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Well, we're in a series called Goaded. We're going to be in this series all year, probably into next year. But. But we believe Jesus is more than just a redeemer who gets us to heaven. He's a rabbi that teaches us how to live on earth. And if we're going to live according to his principles, we need his power. And so we're in Goaded volume three. We're doing a series on the Holy Spirit called Power Moves. And I want to read a couple of verses found in the Gospel of John, chapter number 16, beginning at verse number 12. And I need my preaching pushers to help create an atmosphere of expectation when it comes to the word of God. I'm giving some of you been hiding out and I'm giving you permission to step up so you can shift the atmosphere because God's getting ready to do more than give a word today. I believe he's going to make a deposit and you'll see what I'm saying as we get into this lesson. John, chapter 16, verse number 12. I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear. But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. I'm going to stop the reading of scripture there and tag this topic that this text. This is what I believe the Holy Spirit is asking of us to today. Based on the principles I pull from this passage, the text is simply this. Let me be me. Clap your hands everywhere, every location. Let me. Let me be me. Not dysfunctional, not destructive, not arrogant, but authentic. Let me be me. I want to start this sermon with a question. It's a simple question just for our reflection. Here it is. Have you ever found yourself in a place or with some people that wanted you to be everybody but you? In other words, you are encouraged to be you, but scolded when you are not like them. You are invited to proclaim your perspective, but you are persecuted when your perspective doesn't confirm their bias. They ask you for your opinion, but they really want your agreement. And when they do not get your agreement, they become upset, attitudinal and irrational because you gave them what they needed and not what they wanted. And if you have ever existed in environments like this long enough, you can find yourself being impacted by an issue I've affectionately entitled identity claustrophobia. And this is a condition where a person constantly surrenders to the pressure to conform, creating a self made straight jacket that suppresses the full expression of their God giving identity. And so they find themselves in marriages where they can't breathe. And in ministries where they can't breathe and at workplaces when they can't breathe and they feel like shrinking to a place of smallness is being sensitive to those around them. When they don't realize that they are actually suffocating the God, God given uniqueness that God put on the inside of them. But I'm getting ready to pray something over you and I'mma see if you learn what I just taught. I pray in 2025 that God sends you people that can see and appreciate the real you. See, you didn't receive it. I said, I pray in 2025 that you don't have to tap dance and tiptoe around the tulip and, and watch everything you say and hide everything God's doing in your life. May God send you some people that see the real you and that can handle the real you. Because if they are for you, then you don't have to show up as an imposter to stay with them. Somebody that receives that put a praise on it. Just let me be me. Just let me be me. Just let me be me. I'm too old to be performing. Let me be me. I'm not in a school play. I'm grown. I got bills and responsibility. Let me be me. It took me this long to find out who I actually am. And now that I have a God given revelation of who I am, you want me to shrink to the size of your emotional fragility? Let me be me. And if you let me be me, I'll bless you. If you let me be me, I'll help you. If you let me be me, I'll turn your business around. If you let me be me, I'll turn this house around. Let me be me. I'm not asking you to be me. Let me be me. Here's where it gets interesting. Just like people can attempt to shrink us to the level of their expectation, we can unconsciously attempt to shrink God to the level of our expectation. The thing we loathe when people do to us is something we can unintentionally and regularly do to God. We can quarantine his activity to the confines of our comfort zone. And we will say unconsciously and subliminally to the Holy Spirit, I want the parts of you that make me comfortable to show up. But the parts of you I don't understand and the parts of you that other people have made weird and the parts of you that seem to pull me out of personal and social norms. That's a Part I want to stay up, stay out of. I want to keep you in your denominational prison. You stay over there with them. And there's a word that the Bible uses to describe believers who do that. Paul talks to believers in Thessalonica and specifically gives them this instruction regarding the Holy Spirit. Do not quench. I thought I had a church. I'm getting ready to go to Gwinnett. I said, do not quench the spirit. Then he gives some commentary on what he means. For example, don't treat prophecies with contempt. He's not saying blindly receive one, but test them all. And then after you test them, hold on to what's good and then reject what's evil. The word quench literally means to extinguish. It's like putting out a fire. It's used elsewhere in scripture to describe putting out flames. So when Paul says, don't quench the spirit, he's saying, don't smother what the spirit is trying to set on fire. Don't stifle his activity. Don't suppress his gifts. Don't silence his voice. And I believe that many of us have underestimated our contribution to quenching because