get it.
Can I tell you this? God has chosen you to be the first of a new generation. He's anointed you, he's appointed you, and he's going to help you be everything that he's called you to be. To be the godly man and woman of God in the next generation. Don't despise that.
I want you to change your view from looking at, oh, well, I didn't inherit all this stuff to actually, I'm the one who's gonna be the one that passes this on to everyone else around me. What a calling. You're privileged. God's looked at you and gone. You can handle that.
I'm gonna save you out of the miry clay of a past history. And I'm gonna use you to change a generation, use you to change a family, use you to change the world through generations, through godly people. And this is the third way he does it through the Holy Spirit of God. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline.
It's good. These are good, practical things. Generations, godly people, all these people will help us. But you and I know that without the Holy Spirit personally filling your life, bringing life and fire to your spirit and soul, it's all in vain. You cannot live the Christian life without the Lord.
I want to ask you, has the Holy Spirit filled your life? Have you desired for him to fill your life? Because God hasn't given us a spirit of fear and timidity. Do you know how you're filled with the Holy Spirit? One of the ways is, you see this fear and timidity don't control me.
This word that is used, it's the only time in the New Testament this word's used. It's not the same word that we use for fear in other places. It means to be. Timid. It means to be.
I don't want to step out. You know that feeling when it's like I could step out and do something, but it's. Oh, it's a bit scary. What if I get rejected? What if I fail?
What if people tell me I'm a loser?
You know, everyone who stepped out in faith has had times when they've been told, that wasn't that good. Every time you do something that took a bit of courage, someone's probably going to think, you're not that good. I preach every week, I guarantee you. I mean, because they told me, some of them, that's okay, that wasn't that good. Adrian, you don't.
You're not as good as you think you are, mate. It's like, well, I don't think I'm that good, actually. Actually, it takes a bit of courage to step forward to the plate and say, fear and timidity will not control me. I remember being in school and going, knowing God had called me to preach. Cause it'd been spoken over me.
God had shown me it was a desire of my heart. And yet I didn't want to speak in public. So I made myself. I joined the debating team and I didn't want to talk. So I went, I'll go first speaker, because first speaker gets to write everything down and they don't have to ad lib.
And I'd write every note down and I'd get my cards out and I'd write it all down. And then I'd read off cards. I'd read off my cards, then I'd be finished. And then the other guys, they'd ad lib and they'd be like, great. And I was like, no, I can't.
This is as good as I can do it. The first sermon I ever preached was in year eight. And I was the nerd, like I said. And I'd done well in the exams they gave us in children's church. We don't do that here, but they gave us exams and I did well in them.
And they said, as your reward, Adrian, you get to preach on the last Sunday of kids church to all the parents and all the students across all the years. I went, what kind of reward is that? So I'm panicking. And they gave me the scripture. They were very nice.
They gave me the scripture. And I still remember I went home to Mum and I gave her the scripture. And Mum helped me write my sermon. It was about, the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking those he may devour. And it was the script about giving guidance.
And so Mum helped me because she'd gone to Bible college. And she goes, right. And we wrote it down word for word. And then I got there, and I got behind the pulpit. It was a big pulpit.
And I read it word for word. I did it, but I was scared. But do you know what my timidity. I said, I'm not gonna let that stop me. And I want to tell you that when you are filled with the Spirit of God.
Do you know why I did those things? Because the Spirit of the Lord lived in. In me. And he was speaking to me and saying, come on, Adrian. There's more.
Come on, Adrian. You know. You know you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And he sets you on fire because he starts speaking about who he's called you to be. And it's not the timid person.
It's not the person who steps back. It's not the person who thinks you're not good enough. It's not the person who keeps dwelling on what everyone else thinks and go, well, they think I'm a loser. I probably am. Or I'm not good enough, or I didn't get promoted at work.
Whatever it is, no one else understands. It's the person that listens to the voice of the Spirit of God that says he hasn't given a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power. The power of the Holy Spirit dwells in you. I don't get up here in my own strength. It's the power of the Spirit of the living God, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.
