The Person Who Is Empowered By The Holy Spirit Pt.2

Raul Ries: You don't want to just come to church. When you come to church, you want to come to church to worship, to be fed the Word of God, that when you leave here, you leave with the power of the Holy Spirit so that tonight, tomorrow, the next day, the Holy Spirit will be in your life, and when you go to work, people are going to see a difference. They're going to ask you, "What do you have that I don't have?"
Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. We're glad you've joined us as we continue to explore the unique gifts and blessings of God's Holy Spirit. Today, Raul will challenge you to honestly evaluate whether you've fully received the Spirit's power in your life, recognizing that when he fills you up, you can confidently resist temptation, boldly share your faith, and effectively represent Christ to a watching world. Today's study is titled "The Person Who Is Empowered By The Holy Spirit." Here's Raul Ries.
Raul Ries: Here in chapter 19 of the Book of Acts, let me go back a little bit. John the Baptist was cousin to Jesus. In the book of Matthew, you have the genealogy of Jesus Christ in chapter one, chapter two Herod kills the babies, and then chapter three Jesus is coming to the Jordan River because John, his cousin, is baptizing people at the Jordan River. But the Pharisees and scribes are there putting them down, and John rebukes them. As Jesus comes, he gets next to John and says, "John, you need to baptize me." John said, "No, you need to baptize me." "No," he says, "you gotta baptize me." So he went ahead and baptized Jesus. Now, when he baptized him, there was a dove, which was the Holy Spirit at that time, and you have God the Father speaking, and then you have Jesus, the triunity of God in Matthew chapter three. When he was baptized and came up out of the water, full of the Holy Spirit, you turn the page and you come to chapter four of Matthew. In chapter four, Jesus goes from baptism to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Three times Satan tempted him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When you come to Christ, you are body, soul, and spirit. When you're not a Christian, your flesh. When you come to become a Christian, you repent. Nicodemus, in chapter three of the Book of John's Gospel, was among the 72. He was number 72 of the Sanhedrin, the government of Israel. One day, he didn't want to be seen by his friends, so he decided to go down to see Jesus. He went down by night and he saw Jesus and he asked him, "Jesus, what do I have to do to become a Christian, to be born again?" Jesus said to him, "You gotta be born again of the Holy Spirit." He says, "What do you mean? You mean I have to go back into my mother's womb physically and be born again physically?" Jesus said, "No, you don't get it. You have to be born again of the Holy Spirit." That's what's happened to us. If you have accepted Christ, you became a Christian because of the Holy Spirit. He was with you, you repented, you accepted him, he came into your life, and a lot of times people stop there. They don't follow up in the epi-experience, the upon-experience. The upon-experience is very needed in the life of a believer. The upon-experience gives you power over sin. It gives you excitement to tell people about Jesus, witnessing to them. People will see a difference in your life when they see you excited, they see you witnessing to people. They know that not only you're a Christian, but you're a witness in the kingdom of God. That's important. Here, Paul the Apostle in chapter 19 is going to teach us. In the Book of Acts in chapter one verse eight, and then you go to chapter two verses one through seven, and then you go to the Book of Acts again in chapter four, in chapter eight, in chapter 10, in chapter 19, you have the explanation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the power. I want to ask you a question. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Do you have the power when you pray, when you witness? Why is it that we're so weak when it comes to sin, when we have the Holy Spirit of God to say no to sin? Yes, we trip, yes, we fall. But when we receive the upon-experience, I can experience the power of God in my life through my life, my heart, my will, and I can make the choice to sin or not to sin. It's up to you. We have a way of escape. That way of escape is to be read up, prayed up, and then the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives when people can see that we are real Christians. Look at verse one of chapter 19 of the Book of Acts. See what it says. "And it came to pass while Apollos was in Corinth..." So Apollos had left Ephesus and he went to Corinth. "That Paul having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus." There he is. He actually does three trips, three missionary trips. He was a missionary. He would go through the churches, he would encourage pastors, he would encourage people within the church. They'd get saved one year, the next year he'd go back and check on them to see how they're doing in the Lord. That's what we should be doing with each other, checking each other out. If they’re your friends, they're Christians, how are they doing today? How are you doing today? So here's Paul the Apostle. Check this out, verse one again. "Having passed through the region, he came to Ephesus and finding some disciples there, he said to them..." So here are now 12 men, disciples. These are not the 12 that Jesus instructed. These are different. These are disciples of John the Baptist that he baptized. If you remember in the third chapter of the Book of Matthew, when Jesus comes and is baptized by John the Baptist. Later on, as John the Baptist is preaching and teaching, Herod has taken him and put him in jail. So he's in jail. Herod liked him, but Herodias was Herod's brother's wife, and he had taken over her life. She became his wife. At this party, he had a lot of people there. Herodias's daughter began to dance. She began to dance dirty. When she was finished, Herod said, "Even half of my kingdom I give to you," because he was so lustful. "Half of my kingdom." So she said, "Well, wait a minute, let me go talk to my mom." Goes to talk to her mom. "Mom, what should I tell him?" She said, "Tell him to give you the head of John the Baptist on a platter." He couldn't go back on his word. He commanded someone to go down to the prison and take John's head off and bring it up to Herodias. Jesus found out about it. Jesus was very hurt. That was his cousin. That was his cousin, John. At that particular moment, then God began, Jesus began to minister. When Jesus came to the wilderness, if you remember in Matthew, he came out of the water, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit, he went to the desert, and there, full of the Holy Spirit, Satan began to tempt him and say, "Listen, if you do this, I will give you the kingdom of the earth." In your Bible, it says, "If you do this, I'll give you this." In the original language, he says, "Since you are God. Since you are God, you can turn this stones into bread." The Lord already knew Satan. He kicked him out of heaven. But Satan was trying to get the kingdom for himself, and this is why Jesus had come to die for the kingdom of God, so that we could have him as our Lord and Savior.