we think you got to try to quench. Why don't I hear a man? Sir? It. It. Come on here. It needs to be amen when it's truth, right? No, no, cuz. Cuz amen means so be it. Come on. So if it's truth, we should amen whether it's exciting or not. It doesn't matter if it sounds good. If it sounds, we ought to say amen. Yeah. See, we don't have to try to quench. Am I making sense? We don't have to try to quench when we dismiss, when we disregard, when we ignore, when we become. Watch this. When we become too common and too familiar with the supernatural person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We're quenching now. Can I contemporize? Quench. Quenching leads to settling. All this power is available and you settling for cycles of perpetual loss. All this victory is available and you're settling for all these seasons of perpetual loss. When my Bible says that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives on the inside of you. Sam Storm puts it this way. The same power that reversed the condition of a decomposing body that had been in the grave for three days is the same power that can reverse whatever is undergoing decomposition in your life. Maybe your peace is decomposing. Maybe your joy is decomposing. Well, you got power. I'm sorry. On the inside of you. He says, don't quench. Did you hear what I just said? Let's contemporize what Paul's saying. He's saying, let the Holy Spirit be the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit saying, if you'll let me be me. No weapon. I'm trying to find a church that know how to respond to the Word. The Holy Spirit is saying, if you let me be me, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. If you will let me be me, I'll open doors that no man can shut. And I'll close doors that no man can open if you let me be me. So the question is, I'm almost done, practically. What does it mean to let the Holy Spirit be the Holy Spirit? We understand conceptually, let him be him. But who is he? What does he want to do? So I can let him do that, So I can move from apathy, whatever you want to do, to active participation. Do it all. I feel my help right in this section right here. I'm not just passively waiting for you to do what I just wait on you to do. I'm actively engaged, and I'm saying, do it all. Open every door you want to open. Break every yoke you want to break. Turn every situation around. Do it all. So Jesus here offers some insight in the text in John chapter 16. He offers some insight on what you and me need to let the Holy spirit be. John 16 is couched within the context of John 13:17, which is Jesus farewell discourse. It is the conversation he has before his crucifixion. It's a conversation he continues after communion. They still in that same room they had the last Supper in. In John chapter 13. And the conversation is continuing in John chapter 16. Judas has left because there's some conversations you can't have till Judas leave. Let me go over here. Did you hear what I just said? I'm going to eat you. I said, judas has left at this point because there are some conversations God can't have with you until Judas leaves. Because Judas will undermine and Judas will sabotage God's plan. So it's some stuff, Stuff God waited to bring into your life because he was waiting on Judas to get out of your life. And now that Judas is gone, get ready for God to blow your mind. I need somebody to shout at every location. Text says it's a conversation after. Come here. And here's what's interesting about text. I want y' all to look at verse 12. Look at verse 12. Don't miss this. I want you to look at verse 12, because here's what's interesting. What's interesting is what Jesus says He's not saying. It's right here. Verse 12. What's interesting is what Jesus says. He's not saying, give them verse 12. They don't believe me. Verse 12. Jesus says these words. He says, I have much to say to you, but it's more than you can bear. Now, here's what. What's interesting is what Jesus says. He's not saying. He's saying, watch this. I'm communicating. Considering your capacity. When he says, you can't bear this now, he's suggesting you need to have the capacity to carry. What I'm getting ready to communicate, and I am. I have assessed your capacity and I have come to the conclusion that you don't have the capacity to handle this. Now, I'm not saying you can't handle this ever, but you can't handle this now. So my silence is your gift. See, God is not silent because he has nothing to say. He's silent because saying more to someone who's not ready doesn't serve them. It stresses them. So it says, I've got to make sure you get to the place spiritually and emotionally where you got the perspective to handle certain levels of conversation. So if you ask y' all not ready, he says, because there are some conversations you may not be ready to have. You may not be ready to hear God say, I'm wait until you in your 40s before you get married so that I can use your life to show other people that waiting on me is worth it. Y' all not talking to me now? I don't hear any amens in here now. Yeah, we're not ready for a word where God says, I'm going to let you be like Job, and I'm going let you obtain what you dreamed of obtaining. And then I'm going to take you through a season where you lose everything that you have just so I can take you through another season where I give it all back. You're not ready for that word yet. So it says a word that stresses you. Stresses you. Stresses you in one season is a word that will stretch you in another season. And God knows when a word will stress you or stretch you. So it says, I'm going to give you the gift of silence. Oh, I got Bible. In Second Corinthians, chapter 12, the apostle Paul describes an unidentified issue