That's what gives me confidence. That's what gives me boldness. That's how you can step out and be the person God's called you to be. And be the man or woman of faith and witness and. And live for Christ and live a life of integrity and see the temptation before you.
And turn away. When everyone else says it's all okay, you turn away and you say. Cause the Spirit of God dwells in me. And I don't care what they think. I'm following my Savior.
Cause God has given me a spirit of power. And he's given me a spirit of love. It's love. It's agape love. There's a lot of pain in this world.
There's a lot of reasons to be angry and hurt and disappointed and disillusioned. But the spirit of love, agape love from God gives you hope and grace and helps you forgive and helps you look for the better in others even when they haven't been living it. The spirit of Love. Do you know that spirit of love helps me see every human being as someone that is a son or daughter of the most High God, and that he is called to follow him and he can save them and change them. There is hope for every person.
It doesn't matter what they've gone through. That's the spirit of love. The Holy Spirit gives you and then he gives you a spirit of self discipline, of a sound mind.
It's wisdom. It's the ability to keep going and not just be to and fro and all over the place. The Holy Spirit isn't just a feeling. He's a person. He teaches us.
He guides us. Have you heard the Holy Spirit of God direct you, prompt you? He wants to sound mind. I know what I know. Even though the world doesn't know what's going on, I don't have time to go into it, but we live in a postmodern world right now.
A postmodern world is a world where whatever you think is right, that's good for you, that's your perspective. That has the same value as my perspective. It questions what fundamental truth is and says, well, we need to accept all points of view and there's some truth in that, isn't there? We all have different perspectives and different paradigms and we should value those things. But you know what?
What it does sometimes try to do is it tries to wipe away the things we know that we know where the spirit of giving you a sound mind doesn't mean you become some kind of.
It means you have wisdom to go. I know, I know my Saviour lives. People can question that. People say, what about sickness, what about sin? What about evil in the world?
Yeah, I don't have all the answers, but I know Jesus lives. That's sound mind. I know the spirit of God dwells in me. I know that love overcomes.
There's the spirit of the Lord dwelling in you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline. You need the Holy Spirit, you need the Holy Spirit. How do you get the Holy Spirit to set you on fire? Well, he tells us.
Paul tells Timothy, this is what I love. This is why I remind you, Timothy. I remind you because he was pastoring a church, but it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter whether you're pastoring a church, whether you're looking after your kids, whether you're working in the factory, teaching in a school. We all need the spirit of God to set us on fire for Him.
This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. Fan it into flames.
Nurelle likes a good fire.
She loves winter because she's like. You should see her. She's like, whoo. We've got a fireplace in our house. It's, like, the most inefficient way of heating a place in the world, isn't it?
A fireplace, like a. Heat's about a meter around, and you're like, well, you've got the wrong kind of fireplace, probably. And I don't know what I'm talking about. But Narelle loves it. She gets her chair in, she sets.
She gets the sticks. She gets all the stuff. She gets the kindling and whatever the stuff is, right? Narelle can explain it in another time. You guys know what you're talking about.
She does all that, and then you have to light the flame, but then you have to fan it to get the. To get the air in there. You need to get the oxygen in so that the flame catches a light with the other. The logs and the twigs and the other bits. And you fan it, don't you?
You get. I remember my uncle had a fireplace, and he had. I don't even want to know what it's called, but it was a long, like, blower thing, and, like, you'd blow. You'd put this into the. Into the midst of the fire, and then you'd blow into it, and you'd be pushing air into the fire so that it would.
The oxygen would help it catch alight. And that's what he's talking about here. There's a fire that's already burning that the Holy Spirit has given you. It's in you. The spirit of God dwells in you.
The spirit of God dwells in you. He is a spirit of love. He's a spirit of power. He's a spirit of a sound mind. He's a spirit who teaches and comforts and fills us.
The fire's already there, but you've got to fan it into flames. And Christian, I'm sick and tired of us in our Western world going, I'm not going to fan anything. I'm just going to wait to be fed. And if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Fan it into flames.