Guest (Male): This is Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Visit us anytime at somebodylovesyou.com for resources that will teach you how to follow the Holy Spirit's leading and maximize the gifts he's given you. For digital Bible studies and live-streamed Bible teaching, download our free app. Let's return now to more of today's study, "The Person Who Is Empowered By The Holy Spirit." Here's Raul Ries.
Raul Ries: Paul the Apostle, having these 12 men that came to him after he's visited in the churches, he's going to ask them a question. In verse one, he says, "And having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples, he said to them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit?'" Good question. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit?" Well, if they're disciples, the Holy Spirit convicted them and they came to know God. They came to know the Lord. But having heard of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's power, what the Holy Spirit can do. He goes on. "To receive the Holy Spirit when you believed." So they said to him, "We have not even so much heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." Whoa, wait a minute. You never heard that there's a Holy Spirit? Never. When Paul the Apostle got saved, he began to tell people about the Holy Spirit. Then others got saved and they began to speak about the Holy Spirit. In the Book of Acts chapter two, 120 are baptized and there's 30 people outside from different nations that came for the Day of Pentecost. What happens? They hear them speaking other tongues and then they hear about it and they get baptized and they take that experience to other nations of the world to become Christians. I don't know if you've ever been prayed for to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you've never heard of it. Maybe you've never seen people get baptized. When we have afterglow services, we lay hands on people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We want to make sure that you're a Christian, that you've repented, you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. Because he becomes my Lord and Savior, when I lay hands, not alone, when we lay hands on them, on that person, and the Holy Spirit baptizes them, they're a totally different person. They came in one way, and when they leave, they leave totally different every Sunday. That's why we're here, that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to each one of us individually. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Are you a Christian? Did you repent of your sins? Or are you just visiting? The Lord wants to make sure that you understand that he's the one that saves people. You don't want to just come to church. When you come to church, you want to come to church to worship, to be fed the Word of God, that when you leave here, you leave with the power of the Holy Spirit so that tonight, tomorrow, the next day, the Holy Spirit will be in your life and when you go to work, people are going to see a difference. They're going to ask you, "What do you have that I don't have?" "Hey, we used to hang out, we used to go drink after work, you don't do that anymore, why?" "Because I've accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and I've been baptized with the Holy Spirit." That's what Paul's doing here. Watch this, he goes on, verse two. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." And then he said to them, question, "In what then were you baptized?" What were you baptized into? And of course, they were baptized in water. So he's telling them why were you baptized into. Look what he says. He said to them, "In what then were you baptized?" And they said, "In John's baptism." Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of what? Repentance." That's what when Jesus came to the Jordan River and John the Baptist was there and the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees were there putting him down, he rebuked them. He rebuked them, he said, "You're religious people. You read the Bible, but you don't live according to the Bible." He rebuked them and then Jesus came, and they began to see who Jesus was and what he did. He goes on in verse four. "And then Paul said, 'John indeed baptized you with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in Jesus who would come after him, that is, Christ Jesus our Lord.'" That he would come. Then verse five, watch this. "And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." They went into the water, they were baptized, so with and in, not upon yet. Not upon yet. You might have accepted Christ, you might have been baptized in water, but have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit power? Dunamis power. The word for the Holy Spirit, dunamis, we get our word dynamite. Have you been empowered to explode with the Holy Spirit? That you can overcome sin? You can share your faith? People can see Christ in your life and working through my life? That's what Paul's talking about, the dunamis power that comes upon us. Watch this, verse five. "And they heard this and they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid hands on them..." So they come and he lays hands on them and what happens? "And the Holy Spirit came upon..." I circled that in my Bible, came upon. With, in, and upon. Check this out. "And the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied." And now the men were about 12 in all. Paul was sent by the Lord to baptize them. They spoke in tongues. When you read the book of First Corinthians chapter 12, 13, and 14, Paul explains that not everybody speaks in tongues. I got baptized with the gift of tongues when I was saved. I don't use it in public. I use it by myself. When I speak in tongues, I feel like I have the Greek language because I use the word kyrios, and kyrios means Lord. I've never spoken in front of people, and a lot of people that I know were never baptized with the gift of tongues. It doesn't mean that everybody's going to receive the