he's dealing with called a thorn. He said, I got A thorn in my flesh. And he says, concerning this thorn, I sought the Lord three times that it might be removed from me. And the text says on the third time, God said, my grace is sufficient. Well, if God said that on the third time, what did he say on the first two? Nothing. And some people never get they answer because you can't live through the silence. In John, chapter 11, Mary and Martha have a brother named Lazarus who's sick. They send word to Jesus and they say, jesus, the one you love, is sick. The Bible never says Jesus sends word back to them. He just doesn't come until he gets ready. See, you not ready for that kind of answer. God, when you coming? When I. And you just need to know, whenever I'm ready, it's the right time. And when I come, whatever's broken is going to be fixed. That in your eyes, is too late. But when I get there, I don't care if Lazarus has been in the grave four days. When I get there, whatever's dead has to come back to life. All right, I got six minutes. He never told Mary and Martha he wasn't coming. He said nothing. Cuz you're not ready for the answer to say, I'mma let this stay dead for four days. When I said nothing, you had a little more peace than you would have had if I would have told you I'm not coming. At least. At least you. You. You were looking for me. At least you had some hope. But if I would have told you, you going to have. He going to have to lay there for a minute. Yep, you're going to have to lay in this for a minute. It's not. We're not going in and coming right out. But you told me you wanted me to use you. Why is it. Come on here. We a man truth here. Come on. You said, use my life. He said, well, this the way I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna let that stay dead four days. And then I'm gonna let people come around and watch the death. Because the same people that watched it die are the same people I'm gonna keep alive so that they can see when I bring it out of the grave. Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I got something to say, but I can't. I can't tell you now. But here's what he does say, y' all. All right, I got four minutes. Here it is. He says, but when he, the spirit of truth comes. So Jesus uses a number of different words to describe the person of the Holy Spirit. Because these different words describe the different functions of the Holy Spirit. One translation calls him a comforter. Because sometimes the ministry of the Holy Spirit doesn't fix it. He comforts you. I'm not hearing Amen. Maybe Westampton will help me. I said, sometimes the Holy Spirit doesn't fix it, but he comforts you. All right, here it is. Now here it is, family. Here it is. This is interesting. He says he's the spirit of truth. What does this mean? The word for truth means unconcealed, unhidden, or reality as it actually is. So the spirit of truth is the divine agent who reveals reality as it truly is, according to God's perspective, not human perception. And this, this exposes us to an aspect of who the Holy Spirit wants to be for us. The Holy Spirit is saying, let me be your deliverer. Pastor, where you see that? It's right in the text when he says spirit of truth. He's saying, let me be your deliverer. What does that have to do with deliverance? A lot. Because second wave Christianity only sees deliverance ministry as deliverance from dysfunction, deliverance from disease. That's not incorrect, but it's incomplete. Because the greatest deliverance you can have is deliverance from deception. And the Holy Ghost is saying, I want to stop you from being tricked so easy. I need to stop you from getting in your own way so much. I gotta stop you from. From thinking something is one thing when it's another. I gotta give you another set of eyes. And these are not the eyes in your head. These are the eyes in your heart. I gotta deliver you from deception. Did you hear what I just said? And he's saying, let me be me. He's saying, let me participate in your decision making process. Because you calling on me to do rescue missions, I need amens when I'm teaching truth. He said you calling me to do rescue missions on the back end. But you're not inviting me into the decision making process on the front end. And if you invite me in, I'll show you. That's not a real one one right there. Don't you sign that. Right there. Don't you go there. Right there. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not. And some of us keep falling because we keep leaning on our own understanding. When he, the spirit of truth shall come. Deliverer. Watch the text. Verse 12, he will guide. 13, he will guide you into all truth. Holy Spirit saying, let me be your director. The spirit of truth wants to provide direction that cannot be obtained with the five senses. You and I are going to Hit a season where you got to make a decision that requires more than the five senses. You're going to have all the data, all the facts. You going to text all your friends, and you still going to sit down in the chair and say, I don't know what to do. Can y' all handle this? You're gonna open the Bible and then you're gonna read stuff like, bear ye one another's burdens. You're gonna be like, okay, I need to do it, but let each one carry his own load. Well, I guess I don't need to do it. Which one do I need to do? You need the spirit to give you a rhema on how to apply the written word in that situation. This is how he keeps us from making an idol out of the Bible. The Bible. Y' all aren't talking to me. God's like, some stuff you got to come to me for because I'm gonna show you how to properly apply what's in the scriptures. Some be your director. We done. Taro. I'm in Atlanta because he's my director. I'm not in law