There is a fire that dwells in you, the spirit of God. So we got a hunger for him. How do you fan it into flames? Holy Spirit, I need you. This is biblical.
You will find me when you search for Me with all of your heart.
So I search for you, God. I long for you. I open your word and I read it. I love hearing people. They're reading the Word and asking God to speak to him.
I open and I come to church, and I listen to worship music and I say, holy Spirit, I'm hungry. I need you. I humble myself. Fan it into flame. What are you doing?
You're blowing air into the fire. You're pushing air. Some of us are snuffling the thing. You know what you're doing? Cause we're watching whatever, and we're talking negative.
Yeah, we're watching.
I'm just thinking of some Netflix shows that have come up on. I'm going, that looks like the biggest pile of rubbish I've ever seen in my life. And then one day, I watched one of them. What did I watch? I was.
No, I watched Australian Idol, and I was like, what are you watching this for? I'm like, because I want to find out what happens. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if I fill my life, if I fill my life with all this stuff and not with the spirit and fanning into flames, you push down, and then you wonder why you're feeling low, and you wonder why you're feeling negative, and you wonder why you're not feeling anything. You can come into a church service like this, and you can stand there and go, not that good, guys.
Adrian, you weren't that good either. I mean, I could pull everything to bits, and I have. Trust me, I've been there.
But that doesn't help. Fan into flame. And so some of us, we need to go, God, I'm going to stop dwelling on those things and the things that snuffle the things of the world that push down the spirit of God in our lives. What builds faith? What is that?
I want you to ask yourself, what would Jesus want me to be doing? What would the Holy Spirit want me to be listening to? How would he want me to be speaking to myself? Take scriptures and speak them over your life. Some of you are thinking negative about yourself, and it just sends you into a spiral.
God has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of love, power, and a sound mind. Come on, rise up, man and woman of God. Fan it into flames. Come on. In your workplace, in your home.
Some of us go, but how? It's by the spirit of God. By the spirit of God. It's for every one of us. It's not.
Some of us are going, yeah, it's good for you, Adrian, because you've had this history and blah, blah, blah.
Do you know how many pastors I know that have fallen by the wayside?
Because God's not a respecter of persons or places or positions. He cares for each one of us. And if he. If it's true for this person, it's true. If it's true for me, if it was true for Timothy, if it's true for my wife, my mum, for Myrta, for Steph, it's true for you.
We have to fan into flames. Stop being lackadaisical and stop waiting for someone else to come and feed you. Feed yourself.
Feed yourself with the word of God, brothers and sisters. Feed yourself with prayer. Feed yourself with worship. Go into the secret place of the Most High and say, God, I need you. Get on your knees before God.
Say, God, I need you. Every man and woman of God, you watch who's on fire has done that? No one's given it to them. They didn't get born for such a time as this because they were special. They went and sought the face of God.
And if they can do it, you can do it. How hungry are you to fan into flames through the Holy Spirit? I want a faith on fire. I want a faith on fire.
God's challenged me of late, challenged me to be someone.
It has a faith that's on fire again and not just rest on our laurels. Even as we're looking at expanding and doing stuff in church and the building and all that. I wanted to get comfortable because I was. I don't want to raise the money for that and have to deal with all the hassle. That's stressful.
I've seen it. Let's just be comfortable. We're good. You know what happened to me? I was praying, fanning into flames, and the Holy Spirit of God got a hold of my heart.
He said, are you gonna let the next generation, basically, are you gonna let them down? You're just gonna give them what you got? You're gonna make them have the faith? Are you, Adrian? You're gonna take it easy and you're gonna let them have to have the faith and rise up.
What about being the example that you want to be? Come on, rise up. And I could say, well, I've done enough. I've done enough. Getting a bit tired now.
Done my bit. Holy Spirit gets a hold when you fan into flames. He says, you're not done till you're done, son. You're not done till you're with me in heaven. And even then we're not done.