gift of tongues, but we're going to receive the same power. The same power given to us to be able to teach, to be able to preach, to be able to witness to people. These 12 men, they came without the Holy Spirit power and now they're going to be leaving with the power of the Holy Spirit, as he says here. "But you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit," he says, "has come upon you and you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the world." You receive power to become a witness, a martyr. People will see that you have the power of God in your life when they see you not sin against God, when they see you overcome sin, when they see that not only they knew you and something's happened to you. We trip, we fall, we get up, we repent, and we continue our life. But the enemy comes against those that are with and in because you're being tempted by the enemy and the Holy Spirit that convicts you, you have to make a choice. Do I sin or do I overcome sin? In the Holy Spirit, in my will, I have to make a choice. What do I do? And the Holy Spirit's power will speak to me and he says, "This will get you in trouble and this will not get you in trouble. What do you want?" You have to make the decision. If I make the decision not to sin against the Lord, then I receive the power of God in my life. If I give into sin, the Holy Spirit gets grieved. He can't work in your life until you repent, really repent. This is why in the book of Ephesians 4:30, he says not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. If you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, he's a person. He can't work in your life. But when you repent and he's in your life and you're doing what God says, you're reading, you're praying, you're receiving, and you're not giving into the flesh but you're giving into the Holy Spirit, you're going to have a different life. A different life that will blow you away. When I received the Holy Spirit, my life changed fully, completely. Pastor Dale, we all grew up together. When they saw that I was changed because of the Holy Spirit, they got convicted, they came to know Christ, and we've never been the same. You'll never be the same. I don't know if you're here today that you don't know Jesus. You've never repented. You're just a normal person, a sinner without eternal life, that if you were to die today, you would never go to heaven. But if you've come to that place in your life where somebody showed you the kingdom of God, they came and they gave you the gospel and you either accepted it or you rejected it. If you have rejected it, how long has it been? Because the Lord gives you a period of time to repent. And when you continually are rejecting and rejecting and rejecting the opportunity, one day there will be no more opportunities. Read Matthew chapter 12. No more opportunities. You made the choice. But when you come to that place in your life, you know that you've sinned against God and he's convicting you and you're not repenting. When you do repent, you have a different life. You have the peace of God that passes all understanding. Maybe you're here, you accepted Christ, but you're living a life of carnality. You've accepted Christ, he's with you, he's in you, but between you and the Holy Spirit, you're living a life of the flesh, which means you have no power. You're giving into sin. You're sleeping with your boyfriend, you're sleeping with your girlfriend, you're stealing from your company, you're doing things that you should never do again. You become a carnal Christian and eventually you will be judged by the Lord.
Guest (Male): As you think about the many ways God can strengthen and equip you to be fruitful for his kingdom, we encourage you to daily seek the support of God's Spirit. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's study was titled "The Person Who Is Empowered By The Holy Spirit." We've made an unedited version available to you for a donation of $5 or more. If you'd like to get a copy, just call us at 800-634-9165. We'd also like to tell you more about Raul's seven-part series, "Filled, Empowered, and Equipped." It's available on either CD or USB. Underscoring the noticeable difference that it makes to walk in step with the Holy Spirit, this study will further establish how you can courageously live out God's plans for your life. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to purchase Raul's seven-lesson series titled "Filled, Empowered, and Equipped." We'll send you the CD collection for $20 or the flash drive for just $11. The number once again is 800-634-9165. And don't forget you can always order any of these resources by writing to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California, 91765. Join Raul for straight talk every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel. Make this channel your go-to for biblical teaching, both live-streamed and as podcasts. Podcasts of all of these programs are also available on Spotify and iTunes. We're always grateful for your partnership in sharing the good news of Jesus, and every contribution you make is tax-deductible. We hope you'll be with us again next time as we quiet ourselves before the Lord to draw wisdom from the timeless truths of his Word. Now with a final comment, here's Raul once again.
Raul Ries: Paul the Apostle in the book of First Corinthians chapter five, chapter six. He says those that are continually practicing, and he gives you a list of sins: homosexuality, lesbianism, fornication, adultery, all these things, will not inherit the kingdom of God. And he makes a difference there. He says, "I'm not speaking to unbelievers, I'm speaking to believers." Christians, they have never gotten rid of their sin. Your sin controls you and you can't be used by the Lord. You have to repent. You do an about-face. You're going toward hell and then you're going towards the cross and when you come to the cross, you're saved. You've repented and God will receive you.
Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.