school because he's my director. I'm married to Shabika because he was my director. You got after all the data, and it's like, hey, when I'm leading, you don't quench that. When I'm. When you got a check, don't quench that. In Acts, when the apostle Paul's getting on that ship, he says, s, I perceive that this is not going to end well. It wasn't like the Lord told me. He didn't say he had a dream. He said, but something in my inner man is telling. Are you hearing what I'm saying? That's the director. He said, I. I actually want to be your shepherd, but I lead. I don't argue. So when you're ready to stop arguing, come see me. I need to hear an amen. When I'm teaching truth, Lord, you're undirecting me. You want to argue? I need the yes first. Nobody's talking to me. Ewan. Not talking west stamping, not talking the cab not talking Gwinnett. He said, I need the yes first deliverer, director, and I'm done distributor. There are things that the Holy Spirit. I'm spend a whole series in the fall teaching on this. He wants to distribute to us. The Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and distributes it to the believer. He doesn't just deliver content. He. He. He imparts capacity. The Holy Spirit is the distributor of what we call spiritual gifts. You got natural ability, you're born with that. You got acquired skill. You learned that because you wanted to or had to. And then you've got special abilities that are deposited to you by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of building the body and serving the common good. And when he has given you a gift and you quickly quench the usage of that gift, you are robbing the body of the purpose for which he gave it. So when he gives you prophetic insight and you got a nudge to share something with somebody, and you keep sitting on the nudge, you are robbing the person of the word they need for the season that they're in. Because you put your ego over their impact. Because you're so scared to be wrong, you won't say what's right. And I don't hear anybody talking to me. And there are a number of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us, but there is one that Jesus talks about in Mark 16, verse 17. I don't have time to unpack this. But he says, and these signs will accompany those who believe in My name. They will drive out demons and they will speak with new tongues. This isn't the most important gift, but this is the gift that gets real weird and people get real wild, and that causes people who need it to run from it. I'm not playing with y' all today. Did you hear what I just said? So people get weird and wild and unbiblical with it, and then those of us who aren't attracted to that performative, theatrical expression of the gifts, we just dismiss the gift altogether. But it is an invaluable asset to your prayer life. Here's what Paul says about it. Romans 8:26. He says, in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray for. But the Spirit, Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. Sometimes I don't know what to pray. But the Holy Ghost knows what the will of God is. So when I know what to pray, I pray in my understanding. When I don't know what to pray, I pray in the Spirit. And when you pray in the Spirit, you start walking into things you didn't pray for, but the Holy Ghost in you did. Some of you are saying, I didn't pray for this. But the Holy Ghost did. He knew how to pray. He knew y' all are talking to me. And when he prompts you at three o' clock in the morning and says, get up and pray, and you start praying in the Holy. When you start praying in the Spirit, he starts covering your children and blessing your home and opening doors. We gotta go. Paul says in First Corinthians 14:2, for anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people, but to God. Indeed, no one understands them. They utter mysteries by the Spirit. Paul says in First Corinthians 14:14, for if I pray in a tongue, my Spirit prays. Y' all missed it. But my mind is unfruitful, so what shall I do? I will pray with my Spirit. And I will also pray with my understanding. I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. Hallelujah. When the Holy Spirit's praying, your mind has no idea what's being said. It sounds like gibberish. It is Glossalia. It is unintelligible language. And some of you have been quenching that gift. But at the 10, God's getting ready to wake it back up. And if you open your mouth, out of the opening, shout, outflow rivers of a living water. He's getting ready to fill your mouth with a prayer language. Come on in here. Come get it. Come get it. Come get it. Come get it. Come get it. Come get it. I hear the Spirit calling me. Oh, Lord, we gotta go. I hear the Spirit, Spirit calling me. I hear the Spirit calling me. I hear the Spirit calling me. It's calling me. I hear the Spirit. Listen to this. First Corinthians 12:29. Are all apostles? No. All prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all work miracles? No. Do all have gifts of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues? No. Do all interpret? No. So this is not to condemn you if you don't have the gift, but it is to tell those of you who do have it, stop quenching. It's a prayer language. So the other Sunday, when I said, hey, if you got the gift, I want you to pray in the Spirit is because I sense God. God wanted to do something, Jelani, but I didn't know what he wanted to do. But if we prayed in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost knows the mind of God, so it would have prayed the will of God into the house. So if you have it, the Holy Spirit is saying, let me be me. Somebody raise your voice and praise him. Come on. And as you open your mouth, watch him feel it. Watch him feel it. We gotta go.