We've got other stuff to do there. I don't know what, but we got stuff.
And the Holy Spirit challenged me and said, will you fan into. So I'm stepping out in faith and I'm risking. I can't be timid. I've got to step forward. Come on.
What's the Lord want to challenge you with saying, come on. For your children, Your children in your workplace, in your church. Come on, men and women of God, don't wait for something magic to happen. Press in and fan it. Fan it.
The truth is, the Lord's already given you the Holy Spirit. He's already lit the flame. He's already lit the flame. Fan it into flame now. Fan it.
Fan it. Let it burn. Let it burn. Faith on fire. Let it take over your life.
So you start thinking, man, I can't make a decision until I hear from God. Young people, I can't marry someone who's not on fire for God. I need to find someone who's on fire. I need to find someone who wants to follow the call of God. I'm not settling for anything less.
I want someone who wants to change the world for Jesus. I'm not settling for my kids being away from God and being half bait. I'm going for on fire kids. And I'm gonna keep praying and seeking and believing. Fan it into flame.
Come on. What breakthrough is God believing you? Challenging you to believe, for calling you to be? This is what we're gonna do in the last how many minutes? We're going to pray and we're going to say, holy Spirit, I want to be someone who fans into flame the Holy Ghost in my life.
The fire you've lit, it's there. Maybe it's there through the generations. Maybe it's there through other godly people that have spoken into it. But I'm telling you right now, it is there because the Holy Spirit has called you and chosen you for this time, this moment in your life. Will you rise to the challenge and say, God, I want you fill me.
It's Pentecost Sunday, so we're going to close our eyes in this place right now and we're going to have a moment of worship in this place. And this is what I want us to do. Not going to go for too long, but this is what we're going to do. I'm just going to keep it quiet. Quiet.
That's what I feel to do. I'm gonna keep it quiet. Cause this is a solemn moment. And if you say Lord, fan into flame the spirit of God that dwells in me. Maybe you've been away from God and now's the time to come back and say, lord, I'm gonna give you my whole life.
I'm gonna take this serious. God, I wanna be on fire for you. You say, I wanna be on fire for you, God, and all over this place as you feel. I want you to stand with your hands outreached and say, holy Spirit, I'm inviting you right now to come fill me, be. Set me on fire for you.
Maybe you're challenged because you say you've got to be someone for your kids, for your grandkids. Lord, set me on fire. Let me be an example. Maybe as a young person, maybe it doesn't matter what you're going through. Say, God, I need you.
I need you. I need you. I'm taking you seriously. And if that's you all over this place, why don't you respond to the Holy Spirit? Say, God, fill me.
Fill me, Lord. I'm gonna stand for you. I want a faith that's on fire for you.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Holy Spirit.
Between you and God, right now, you say, holy Spirit, fill me afresh. Empower me.
Come again, let your glory.
I'm open.
I'm open.
Come again, let your glory open.
I'm open.
Come again, let your glory in. I'm open.
I'm open.
Come again, let your glory in. I'm open.
I preach, Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, come and fill us, Lord. Yeah, come on. Why don't you ask him? Say, lord, will you fill me? I want to leave this place.
God's. I want you to set me on fire. It's going to be in the quiet place. It's going to be in the quiet place. Come on.
There are men and women of God all over this place. The Lord's calling you. He's calling you. He's got more in store for you. He's got healing for the wounds of your heart.
Do you know that there's healing coming for some of the wounds of your heart in the presence of the Lord. His fire burns out the stuff and brings fresh life. There's fresh life coming in his presence. You don't have to hold on to the scars and the wounds of the past. In Jesus name, Holy Spirit, we're praying.
Fresh fire, fresh fire. Fresh fire. Fresh fire in Jesus name. Come on. I'm praying for a fresh anointing, a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, fresh life.
Oh, in Jesus name. This is what the Lord wants to do. He wants to give some of you like a revival of heart. Like it's like you're getting re baptized in the Holy Spirit of God. Thank you Lord.
Thank you Lord. We're hungry for that. In Jesus name. Oh, it's not a building.
Yes it is God.
It's my heart. This empty space is what you wanted all along.
It's not a building you want to fill. It's my heart. This empty space is what you want in all alive some people in this place and you've been around Christianity or in the past and you've been on fire for God in the past but you sense the Holy Spirit saying I've got a fresh fire to give you. I've got a fresh fire. I've got a fresh infilling and you're sensing the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I want you to lift your hands to heaven right now. I want you to lift your hands to heaven and say Lord, a fresh fire. Fresh fire. Come on faith. In Jesus name is faith to receive.
Do you trust your father? Do you trust the Holy Spirit to come and pour out and he wants to remind some of you. Remember, remember when I filled you. Remember when you've been in my presence and there was nothing else but me. Do you remember those times?
Will I give it to you again? I draw you back to that place again and I want to fill you again with fresh fire, fresh mantle, fresh anointing, fresh confidence in Jesus name. You haven't lost anything when you're in my presence, when you come into my presence, you're filled afresh with fresh fire. In Jesus name. Thank you Lord.
Thank you Lord for boldness in the name of Jesus, Holy Spirit. Boldness and he washes away and wipes away all of the regret of past. In Jesus name, in Jesus name fresh fire. There's fresh lives to be changed.
Holy Spirit. Fill us God. Fill us Lord. Fill us God. There's some people in this place.
You're first generation Christians. First generation Christians. I want you to lift your hand up to the Lord right now.
It's been a hard journey sometimes, hasn't it?
Isn't God good? He chose you. He pulled you out of the miry clay and you chose him. And God wants you to know he's proud of you. He's proud of you.
And this is the word of the Lord to you. I give you everything you need to be everything I've called you to be, everything you need. I'm Giving you everything you need. I'm giving you everything. He says, stop looking to the left or the right or behind or in front and looking to others.
He said, you look to me because I called you. And those I called, I appoint. Those I appoint, I anoint. If God called you, he's going to lead you all the way to the promised land. And he's going to lead many behind you.
Cassie, I pray that for you in Jesus name. The journey can be hard, but the Lord says, I give you everything you need. Everything. I love your daughter. I called you.
You hold that revelation and you never let go of it. And the Lord will carry you through. And I can see even like a red sea that looks like, how's that ever gonna clear? And God says, you watch and wait. And you watch.
I'm gonna part that. It's gonna be like a parting of the Red Sea where you can walk through it where you thought. No one thought you could do it. But the Lord's gonna part it for you and you're gonna walk through. Trust me, daughter.
Moses didn't believe, but I did it through him. He questioned himself, but I did it through him. I'll do it through you as well. Holy Spirit, there's some people in this place and you're struggling right now. I don't know what with, but it's been really hard for you.
With eyes closed right now, I just want you to lift out your hands. The Lord, that's. You say, lord, I've been really struggling. Maybe you've been questioning God. Maybe you've just been carrying a deep burden and it's been hard and right, Holy Spirit, all over this place.
The burden's been heavy. It's felt like too much.
The Lord says, I know, I know. He knows your burden. He knows.
So here's what he's offering you right now. He says, let go of that burden. Will you let go of it? You don't have to try. You don't have to be strong.
You don't have to do. Let go of it and take my burden. Do you know what the burden of the Lord is? It's his freedom. It's his love.
It's his grace. It's the infilling of the Holy Spirit, isn't it, Steve? You know what that is? It's just where the Spirit is of God fills you. And when you feel like you didn't have any strength, he says, I'll be your strength.
I'll be your strength. You go. I gotta go into a work situation. I don't know how to fix that. I've got different issues.
I don't know how to fix them. He says, can you let go of that burden, I know it already, and take on my burden. You know what he gives you in reply? He gives you a peace. He gives you a faith.
He gives you faith to believe for God to break through when it seems impossible. Holy Spirit, right now, fill us, Lord. Fill us, Lord. Here's. I know we're going a little bit over, but if that's you and you say, I want you to come forward and I want to pray for you, we've got some pastors.
We're going to pray for you right now. Is that all right, church? Because God wants to minister to some people and he wants you to leave with his strength and his power. If you say, yeah, I've been. I've been going through something, and I need the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit right now.
I need Him. I need him. Adrian, I don't want to keep doing this in my own strength. I don't want to carry this burden alone. Whatever it is, you don't need to tell anyone what it is.
You just come forward and say, God, I need you. We're going to pray for you. I've got pastors and people in this place. Come on. If that's you, you come forward right now.
Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Lord. Come on, who's there? Needs in prayer. Don't be timid. I know it's a scary thing to do, but we're family here.
We're family. Amen. Amen. Someone here is brand new and you need prayer this morning. You just come forward.
It's all right. It's not weird or scary. Nothing's going to happen. We're just going to pray with you and believe God. Just come forward.
It's all right. It's all okay. Come forward, guys. This is family. This is family.
We love you and God loves you more.
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. If I can get some. Wherever our pastors are, some of them are up the front. Alex, do you want to go pray for people?
Jesus, you can still come forward and we'll pray for you. We're not going to take too long, but we're going to pray the grace of God. The grace of God. Power, the Holy Spirit. Thank you.
Thank you, Lord Jesus Name.
The Lord loves you. The Lord loves you. He says, I'm with you. I'm not gonna leave you. I'm gonna give you everything you need.
I love you, daughter. And I'm your strength. And I'm your source. And you're stronger than you know. You're stronger than you know.
Don't be pushed down. Don't be pushed down. You stand strong because the Lord is with you. He's like a wall behind you that will not be budged. All right.
The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. I'm your strength, your source. And you will not be defeated. In Jesus name.
In Jesus name. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
Holy Ghost. Lord, I just pray right now in the name of Jesus.
That's what you want in our life.
Again let your glory I come again let your glory I'm open.
Come again, let your glory I'm open.
I'm open.
Come again, let your glory glory ha.
Come again, let your glory come again let your glory ha.
The presence of the Lord is here.
Go a bit longer. Just, you know, God's ministering to people all across this place. The Holy Spirit is. Some people just gave their lives to Christ because they encountered the Holy Spirit of God. They encountered Jesus.
We're going to keep praying for people up the front, but I want to pray for you where you are. I'm going to do a couple of things and then we going to go.
The Holy Spirit is, wants to encourage you. Keep seeking, keep seeking, keep seeking. You've been seeking God.
You're a good man, you're a good man, but God wants to make you a man of God.
And it's going to happen as you've been seeking him. God's going to do a work on the deep inside that's going to revolutionize you. It's a revelation of God that he's going to give you that changes everything and where you've been trying to be good and make a difference in the world. You're going to be someone that has the spirit of God. The Spirit's speaking and you're going to see things differently.
You're going to speak differently and that's going to have a good, greater impact than you could have ever had trying to be a good man.
And the Lord's drawing you because that's what you want. You can feel he's been speaking, going, there's more, there's more, there's more. So my encouragement, give in to the Lord, give in to God. Surrender to him and say, okay, God, your will for my life, I will follow. And it'll change your life, your family, it'll change history.
People are going to be changed I'm talking generations to come because of what's happening to you right now. Giving to the Lord. And you watch, it'll be miraculous. It'll be life transforming.
Holy Spirit. Matt, you've seen good things and you've heard about good things. You're a faithful man. There's a stirring to be a Holy Spirit man, a holy Spirit man that the challenges you're facing. You're not just faithfully being in school, in home, in life, who God's called you to be.
God says, I want to. There's a fresh feeling of confidence and boldness that being led by the spirit. Not just being a faithful man that does the right thing and speaks into it, but a man of the spirit that God's going to speak to. And he's going to challenge you about speaking things that are not as though they are. He's going to challenge you about speaking faith, things that go, oh, hang on, I don't know how safe that is or how wise that is.
And God's going to challenge you saying, because I'm calling you to be a man of faith, not to just do the right thing and speak wisdom. You've got wisdom, but God wants to add to that faith. Faith in your family, faith over your children. To speak life, not just to be good kids, but to be kids that see supernatural things happen, breakthrough things happen. And he's stirring you in your school, whatever it is.
And Lord, I pray for Matt right now. God, fill him with a spirit of faith. Fresh faith, God, fresh faith, Lord. God to believe. For breakthrough, Lord, breakthrough and healing in his wife, Lord, in the name of Jesus, God, breakthrough.
God to believe. God for greater things. To be a man who speaks it not because he's the right thing to do, but because the spirit of God is dwelling in you. Fresh faith in Jesus name. Come on.
Who here needs fresh faith? Fresh faith. Some of us need to go from this place and make changes. We need to speak different things. We need to make different decisions and not just go back to the same life.
So right now I pray. Come on. You say, lord, I want to be different. I want to be spirit filled. I want to change things.
I want to speak life over people.
Here's the word of the Lord to you. This is what.
This is what the apostle Paul says to Timothy, because you're filled with the spirit of God. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me either, even though I'm in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life.
He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from the beginning of time to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. So right now, right now, Lord, I'm praying for fresh faith. I'm praying for fresh boldness, fresh fire to live the life you've called us. We will not be ashamed of your name. We will declare your goodness in our family, to our friends, in our schools, in our workplace.
Come on, Christian, rise up in Jesus name.
We ask it in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, I pray for fresh fire in these two young women. Lord, called to serve you. There's a fresh mantle. Called to serve the Lord Called to speak life over people's lives. And the devil tries to come and take you down and say the opposite of that.
Says no one wants to listen or it's all too hard. All these lies and garbage. But it is a lie of the devil. And the Lord says, I release you from. Because you know my word.
My word is truth. And I speak. I'm proud of my daughters. I called my daughters to be first and not last behind the scenes trying to, you know, whatever anyone else says, he's called you to speak up and declare who he is and be bold and be the example. Be the example for others around you and say, yes, I had hardships, but the Lord has overcome through my life.
So, Lord, I pray that mantle upon them. God, a fresh season, Lord. God, of rising up and being strong and bold and courageous like Joshua.
And every attack and every thing that raises itself up against you will fall and falter. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Everyone said amen.
Amen.
Well, we've gone way over time, so my apologies. But here's what we got to do. We're going to do our offering because we got a church to build, so we better do that. So here's the ways to give her up there. If you need an envelope, pop your hand up.
This is part of our generous. If you're new, just let it pass you by. But as you want to give, you just give unto the Lord.
Why don't we use this as an opportunity to have faith? What's God challenging you to be a man or woman of faith in? Fan it into flame. As a church, we're believing God for greater things, aren't we? Fanning into flame.
So, Lord, we thank you for our time together today. We thank you for what you're doing in us. We thank you, Lord, that you mess up our plans a bit, Lord, that you're faithful and good. And we want to sow into what you're doing in our lives and in our church and in our communities. Because we're here to change the world, Lord.
We're here to change lives. We're here to lift up the name of Jesus Christ. And we will do it, Lord, because we are people of faith. And so, Lord, stir us, challenge us, provide for us. We thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. Cool. Why don't we pass the buckets along? God's good.
Next week, Mark, we're going to hear from Mark about water baptism. Two weeks time we got water baptism, we've already got 16 plus people. The Holy Spirit. If you've never been water baptized, obey. Don't be timid.
Obey the Holy Spirit and come and talk to us and get water baptised in two weeks. No growth nights this week because it's the long weekend. And so we know growth nights this Wednesday, but we're back the following Wednesday. We got Youth on Friday night. God's moving.
We had over almost 110@ youth on Friday. And God's doing good things, eh?
So thank you for listening, guys. You. You guys are amazing, you know that? Thank you for being part of this church family. Lord, bless your people as they go.
Let us fan into flame the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. Let us be Pentecostal people of faith and let us see the enemy defeated in our lives, our families and our communities for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. All God's people said, I man. Thank you,